Young Lordy is working on his CV....

Young Lordy bounced in from nursery yesterday to find Grandad harrowing the alpaca birthing paddocks. He immediately grabbed his ear defenders and came out to help. .. as you do...Perfick! Child exploitation is rife at TOFT Alpaca Stud!

Daffs are up....

Daffs have burst into bloom this weekend. TOFT is gently shedding its winter coat.  All the fields that were rested over winter are now harrowed, slit and fertilised. All we need now is a little damp and a lot of warm and visitors will be able to hear the grass grow at TOFT. 

It will be the beginning of May before the first birth so there's a while to go yet where the only excitement will be listening to the grass grow and admiring the elite alpacas roaming the paddocks who look sensational at this time of the year. Don't believe me? Give yourself a treat and get down to TOFT and see for yourself. The fields are brimming with stunning expectant mums, elite weaners and exceptional maidens and young studs in waiting. The big boys are raising their noses in the air as they seek out the open females on the wind readying themselves for the mating season. It's all moving now below the surface at TOFT as we all smell the onset of Spring and ready ourselves for the season ahead.

Team TOFT are all off to the British Alpaca Futurity next Friday and Saturday in search of medals. It's at the Ricoh Arena this year which is literally 20 minutes away from TOFT. So if any of our  UK or European alpaca friends are going to the Futurity and would like to combine it with a visit to TOFT Alpaca Stud then please get in touch. At the Cornflower Cafe we do the best coffee and cake in Warwickshire. Well worth a visit in its own right...honest!

Feeding the birds...

Out on the fields slitting and aerating the paddocks all weekend surrounded by birds. In another land far away when I was a kid growing up in Billingham at the time a centre for heavy industry I sometimes  used to see clouds of gulls and lapwings following the plough and the harrow on a farm in Sandy Lane ( now a golf course) I can still picture the navy grey Fergie the rich brown of the turned earth and the gulls in their hundred following. Magic...

I had myself a little déjà vu this weekend as the birds came in  from far and wide once they realise you are turning up bits of soil with bugs and bits in to eat.  For just a moment I was ten again walking with my Dad down Sandy Lane on a Saturday morning towards Wolviston cricket ground for the weekly match. I stopped and tried to get a pic to catch at least one of the wee moments of magic of the black headed  gulls hovering alongside the tractor. Thought was there but as usual the camera was not up to the job and couldn't get close to the magic.  'Twas ever thus.