The Garden in Bloom and a Trip to Sydney

The garden is ablaze with colour at the moment, and the orchard is waist deep in flowers!!

These are pear blossoms:

These are Nashi pear blossoms:

Bless it the flowering quince is having another go at blossoms after the crimson rosellas stripped it of its first flush.

The wisterias are also in bloom, the blue in the more usual flowers first and then the leaves:

And the pink in 'everything all at once' mode:

Whenever we are outside Morse wants to know what we're doing??

Yesterday we drove to Sydney to deliver Yoo Yoo and Jesse to their new home with Liz and Tori.  Their block is quite steep and backs onto a reserve, perfect for alpacas and the boys settled in quickly to their new surrounds while we enjoyed a delicious lunch before our homeward journey.

We also got to meet the delightful Cricket :

Who also comes in a lumpy mat version:

And dear little Scooter, who bears more than a passing resemblance to a meerkat!

Boys gettting prepped for their new home and New Roo

Jesse and Yoo Yoo (previously known as the Jester and Yuri) had an important appointment today, 10:30am shearing with Jason at Crookwell, in preparation for delivery to their new Sydney home on Sunday.  Yoo Yoo's day started badly, he arrived for breakfast this morning with about 1.5m of barbed wire tangled around his legs and chest, not a good look!!  It took Eddy and I about 20 minutes to free him of this dangerous hobble.  I think he was very tired because it must have been hard to find a comfortable way to sleep with all this metal in the undercarriage section!!

No sooner had he had brekky and a nap than we bundled him and Jesse into the trailer for the trip.  Neither of them walked happily to the shearing table, and any on-looker would have described the gait as 'dragged' rather than led!!  None-the-less the job was soon done and they were bundled back into the trailer for the trip home.

They look quite different without their fleece!!  Phoebe is a full time photobomber!!

 While everyone else decided to run, Phoebe thought it would be prudent to check for the presence of treats before committing to exercise!!

And Casper is a full time scene stealer!!  Such a cutie, even though he is proving resistant to halter training thus far!!

 We have a new roo!!  Needs a name (no pressure Al!) I dont know why I think he'll be more successful than the last, who was a perfectly good roo before he arrived here and started drinking bromide laced tea.  Hopefully this guy will abstain from tea and partake of sex!!  I want some silkie chicks!!  He is a nice size, good stance, good leg feathering, including middle toe, but yes comb and wattles are mulberry rather than black, perfect roo hasnt been bred yet!

The country bike goes to town, Chickens, Llamas and Alpacas

What's wrong with this picture??

Correct, the front wheels arent pointing in the same direction, that's because:

Stripped thread, nut and split pin MIA

So off to town for you bike, come back as good as new please!!  Its my bike's first trip away from the farm, so think good thoughts!!

Our new boy Morse is settling in well.  We were told he was not very food motivated, but every time I go to the feed shed, he starts hopping from one foot to the other - are you going to bring me food? are you going to bring me food?  please please let that be a yes!!

Little boys Nanook and Casper have just been weaned and have started their halter training.  They will be ready for their new homes in a couple of weeks, please contact me for more details rosiered@usa.net

Michelle is doing well, my bet is that she'll have a cria on Oct 18 - someone write that down!!  LOL!!

We have some chickens at the moment, polish bantams (2), modern game bantam (1) and araucana bantams (6)

This is the before picture for Kiki's bath time ....note the dirty sticky bit/line above her left eye ... and stay tuned for the after pic!!

Out and About

I attended a committee meeting this afternoon, my friend Tessa was good enough to drive me there :)  On the way home I stopped to meet some of her menagerie before heading home.

Tess found this chook wandering along the road, she is a very inquisitive and friendly little chook, who is very fond of getting in any open car door... probably how she came to wandering along the road?

I also met her 2 llama boys, Skip, who has pretty exacting rules about how much attention he requires, and the much more easy going Cecil B deLlama.  Cecil is Azzura's son, and I think he looks a lot like her :)

This is Skip

Skip with Elvis, a hand reared Wiltshire sheep, who is quite rotund!

Cecil

Cecil and Ruby - another hand reared Wilshire sheep, she is not just rotund, she is immense!!

Elvis is very friendly :)

And so is Ruby, but wow!!  how big can a sheep get???

Ducklings - wet and dry And A Spotty Future

Hatching day is a big day for ducklings, they need lots of rest and enjoy cuddles  ... Going....

Going.....

Going......

Gone!

Today they are having mega fun with bath time, underwater races and splash fests!!

Welcome new kid on the block Ulonga Morse.  Yesterday was a big day, a long trip and this morning he enjoyed brekky and then a nice lie in the sun.  

I was beginning to think his legs were painted on, but luckily after lunch he started getting up and about!  He is a very calm boy and beautifully well trained, my thanks to Nerida and John Aldred for allowing us to have these gorgeous boys.

Looking forward to some stunning spotty cria from this boy and his half brother Basil, both of whom are co-owned by Garrick Llamas of Burra Creek.  New lines and (more) lovely spots for us both!!  The boys will be alternating between the 2 properties and available for stud, details will shortly be available at www.maisonmauve.com.au