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!

Apu Royalla and Mt Tanga

Enjoyed a short visit to Apu Royalla earlier this week.  Aymara and Tikal had their vaccinations.  Aymara is looking very similar to Noisette, will be difficult to tell them apart from a distance, fersure!

Meanwhile, back at Mt Tanga, the halter class are busy hanging out.  Misty and Noisette:

Misty and Jester:

Jester, still star pupil of the lead and halter training sessions.

Misty, getting better, but still very much her own llama!  Lucky she's gorgeous, eh?

I hatched some posted araucana eggs, got 6 from 12, not a bad result. Got 5 pullets and 1 cockerel, normally I'd be pleased, but I was looking for a cockerel from different lines to go with Minnie, Lizzie and Dara.

Luckily the one cockerel I did get is a rather good looking lavender boy.  Need to give him a name?

Looking forward to ducklings soon, time to get laying girls!!  Pretty, Chumba and Limpy Lou

New boy on the block Frankie, looking gorgeous.

Harley's stay with us is drawing to a close, need to get some fertile eggs from her before she heads back to the Sunshine Coast, she will not miss the weather here!!

Saffie, still looking good, now has 2 daughters of breeding age in the flock, not as good as her, so another season Saff, must try harder!!

Sting, Frankie and Shake Me Up Judy enjoying some sun.

Comings and Goings

Last Sunday we said good bye to Wia and hello to Namoi and Vevina.  We were unable to meet Wia's exacting standards in a mate and hope we'll do better with the new girls.  Namoi is listed as black but registered as dark brown.  I think she's a very dark, dark brown, she's been mated to a rose grey, and we're hoping she's pregnant, will do a spit off test in a couple of weeks to find out.  Vevina is black and has been mated to a black suri (heterozygous) so 50/50 chance of huacaya offspring.  The new girls are settling in well, and learning the drill, they have both come into the yards of their own accord on the last two mornings :) and seem very keen on the museli we serve for brekky!!

Wia

Namoi (left) and Vevina (right)

 Vevina (left) and Namoi (right)

And again

 Here are some of the other coloured girls at Currabungla:

I was really taken with the grey girl with the dark face, havent seen this colour combo before

John and Penny thought lambing finished 3 weeks ago, but these 2 ewes pulled a fast one and presented them with lambs only a couple of days ago.

Alan and Aleisha are visiting.  Al showing his usual reticence for being photographed!

Kiki is enjoying the extra company, here helping Aleisha with our game of Querkel.

The days are getting cooler and Kiki thinks there is only one thing better than being on the couch with a pillow and a doona...

And that's being on the couch with a pillow and a doona AND Aleisha!!  I will be checking her bags when she leaves tomorrow to make sure Kiki is not concealed within!!

Halter training continues for youngsters, Jester is a star pupil, very friendly and improving daily on the lead.

Noisette is coming along.

She usually enjoys a cuddle, but here it looks more like a cruggle (cuddle x struggle)

Misty - who found the presence of the trailer in the adjoining yard very 

interesting!!!

Yuri is doing the separation from his mother Yolanda tough, and she's not faring much better.  They spend a lot of time mmmm-ing to each other across the plantation that now separates them.  Weaning is not a cria's favourite time!!