Autumn Musing

The season is unfolding. The trees are turning a burnished shade, shedding leaves and their wonderful produce; conkers, acorns or apples. It feels like a good time to have a clear out ahead of Christmas, to ready your house and store cupboard with jams and chutneys and gather warm bedding, throws and blankets to ensure warmth over winter.

Our hedges have been cut by lovely farmer Walter and their crisp edges look great against the returned verdent green of our fields. The alpaca and sheep spend their days eating this good Autumn grass to stock up, pre the cold season returning.

We’ve taken delivery of lots of new stock for the website and for the Autumn and Christmas sales we are attending. New 100% baby alpaca fleece scarves are already selling out, as are our alpaca knit mittens. Cute new fleece creatures, like mini sculptures - each unique, are proving popular as Christmas gifts and our alpaca pillows, duvets and mattress toppers are being bought n d shipped throughout the UK and around the world. Our last overseas order went to Angola and the US before that! So funny how a tiny smallholding, perched on the Shropshire Hills, can be in touch with the world thanks to technology.

Several of our breeding females are pregnant, so we look forward to new babies next year from 3 new studs. Watch this space in April.

We will be back at Chelsea Flower Show and many of the other RHS shows again in 2019, our 4th year selling our Lou’s Poo, Alpaca Fertiliser range. Try it for your plants, a little goes a long way and our commercial growers and flower farmers love it.

Oh well, time to work in the fields today before gathering up our stock to go to yet another Autumn sale on Friday, this time in Newbury in Berkshire. Onward and upward.

Lou.

Circle of Life.

I'm not as prolific a writer as I used to be. Sometimes this is because I'm mad busy and life gets in the way of talking about life, other times I overthink it and the moments are lost. Occasionally I know I have something momentous to impart, but by the time I've treated a lamb, fed the alpaca or checked a fence, I have forgotten I ever had a point to make. I also try to make a point of not blogging, posting or tweeting when I'm in poor spirits. Over the past few weeks this has been my excuse, I have been a little low. I'm not depressed, I know friends with depression and I'm aware that this is not me, I've just been a little low.

The weather in August was quite inconsistent and we almost lost our hay, (the positive being that we did not.) Our lambs thrived. We birthed three gorgeous cria, with more due in April, and I was determined not to be disappointed that they were all boys. We've had a bit of a spate of boys in recent years and I longed for some girls. The alpaca babies took a longer time to arrive than expected, also a consequence of the weather and I was restricted to the site, awaiting babies. It makes you a little stir-crazy. But they were happy and healthy when they arrived. Then suddenly one was not; happy or healthy. I worked hard with our vet, but the baby developed an infection, pneumonia set in and he passed away. It hit me hard.

Rest in peace little Diablo.

It's taken three weeks but I'm back on track. The farmers say 'livestock, deadstock,' it's a bit harsh but it means that if you breed livestock, you'll have times when issues occur and you won't be able to save that animal. It's life. I realise I haven't quite come to terms with that. Born in St John's Wood, I'm definitely a smallholder rather than a farmer.

My family, friends and my garden have kept my spirits high. It's hard to be down when you have special people in your life. Nature's bounty is always uplifting and it's hard to be down when the kitchen garden groans with fruit, veg and flowers for the house, dahlias scream hello in their showy way, grapes are ripening, sweet pea are filling the air with heavy scent and fat hedgehogs waddle gown the path at dusk. Life is good and I'm grateful.

Selling our range of natural fertilisers at Chelsea Flower Show and Hampton Court was fabulous this year again, thanks to Todd's Botanics and their wonderful team, of which I now count myself as a virtual member. Don't forget to order Lou's Poo Beans if you are planting spring flowering bulbs and our limited edition Christmas bags are on sale now. www.TheArchersAtTheLarches.com.

Alpaca babies...

So, it's hot. The alpaca were sheared last Wednesday and just as well, as Bracken produced a stonking baby boy just three days later. Phew! (JIT: Expert planning obviously...... cough, cough)

http://www.thearchersatthelarches.com/products/lou-s-poo

Larches Enzo

Larches Enzo http://www.thearchersatthelarches.com/products/lou-s-poo

Larches Enzo http://www.thearchersatthelarches.com/products/lou-s-poo

He weighed in at 8.9kg and two days later was 9.4kg. Mum is happy and healthy and feeding him beautifully. All we need now is another few trainee Lou's Poo Producers playmates to be born.... keep your fingers crossed please.

http://www.thearchersatthelarches.com/products/lou-s-poo

Gardening in Pictures

Though the sun has been missing from this spring and the temperatures have therefore been reserved, the garden is still thriving thanks to Lou's Poo, Dried Alpaca Fertilizer and the lush rainfall. 

Our garden (ex paddock c1960 really,) has always been a tadge rough cottage garden; the grass is coarse and the moles have been very naughty. However, the Hubby is now an expert mole-catcher, ably assisted by the cats, and the mower is trying to tame the grass. In order to divert the eye from the rubbish lawn, I planted mini-meadows in wooden raised beds last year filling a metre square with our magical alpaca poo and tons of plants, mainly perennials or re-seeders. Eh voila! this year we have been rewarded by pretty mini-meadows that afford us tons of cut flaars for the house... win, win.

Batteries low and being head-butted....

We've almost made it to spring....

I feel as if I'm crawling toward spring, I'm tired and feel sure my wellingtons have rubber fatigue too. It has been a funny week, warm temperatures, low wind, a definite promise of better, more consistent weather. However, last night we had more monsoon rain, yay! and this morning the fields that were beginning to dry out were sodden again.

Stuff is appearing in the greenhouse, on windowsills and, more gratifyingly, in the beds and borders planted over the past four years. Herbaceous perennials like astrantia, lupins and hydrangea are now able to compete with the grass thanks to hubby and I battling. We should have some wonderful flowers this year. I constantly check in with The Flower Farmer at Common Farm for hints and tips on growing British flowers, she is a goddess, check her out if you can.

Hope you're not eating while reading this: One of our alpaca mums has an enormous pus-filled spot on her face that I'm cleaning daily. [Did I mention I'm from St John's Wood!!] According to the vet who came out on Saturday, it's likely she was spiked by a blackthorn in the hedge which then turned nasty. The 11yo, who has expressed an interest in being a veterinarian, (I'm light-headed with the thought of the cost-savings,) was an excellent nurse and handed swabs, as the vet disgorged a tablespoon or more of goo from a held, but nonetheless compliant, alpaca. The 9yo meanwhile, was no-where near this carnage.

Yesterday I was head-butted by a giddy baby alpaca. All fun here at The Larches. I've been gently stroking the younger members of the pack in order to get them used to us. Next month I plan to start halter training..... should be hilarious... anyhoo, Fudge, Caramel and Shadow think the 'touching game' is great fun and delight in kicking their legs, tossing heads and running about each time I manage even the slightest caress. I was just reaching for Fudge yesterday when she anticipated my move and with one great giddy bounce, she managed to butt my nose with the top of her head. Lordy did my eyes stream. Hope I don't get black eyes, I'm supposed to be at a black tie do this weekend, though I guess the colour would be in keeping!

I've made pork cassoulet for tea with pinto beans and smoked bacon, plus home-made crusty bread. I very roughly followed this Hairy Biker's recipe. Fancy popping over?... xx

Flower Power