The Journey: All is quiet!

Jakobs looks such a cutie, especially amongst the
daisies, but don't be fooled. If there is some play
fighting going on, he's in the thick of it.

Well it is kind of, if you ignore the squealing alpacas. Yes mating continues and the squealing cones from the protestations from some of the females. Some alpaca females are fairly compliant and some are not! We have some that sit very firmly in the latter category and do not seem to be relenting. Poor Mr. P. With mating season comes heightened hormones from the boys paddock too and so there is just a little bit more tension between them than normal. It's one of the reasons that Ian has suspended alpaca walks for the time being, well that and Covid19. We don't want the boys stressing any more than they are now.

I'm sorry to all my arachnophobe friends but I
think spiders are amazing. This one was crawling on
my leg and I jumped up and shouted to Ian to get
a photo. It wouldn't cooperate but we finally
managed to get a photo anyway. I'm still waiting for
an ID on this one though.

I think even the humble clover looks
amazing. This one is zig-zag clover

Talking about Covid19, I can understand people wanting to get back to some sort of normality but that is not really possible. What is possible is to start to imagine a new normal, where people can spend more time outside in the fresh air, in green spaces or by the sides of lakes, ponds or the sea. Even better a new normal where health and well-being are considered more important than the the economy or the profits of a company. I'm not suggesting that people do not work and walk around in some sort of utopia, but that the working environment becomes much more pleasant and humane. Let's face it, it is better and more productive in the long run to have a healthy, well educated and motivated workforce. It's one of the reasons that I won't buy from Amazon. I will spend ages researching alternatives rather than buy from them. I wish more people would do that and save the smaller companies that actually value their employees. I'm sure it's going to be a tough time ahead as we adjust to a new normal and still have to cope with the virus, but I feel hopeful that so many are ready for a change and the old normal will just not be good enough.

The common hemp nettle, not really a
nettle or hemp but such amazingly
intricate flowers

A cooler wetter week means...
mushrooms. Yey! Mushroom
sauce anyone?

The reason for the quieter week is that I'm finally beginning to finish off tasks and projects. It's also been a cooler and wetter week, so no haymaking but I did at least get some gardening done at the weekend. I found a strawberry patch, I froze some strawberries, I also boiled over some strawberries. How can a third of a pan of strawberries boil over so much? They would have gone off if I hadn't boiled them, but then losing half of the juice over the top of the cooker was just a waste of time and I only ended up with half a jar for my efforts. I also finally got to tame the tomato monsters that had taken over the new greenhouse. I did that while it was raining outside. I say raining, more like a deluge of biblical proportions. When it stopped there was so much water running down the roadway towards the barn that Ian had to dig a channel to divert it. It fortunately wouldn't actually run into the barn but the road gets saturated and making it difficult to the tractor out. All the ponds also filled up and even started overflowing - that usually happens after the snowmelt in winter, not in summer.

Wild strawberries. They are so finicky
to pick but the taste is so sweet and
packed with flavour.

Did I say it had been wet!

Besides getting some gardening done, the academic paper I should have been doing last week, was finally finished off and submitted yesterday. I had to submit it twice though and that didn't help. Still all is well and now and its going through the process. Hopefully it won't take long to get a response because this journal has a fast turnaround. Some journals take months and months, this one has a month for a first review and 10 days for the second round, only I couldn't make the second round due to my PhD defence, so it had to be a new submission. Are you following all this? No I didn't really. Anyway, as I said, it's done.

George in contemplative mood

But George is also up for a laugh

The highlight of the week was a visit from one of my supervisors. One of them regularly visits us, but this one had never made it down. Anyway he promised his family a trip and they all came. They enjoyed their tour around the farm and we had a meal. As the trip was in honour of the completion of my PhD they had brought an accordion and the two oldest children played some folk tunes, one an English one - which they were delighted we recognised because not many Brits actually know many folks tunes, we couldn't remember which one exactly but it was definitely familiar as we've listened to a lot of folk songs over the years - the other was a Seto folk tune because I've written a few papers now on the Seto people. It was a wonderful way to finish off a meal and greatly, greatly appreciated.

However, we really wish he wouldn't put his head
through the fence, it's not funny and he's broken
fence posts before now.

Just look at those legs on Josefs in the middle.
Jakobs is in the front and Freddie at the back.

Sofie has hung around with us
for a while now. She still
disappears off to the neighbour's
place every now and again though

Oooh! What's that, everyone
come and have a look!

Yes it's just Sofie. She doesn't care much for the
inquisitive attention from Josefs

That's better, she can look down on them now

Josefs is not quite so scary from that angle

Sofie is rocking the mohican look. I had to cut off
a lot of felted fur this year, because she disappeared
off just as her coat really needed regular combing.