Silbury’s Diary – ruminations and trek with Laura and Andrew

Bad Things are:

1 Heat Stress.  (Oh yeh, right.  Not this year?);

2 Valley Fever, especially in the monsoon season. (That`s more like
it!);

3 Rattlesnake bites.  (You what?);

4 Oleander bushes.  Hmmm, not sure what they are, but they sound
interesting.

This goes to show that there is a lot of information spread about us
llamas by well-meaning two-legs that is not always useful and sometimes
way off the mark. The person who told our people about these four great
plagues lives in a land far, far away, and didn`t understand that here
at Old King Street Farm we don`t have excessive heat, monsoons,
rattlesnakes and poisonous oleanders.

I`m sure they meant well, but really, local conditions and situations
vary from place to place.

………….

The youngsters are growing and getting stronger. Croft Ambrey is over 6
months old and looks like a perfectly proportioned miniature llama.
Kennett and Merrivale still have cria-like characteristics but they`re
growing up.  Sometimes, I have to point out to Kennett that I`d rather
it if he didn`t stand quite so close to me, and Brodgar has been
surprised on a couple of occasions when Merrivale has cuddled up close
to him.  Who`d have thought that would happen?
 

Last weekend was cold and there was a heavy frost, but this meant we
could see for miles from the top of Ewyas Harold Common.  We escorted
Laura and Andrew up there because they didn`t know the way. At first,
there was some bartering between the two-legs as they both wanted to
llama trek with me.  This is very sensible.  I`m the oldest and most
experienced trekking llama at the farm, and even though I don`t like
being patted on the neck, I do enjoy the walk and kick out my legs
joyfully as we stroll along.

Brodgar set a steady pace at the front – he really has picked up the
idea of leading very well (he had a good teacher in me) and then
Stenness hummed quietly to Andrew, and I brought up the rear with Laura
(who had won the battle to trek with me – Ha!).

The bracken was the same glorious colour as me and as we walked, white
woolies emerged from the undergrowth and scampered off to be with their
flock.  The ground was frozen and easier to walk on than when it`s
muddy.  Where the Common opens out at the highest point, we stopped so
the two-legs could rest and take pictures of:

Laura with me;
Andrew with Stenness;
Laura, Andrew, Stenness and me;
Laura, Andrew, Stenness, Brodgar and me.
And, Repeat.

We must be the most photographed llamas in the world.


Then home again, taking care to avoid overheating, valley fever,
rattlesnakes and oleanders.  Well, I don`t know what oleanders are, but
we do always take care to avoid the yew trees on our walks.  Yew is
poisonous and the yew trees near Ewyas Harold church must be avoided, so
our people are always very careful with us.

Back home again where I snorted happily at Ringsbury.  When Laura and
Andrew released us, we were allowed into one of the fields we haven`t
been in for months and this is very exciting.  Kennett and Merrivale had
never seen this field before so they ran around the fence-line whilst we
watched them.  We started to eat again and said goodbye to our new
two-leg friends.

More llama chat soon.  Apparently – we`re going on a Christmas llama
trek again, so watch this space…

SilbAndrewandSten.jpgSilbAndrewStenandLaurajpg.jpgSilbLauraStenandAndrewbackatOKSF.jpg

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