Back from the North!

After a mammoth drive - we are home!  Very many thanks to all who commented and emailed about Greeves.  It was touch and go whether we would ever get away but in the end we did and the first thing I did when we got home was to rush over to weigh Greeves.  He looks fine but I am afraid he has lost 200g but I have now got some new food to try him on, a present to him from Jayne at Zanzibah, so I shall give it until Tuesday and then weigh him again.

We set off on Wednesday - armed with the Sat Nav and hit our first problem as the Sat Nav could not find Glasgow.  After a while we realised that Glasgow is not in England so we had to change country.  Towards Carlisle things did get a little tedious.  The 'Spot the name on the Eddie Stobbart lorry' game kept us going a bit (double points if it is also the name of one of your alpacas) .  A long time was occupied by texting Irene to tell her I was waving at Liverpool (I started texting at Manchester as I knew it would take some time).  Spot the Arnold Clark car was fun until we realised every third car was an Arnold Clark car and that game began to pall!  Finally, we reached Loch Lomond!

Quite grey, as you can see!  The next day we motored on, furiously, but fitted in a trip to the beach

and one to a Land fill site (we were not expecting it to be a land fill site)

Now we come to Friday!  We had been looking forward to this for ages - a trip to Zanzibah Alpacas to meet up with Jayne - what a woman!  After our visit there every time I say to Carl that I can't do something it's, "Well, Jayne would manage!"  And I have to say, she would!  We followed the sat nav but couldn't find her so I rang to be greeted with this wonderful cheerful,  "Ohh, Hellooo" - immediately she said she would come and find us and we drove on over the brow to turn around only to spot two beautiful - huge - Highland cows.

 . . and then we spotted Jayne, coming to find us!  Within minutes we had located each other and she took us to her farm - a beautiful place in a wonderful area and she has done so much.  We had a tour and met Norris - a fabulous sheep!  Then it was on to the alpacas and a very soft, beautiful looking Duke.  Minstrel did steal the show a bit!

Carl was very impressed with the fantastic array of barns, buildings and loved Daisy the Digger.  He is also now inspired by the spinning lesson and is already searching ebay for some new and essential equipment - I can see he is soon going to be producing mountains of wool which he will expect me to knit up in my spare time (well, "Jayne can do it!").  We also saw some really lovely knitting, very individual and innovative - and if you could see what she had done with seconds - very impressive!
Well, after delicious soup, rummaging through fleece, spinning and carding lessons, looking at knitting, seeing a fantastic field shelter and a beautiful walking stick made by Jayne's Dad - we just had to move on but we could have stayed there forever.  We'll be back again, Jayne - if we may!!

It was then a drive to our next stopping place and another exciting visit the next day.  Luckily, I had taught myself to text by then and managed to text Debbie at Barnacre to see if we could pop in on our way past.  It is strange when you read someone's blog and see pictures and then  meet them and know exactly who they are and what they have been doing when you have never met them before in real life!  Despite having visitors they were very welcoming - Paul has a great sense of humour!  We had a bit of a knitting chat and I had a sneak preview of some lovely socks - I don't know how Debbie's Mum and Carol do it, they were fabulous.  Debbie's hand spun yarn is very soft and in lovely colours.  I almost wished I was pregnant when I saw the baby cardigan.  It was then out to see the alpacas and I have to say that Sandstorm really took my fancy - can you spot him?!

Minimus was a real hit and I am still trying to work out whether he was taller than Greeves - but Minimus is a very healthy little chap, unlike Greeves.  My other new best friend is Meketaten, so sweet!

We only had the Fiesta - if we had the stock trailer with us . . .
But Debbie was keeping a close eye on things!

It has been a marvellous few days away and many, many thanks to Jayne and Debbie and Paul. 
Back to Greeves and a weight gain action plan - plus, of course getting ready for births!!
Sorry for the exceedingly long blog!!