Hazel and the Debleu Christmas in the Alps

Sharing some pics of our granddaughter Hazel, with her Mum and Dad, grandparents Chantal and Pierre and Aunty Claire :)  Wish I could be there too!!

The Christmas Babies

They all grow up so quickly!!  And as a bit of surprise 2 more babies arrived on Boxing Day!!  I had already had to split the 24 up into 2 groups of 12 and this morning I tried twice to get the 2 new bugs a silkie mum - both times unsuccessfully.

So now we have 12 A babies, and 14 B babies and just for good measure a Honey Barbara egg hatched moments ago in the incubator.... boy I gotta take better notes!!  LOL!!

The slightly older A babies, now take much longer to get too wet to be having fun!!  They just love dipping and diving and since they can always get out...  they mostly choose not to!

The younger and now slightly larger B babies... and tomorrow they'll be 15 with the new HB bubba, luckily I have nothing better to do with my time than look after ducklings.... but wait a minute, I'm trying to run a business here... that must be with my OTHER other hand!!  LOL!!

Christmas Moose!!

Hey Hey!!

Christmas at Wedgewood

Smoked trout, scrambled eggs and champagne for brekky - must be Christmas!!  LOL!!

Merry Christmas everyone :)

Stormy sky

Nearly sunset, and a stormy sky makes for a very orange light on this dead tree - perfect complimentary colour scheme!!

Munchkin Duck!!

I have a couple of ducklings, one in each 'level' that are munchkins... for want of a better word.  They hatch normally, and then eat and eat like their brothers and sisters... but just dont get very much bigger.  Dont know if they will be infertile, or long lived... but will wait and watch :)

This is Chumba, here with Crucifix Duck - expect them to be much biggger.

But here's Chumba with a fellow call duckling of the same age, so you can see that he's teeny.  Eats like a horse and seems happy, so we'll see how he goes!!

Hazel does Christmas

Hazel makes a very cute present!!  See:

Christmas Ducklings and Loli's poor sore feet!!

I have 24 new ducklings, yesterday I let them all have a swim.  Very short time period between putting the youngest ones in, taking a few pics, and then have to start taking the youngest ones out, towel them dry and put them in the 'drying off' area!!  They get water logged very quickly, but they loved it!!

Loli had to go to the vet yesterday, she was licking her front left foot A LOT, so I thought she had another grass seed in it.  But as it turned out, it was an allergic reaction... probably to grass!!  Meantime she had 2 grass seeds in each back foot and 1 in each ear, she was not a happy camper, and the 'poodle feet' are not really a fashion statement.  

If looks could kill, I'd definitely be dead this morning when I said no to her coming out with me and the farm dogs, Belle and Charcoal, on the bike.  Not a happy camper!!  She said she was fine, her feet didnt hurt at all, just give her a chance and she'll be out there... but no, I made her stay home and for that I got the 'real heel' treatment!!  LOL!!

House plants, Hoyas and Butterflies

The Snow in Summer (melaluca linariifolia) is just covered in butterflies!!

I was really worried when we arrived at Wedgewood when I saw this indoor plant, I've had them before and killed every one of them, but this particular plant has done nothing but flower and flower and flower since we arrived :)

Outside the hoya is flowering :)  This plant is a cutting from a plant grown my sister Kath, that was a cutting from my grandmother's original plant back at the house in Bent St, Bairnsdale.

Hazel and her Dad

More cute shots of our darling granddaughter :)  This time with her Dad.

Sunset at Wedgewood

The sunsets have been amazing lately.

Nowra Road Trip

Freya and I made a mad dash road trip to Nowra via Neriga and the Oallen Ford Crossing, on the weekend.  Stopped to take few snaps along the way.

And Freya snapped this one of the darling Minto.

One for Dame Edna

I have a fabulous cerise gladiolus, but its hell difficult to photograph, here's my best effort!

Hazel and thumbing it!!

Hazel gets cuter by the day, who knew she'd mastered thumb sucking AND irish dancing in the same week.  I knew that child was a genius the moment I laid eyes on her!!  LOL!!

Charcoal and sunset

Here is Charcoal, she also comes in black ;-D  Dont know where she found to roll, but it was plainly very very dusty!!

Its been unseasonally cold, but this seems to have made for spectacular sunsets, see!!  Yes I know, by this point the sun has actually set blah blah blah ;-D

Rain Glorious Rain

After visiting the llamas in the morning on Wednesday, the afternoon brought heaps of wonderful rain - 28mm to add to November's score card - brilliant.

Hey, the car is black... who knew????  LOL!!

The latest pics from Lindy of little Hazel

Goodness but she's growing!!  And plainly changing and getting much more interactive with the world.  These pics of her with her fab dangly toy thingey that Mamie bought for her :)  Hugely grainy photos, but luckily Lindy has a new camera coming and the iPhone can go back to being a phone!  Fortunately the subject matter more than compensates for the picture quality, but I may be biased ;-P

A llama massage

Edit:  Forgot to explain the title!!  For me, spending time with llamas is as relaxing as a massage!  I leave feeling completely relaxed, am nicer to my fellow road users and and can get on with the a smoother, nicer day, all because I got cosy with a bunch of camelids!!

This morning I went to visit Azzura, plainly she had an itch, that she just plain couldnt reach!!

I gave her a scratch and we took a stoll, but that itch needed more attention!!

This time I got to take the pics of a very happy llama, while Glynda scratched the itch!!

Now a thinking llama will realise that if you have 2 hands, you can be patting 2 llamas!!

This is Franco (left) and Fanfare (front right), they are the very personable little boys I fell for last time.  They are still very forward, and now that Franco is a little older, he is even more confident and very very striking.

Fanfare - looks and personality - nice one!!

This little girl is very sweet, and very calm, in no hurry to leap up just because I am walking around in the pen.  I think she's a Llapaca (huariso) but still has the lovely llama ears.

No shortage of cute calm babies, never seen so many llamas and alpacas sitting down, and staying down, even the babies!! as I wandered through the pen.

Poppy and her 4 day old cria

And young Thunder with his hugely tufted ears!!

On the way out I stopped to talk to the boys, they too look very different now that they've been shorn.

And WOW, look at Zambuka's spots!!  He's a lovely big llama, and very very spotty- what's not to like??  LOL!!