An interesting weekend..

Well, its been quite a busy time over the past day or two. On Friday I got a call out of the blue from an alpaca owner in Lewis - only forty miles from where we live - who was looking for someone to spin up the fibre from her best alpaca. Well, I'm just a sucker for alpaca spinning, as anyone who reads this blog will know by now, and it turns out she also has a bunch of Hebridean sheep. So, in return for the fleeces, which will go into the bag with the others I collect up from crofts on Lewis and our own on Scalpay, I am spinning up her fibre. All her alpacas are expecting in September, so you can bet I will be up there ooohing and ahhhing and taking photos when they arrive! Catch up on the goings on at the Little Croft on the Prairie - www.alpacasoflewis.blogspot.com

She also has a pair of peacocks - wow! - so, knowing that Harvey from the Campsite in Lickisto, Bays of Harris (see links for web address) had been on the lookout for some, I felt I had been a useful soul that evening!

I've started a new warp - sort of.... here are the colours and I know roughly what I want, but its taking a bit of sorting out. I'm going to warp with 32 ends, but turn the reed between the heck and the mill 180 degrees on alternate sections to it gives a 64 end pattern. Should be straightforward but, is proving to be a bit of a brainteaser just now.



Yesterday I was at the airport waving of my O/H on his week long firefighting course at Invergordon, and when I got back to feed the chickens I found that two of the eggs under the black naked neck who was brooding in the byre had hatched earlier on in the day. She was jumping up and down at the byre door looking very distressed so I knew something was wrong. One chick had sadly fallen from the basket and died on the ground and the other was just alive on the edge of the basket but very cold.

I picked it up and put it in a basin with one of those gel hand-warmers and after half an hour in front of the stove it had picked up a bit and was cheeping. It is now re-united with its mum in a nest box with a run at the front to keep it safe. This morning mum was sitting tight but I could hear a fair amount of noise coming from beneath her feathers, so it looks like the chick is still with us. It's a cute little naked neck (yes, another!) with brown stripes on a fawn body - we're calling it "Humbug" because that's exactly what it looks like.
Photos will follow when it comes out to play......