Spade and Spoon on Holidays: Pancakes, Alpacas, and a Tonkinese

The Beloved and myself are currently on holidays on the NSW sapphire coast, and indulged in pancakes for breakfast yesterday. We have rented a bush cabin so I can cook and we have some privacy. I even managed not to bugger the pancakes up cooking with the electric stove (I’m too spoilt by a gas stove) although couldn’t help exclaiming over the bluntness of the knives which prompted some comments about having become a knife snob - bah!

After breakfast we headed out to visit Aunty Jenny and Margaret who have a property outside of Bega and keep alpacas. Aunty Jenny isn’t really my aunt – I don’t have any actually. But she is an old friend of my mother’s and she has known me all my life. Since it was only an hour away from Bermagui we thought it was too good an opportunity not to pay a visit. We had a delightful vegetarian lunch with lots of different salads, and spent a lovely drizzly afternoon chatting – and of course, meeting the crew- including the cutest baby Jessie. The girls were met first, they have the loveliest expressive eyes and long lashes. They were shy but quite curious about us. If we had more room there would definitely be a couple of them about. 

A trip down to the other paddock and on the way were were greeted by Horatio, Margaret's Tonkinese who deemed us worthy to be reacquainted. He's such a delightful, talkative chap, and was lavished with our attention. "You did come to pay your respects to me of course - you didn't perchance bring a dainty morsel with you did you? Oh well, some ear tickling will have to suffice I suppose  "

The boys were also bribed to come and greet us at the fence, but their paddock has the best view. They were all due to be shorn on Monday, but because of the rain has been postponed until later in the week. Lucky for us, because we got to see their beautiful coats , they are lovingly looked after and it shows. Margaret told us the commercial alpaca people aren't interested in the fleece because it's not white, but local people buy them to spin and make beautiful garments from their various natural colours, skilfully making patterns from the various shades. The alpacas are good at getting rid of the weeds and keeping the grass down, and we are told make excellent guardians for chickens. Maybe alpacas are in our future too?