Sick Alpaca

My weanling Pandora, who unaccountably lost weight, is still alive and has gained a couple of kilos over the last four days. The blood tests only indicated some inflammation so the vet recommended a course of Sinulox, an antibiotic. She has finished the course now and is eating with a lot more enthusiasm so fingers crossed she will slowly get better.

My chickens are a lot of fun. The two Buff Orpingtons are very tame and come and sit beside you in the yard when having tea chirrupping quietly. Every evening I turn up with a scoop of corn to get them in for the night. I have to call them ‘chooks’ now, a habit derived from Jane Vaughan when she was here doing ET. So I shout chooks and all 12 of them come running. There is something very funny about a chicken running, they tilt from side to side, how I imagine a Sumo wrestler might run.

We were supposed to go to a charity polo match yesterday afternoon but I came over all floppy and felt an urgent desire to sleep which I did for two and a half hours. Chas went out on the tractor mowing the docks that escaped our Grazon spraying in the spring. Once I surfaced I resolved to deal with my vegetable garden. It has had copious quantities of alpaca poo compost on it for two years and this stuff, although marvellous, is full of weed seeds. I pulled a load of beetroot for Chas, those long white radishes, picked some courgettes and beans, lots of herbs and planted radicchio, American cress, corn salad and mixed Chinese leaves all of which survive well in the winter.