Saturday 24 July 2010

A little added spice...

I had a lovely surprise yesterday morning when Blanche produced a gorgeous little girl at 329-days gestation. She was quite a bit lighter than our average birth weight, at 6.7kgs, and was a little slow to get going. However some bottle fed cow's colostrum soon did the trick and she is now feeding well from mum.

As soon as I saw her on the ground, I immediately thought of Jayne (Zanzibar Alpacas), who likes her alpacas to be "Fine and Fancy" and this little one sure is. As Jayne is missing out on any cria of her own this year, I thought that I should give Blanche's girl a name with a Zanzibar connection.

It took a little thinking about, but we have visited the island of Zanzibar on a couple of occasions during our travels, and each time I have brought back some locally grown nutmeg. A bit of a tenuous connection possibly; but Beck Brow Nutmeg she is. Here she is pictured with mum Blanche (who is also technically a fancy as she has dark fawn across both shoulders) and Roma (4 weeks).

We had some rather smartly dressed alpaca visitors this morning. Craig's brother, who is in the RAF, got married today. On the way to the ceremony they decided to call in to see the alpacas and get a few photos. I do hope those gloves were still white; I was a little concerned that the bride knew nothing about the visit!


Stuart, Craig, Jamie and some very nosey alpacas!

5 comments:

  1. Oh...Nutmeg is a real sweetie !!....she would blend in well up here with us !!!.......Congratulations......Jayne

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  2. 329 days, that will have bought down your average gestation for this year! Glad Nutmeg is doing well, she looks a little sweetie.

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  3. Bless her cotton socks - or is that alpaca socks she's wearing? Congrats, and tenuous connection, or lateral thinking, it's a lovely name. Dave

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  4. She looks lovely - and a great name!

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  5. Nutmeg - now that's a lovely name. She's a real beauty - bet she breaks a few hearts in her time. Take care. Shirley & Robbie

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