I've got mine, have you got yours?

Remember these? When I was a kid people used to kill for these. They are called records and after the tape, cd, mp3, and I tune explosion I never thought we'd see the like again.

But here we are our talented daughter Laura aka Femme is selling records and what a record. It's blood coloured and heart shaped and look it has artwork.... Fabarooney.

We have got the signed number one vinyl from Femme!  It's so beautiful I want to frame it and put it on my wall.

Well done that girl -way to go!

BINKS is back !

Some eight or nine years ago we gave birth at Toft Alpacas to the most amazing Multicoloured alpaca who looked like someone has poured a jar of double cream over his head and slowly let it run down his body. The children were delighted and he was duly named JA JA  BINKS after a character in Star Wars. Needless to say he went off to make a very attractive pet. 

He returned to a Toft Alpacas this weekend for a two week holiday in our isolation paddocks with two of his mates. As you can see he has turned into a magnificent alpaca, not suited to the pure colour on colour breeding policy at Toft Alpacas but a truly magnificent feature in his own right.

It is ironic that after 16 years of selective breeding pedigree alpacas with pure colour it is  BINKS who still gets all the photies! Vive la difference!

Heavy hedges

Autumn May be shuffling aside to make room for winter but the hedges are still laden with the wild fruits of summer. Sloes glisten in tempting bundles and ash keys hang like chandeliers whilst the hawthorn hangs its stall out for any hungry flier. Winter will force its way to the table soon but hopefully not until we have had our fill of these still November days.

Do the alpacas notice any of this? I doubt it, they are far too busy chomping in quiet serenity laying down their stores to face the challenges ahead. Me? I'm just a little drunk on the simple beauty of the change.

Toft fairies are busy...

Skidding around on the quad with the 'chosen men' this morning after a week off farm it was clear to see that the Fairies had been working very hard. There are rings of extremely large toadstools all over the place but sadly I didn't clock a  single fairie!

Don't you just love autumn?

These are the colours of dying bonfires which make a timely entrance to herald the changing of the leaves. In the USA they call it the fall. Why ever would you call it anything else? 

It does what it says and sums up the major drama of the next four weeks.

Big boys Bondy night!

Young Eddie Lord and his Dad enjoying the Thurlaston bonfire on November the fifth. What? Of course he was aware that his countrymen were burning pound notes in celebration of the fact that we had foiled  a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament  in 1605. Get real. 

What one year old Englishman doesn't know such a thing? 

Big girl in the shed...

We are so busy at Toft that it is all hands to the pump. Shirley is now doing regular stints in the sorting shed knee deep in alpaca fleece for eight hours at a stretch. We've got to keep that luxury alpaca yarn coming through the TOFT studio somehow, come rain or shine.

Here we are on a mission getting some fleece out of the shed pretty smartish to be burnt. This load came in from a breeder infested with moths which is a strict no no in the sorting shed or in fact anywhere on the farm so it's off to the bonfire with that lot.

Look at my soulmate up there on the back of the truck like a teenager. Like my mother in law the big girl has the heart of a lion and knows no fear in her determination to get the job done. Feed her regular, let her watch Strictly, The Paradise and Downton and she keeps on running like a Duracell bunny!