Late night contemplations of the troublesome kind.

I have just been made aware of the recent and ongoing riots spreading through the major UK cities.
Yes, I know it started days ago but haven't watched any telly for a while.
Truely horrific images of buildings burning, town centres destroyed and shops looted. Why?!
How do you get to such a state of lawlessness.(if that's a word)?
I saw it coming. For twenty years England has been a role model of mis management.
The signs were there alright, they started when we prevented schools from disciplining pupils and therefore erroded respect that children have for any authority when they were just infants,and then we prevented parents from disciplining their children and reinforced the belief that they can coast through life with few consequences to their actions.We destroyed family values, choosing instead a diet of reality TV and violent video games. The latest cell phone is king. Social support networks  are in place that enable people to live comfortable lives without ever having to work, entirely supported on the state with no obligation to take any responsibility for their actions or their life. It gets worse every year as this underclass of undereducated, under disciplined irresponsible individuals continues to have more children born into a ghetto culture where underachievement is celebrated, criminality is glorified and parental responsiblities are ignored and abdicated to the state. Police forces are pared to the bone,their working disciplines making law enforcement nigh on impossible and at the end of it all judges are handing out derisory sentences. Where's the deterrent? ASBO's  CCTV? Political correctness is out of control. Gang culture is rife. Britian has become afraid of it's own children.
Unfortunately there's no easy fix.The disease is in it's latter stages.The damage is done.

 Anyway, I don't live there anymore so here's some pictures of Hennebont where we had a particularly enjoyable Sunday with the happy peasants of medieval Brittany.

La Grand-Mere Apple Blossom of Quelvehin

Or Blossom for short is a new addition to the Quelvehin troop this week complete with her angel-wing ears that won us over when we first saw her last summer. Isn't she lovely?

She is very well developed for her age and is already showing a strong urge to be mated.
We will leave her a while yet but have just the man waiting in the wings.
There is a lot of testosterone floating around the male paddock at the moment as the mating season is upon us . With all our girls to 'do' as well as the' away games' there's a lot of confrontation as they challenge each other to prove who is the most worthy macho.

Talking of sex....
Ever been to one of those parties? You know,..where you find yourself being surrounded by women all wanting one thing. I was at one last night.
I kid you not. It was a BBQ type soiree and everyone took a little something to contribute.As you do.
As we stood around the kitchen tucking into our grub the room started to resonate with gentle moans of pleasure mainly from a group of ladies not too far away from me.Some even took it to the next level and became what can only be described as,well, orgasmic.!
Apparently it was all my fault.
I was approached by at least six ladies during the course of the evening all begging me for it.
I had to promise to email all of them so I thought I'd save time and blog it here.
So here it is. The reason for my new found popularity...
My recipe for Broccoli Salad.

1 Head Broccoli
1/2 mug cashew nuts
1/2 mug chopped spring onions
1/2 mug lardons (pref smoked) cooked and cooled
1/2 mug golden raisins/sultanas

Dressing:

1/2 mug mayonnaise dijon
3 table spoons cider vinegar
2 table spoons sugar
2 table spoons liquid honey
2 tea spoons curry powder

Mix all the dressing ingredients together,then stir in all the rest and finally gently turn in the raw cut broccoli florets.
Easy.
Well there's a first.  I never imagined I would be posting recipes here.
There really ought to be a M&S type photo to make your mouth water but sorry we've eaten it.
So, any guys reading this that want a sure fire way of getting attention at parties; Try it. It's lush.

I should perhaps point out than when I say "my recipe for broccoli salad" it isn't actually my recipe. I stole it from a friend who probably stole it from somebody else. I don't know who's recipe it is or even if people can own recipes.But I should hate to be sued by Jamie or Delia for breach of copyright.

The other way of impressing ladies of course is to dress up in leather and get the motor bike out. Something I seem to have less time for these days but last weekend was one such occasion.
It was the annual Brittany Harley Davidson rally at Baud.A weekend affair with an all night shindig on the Saturday night and a three hour ride out parade on the Sunday. I must admit I no longer have the staying power for the beer fest and bands but enjoyed the ride and spent a few hours admiring all the shiny metal on show.Not just bikes but American cars and trucks too.

A sea of lovelyness

A proper truck

Indiana Jones raider of the lost virgins

This blog is becoming dreadfully out of date. Don't seem to find the time at the moment.
Sad news first. Our suri that was breaking the gestation records was doing it for good reason. Her cria had died inside her.Reason unknown. We suspected something was wrong some time ago and got the vet to take a look at her.Although I voiced my suspicions being unable to feel anything moving, he wasn't concerned and treated her for colic.
Anyway I won't dwell on the whole fiasco,suffice to say I think we need to find a new vet. Nuff said.

We were,however rewarded with a different suri cria the same week. A cracking little girl. Not ours unfortunately but born to one of Pophams alpacas living here. After an initial rejection problem as sometimes happens with first time mums we managed to force them to love each other and are now inseperable.

out she comes

temporary 'get to know each other pen'

mum and daughter today

She is a gorgeous coffee colour and has been named cappuccino until we are instructed otherwise.
As for our lot they are growing on well with one boy imparticular growing on a bit too well! More on that later.
Here are some pics of the Columbus cria.

Ieesha,Izzam and Imran

Imran

Izzam and Imran

Ieesha and Imran

Sorry a bit short on Izzams, another Imran!

Well that's all the "whiteys" sorry they're not the best photos in the world. Still getting used to this new camera.

Right. Remember this chap?

Indiana. The most amazing cria ever. The jury is still out on his colour classification. For the most part he is a rose grey but does have areas of just brown. His sire is black( Atlas ) and his mum a dark fawn.
He was running within minutes of being born,was eating grass at three days old, is now almost twice the size  as the others, and at 2 WEEKS OLD decided he was the new stud male at Quelvehin.

I kid you not. He pesters the females all the time trying to get them down and anyone who wants to sit and chew the cud a while soon finds themselves the subject of unwanted attention! He's got all the moves and even a little cria orgle!

He's not winning many friends though and is becoming a constant source of irritation. I look to his mum sometimes during these performances and I swear she looks slightly embarrassed.
Atlas,no doubt takes a different view.

"THATS MY BOY"

Bella does it again

Despite watching the herd like hawks at the moment, for the third year running Bella managed somehow to secretly slip her new arrival in unoticed once again. Never showing any signs of labour she just casually drops it  whilst you take a coffee break.
Djill,our French 'stagiere' student was back with us for the second week of her studies so it was nice to have a birth whilst she was here although we missed the actual event.
Not the best choice of mornings.Wind and rain a-plenty so it was a cold and very wet cria that greeted us.
Another 'Columbus' boy, weighing in at 8.5 kilos and a week early. He was dried and fitted with a warmed cria coat and seems to be doing well..

 

So,that's four boys,one girl so far. so we could do with the balance redressing with the remainders please.

From one extreme to the other

We've had two more cria since the last blog but unfortunately the camera was playing up again so I couldn't take any photos. It was either the battery or the charger,and in the end probably both.
The cost of replacing both was only twenty euros cheaper than a new camera and a camera much better than the old one.
What a wasteful throwaway world we live in. Anyway, I am now the proud owner of a new (hopefully trusty) Canon. Being over fifteen years of age I am still trying to find my way round all the different functions it performs. The fact in came with half a dozen instruction manuals and not one of them in English doesn't help.
Evita 'unpacked' a week ago,and nearly three weeks sooner than she should have. A girl this time,not especially small at 5.9 kilos but very weak,very down on her pasterns and unable to stand. or hold up her head. Another unusually late afternoon birth.So it was mum and baby into the barn,hot water bottle plenty of wrapping,warm electrolytes inside her and glucose and anti-biotic injections. A comfy chair for me and we were set for another long night. After a few hours she began to show signs of improvement but was never going to feed herself in time to get the colostrum. So around midnight mum was milked and baby was fed by bottle. She was lucky enough to have the sweetest ,calmest alpaca for a mum who stood perfectly still and unheld whilst we took what we needed at two hour intervals through the night.
The importance of having alpacas with this temperament is often overlooked but on occasions like this can prove to be a life saver.
After a few days she slowly found her legs and is now feeding from mum and is back with the herd and doing alright.
The second arrived yesterday. Afternoon birth again! This time two weeks early but a huge 9;5 kilo boy that literally hit the ground running.I have never known one so determined to get up and go!
Once his cord was iodined he was off, heading for the otherside of the field and within one hour of being born he was running with all the confidence of a two week old!
Poor mum was desperately waddling after him humming and cursing, her placenta still swinging, in an attempt to get him under control! Quite incredible.

These pics were taken today at one day old, he's changed colour as he's dried from yesterday but we're still not exactly sure what to. Rose grey I think.

Heres another picture of Izzam whilst we're at it. He was found to have a small umbilical hernia so he's wearing a strap-on.

Our Suri still keeps us guessing. Now running to 381 days! and not at all bothered. It's certainly a mixed bag this year!

Overseas Aid.

"It's the last chance we'll get to have a break"
"Can we go? can we?"
"I've checked the ferry prices,and there's one in the morning"
It was eleven o'clock on Saturday morning and the lure of the Popham open day in Cornwall was becoming too much to bare for my missus.
Like a junkie in need of a fix it had to overcome all obstacles.
"We have people just arrived in the Gite" I pointed out.
"Oh, they're ok. they have been before"
"But,Jane and Micheal are coming tomorrow"
"I can change that to this afternoon, they won't mind"
"What about Manny and Damien coming over on Monday? and they're bringing us some chickens"
"I'll ring Manny she'll understand"
I should perhaps explain at this point our chicken family had become seriously depleted and we were down to two surviving old hens, when sat outside a few days ago there was an ear piercing shriek from the hen house followed by a few thumps and old Harriot was on her back stone dead!
One solitary chicken was not much of a flock so Manny had kindly offered to get us some more in return for favours done.
Anyway, I relented. People were re-arranged and the ferry booked.
Popham Farm was bathed in sunshine when we arrived and we soon settled in to what is fast becoming our second home.
A few beers on the patio and the 'chill mode' was engaged.
Around fifty people came along on the Monday and inbetween cooking homemade sausage and burgers it was good to finally meet a few people you already felt you knew. If you see what I mean.
The highlight of the afternoon was the sale of 'Thunder' the futurity winning black male to Tim Hey and Matt Lloyd.
It all came and went too quickly and it's now back to work trying to make the grass grow!
Rainfall is about 80% down on the norm for the first quarter of the year in Brittany and it shows.
It is forecast for this weekend though, so I've been out fertilizing the fields today in anticipation.

The show season is here

First things first. French Frankie, our string eating alpaca is back to normal and grazing along with the others.He spent a couple of days mostly kushed down staring into space wondering what had hit him, but all's well now.
We're just waiting for the alpaca bean necklace to exit!
Gary Sanders from Pophams spent a few days with us last week to take in the Salbris alpaca show and try to continue their show winning run this side of the channel with a few males that stay at Quelvehin.
French alpaca shows go from strength to strength each year. The entries have grown in size (170 this time) and the quality gets better and competition harder.
Salbris was a new venue for the Concours International organised by Alpaga Developpement and only a stones throw from Vierzon where it is usually held. A fantastic stable block within the grounds of a chateau. You'll have take my word for it as I still have no photos!
We took our usual gang of three stud males plus two new boys
Judged by Matt Lloyd , Daniel and Alfonso both took first place rosettes in their respective brown classes for Gary, and Columbus was placed second in a very high quality senior white male class, losing out to the eventual show winner Jolimont Attitude owned by Alpagas Sologne.
For our part,the mighty Atlas was up in the Champions league again for the forth year running this time,taking reserve champion black huacaya.and a first place in the black fleece entry.  What a star.
Columbus and Atlas have both proved their worth in the showrings in recent years and now we shall reap some rewards with a handful of stud services already in place.We are certainly looking forward to our own C&A cria this year.

        photograghs supplied curtesy of gary sanders and ginny cobb.