He’s a three-year-old wether (neutered male). He’s very feminine in appearance, and very protective of younger alpacas.
He’s a bit shy, but easy going with the other alpacas and, thus far, willing to be a the bottom of the pecking order.
He definately does not like dogs, and charges Luna when she gets too near the fence. He’ll likely get used to her in time, but I’m glad that he takes an agressive stance towards dogs in general, as they are biggest hazzard to livestock here.
In France Pyrenean Mountain Dogs are known “mat dogs,” for their habit of lying on the door step or in gateways. This allows them to keep track of everyone’s coming and goings – because anyone trying to get in or out will have to trip over the dog, thus waking her up.
off topic, I’ve been having a good laugh reading hidden comments over at Orange. That “kos is a technofascist” e-mailer, that BooMan wrote about the other day, posted his screed in the open thread over there and is getting troll rated into oblivion.
I was just doing that very same thing! What an idiot. I decided to jump on the bandwagon and exercise super simian’s mighty troll-rating powers. I save it for special occasions and hope the “autoban” function kicks in.
Oh, I should but I haven’t. Part of me thinks they should have just had a good time playing with him rather than hiding him. Sometimes it’s fun to play with stupid people who post. And what he wrote is just so ludicrous.
Besides, I didn’t want to take the time to troll rate him when I had multiple GBCW diaries to read. 😉
Thought ya’ll might like to see this photo of mythmother in her younger dancing days. Here she’s performing a Javanese court dance that comes from Yogyakarta. It’s called Srimpi, and is performed by 4 women.
That’s what I missed out on this year at Folklife. Every so often they’ll bring in gamelans and we’ll go sit for a while and listen to them play. I don’t understand the subtleties of the music but I like it.
I tried to get my sister-in-law and her husband to bring me home a gamelan last time they were in Bali but they claimed it wouldn’t fit into their suitcase. Bah.
I studied both Balinese and Javanese gamelan and love them both. The best part is that you don’t have to be a crack shot musician, there is an instrument for anyone with a half way decent sense of rhythm and all the instruments are equally important, so it really builds community to participate.
It’s a big folk festival held every Memorial Day weekend at Seattle Center, in the shadow of the Space Needle. They have folk music, crafts, storytelling, dancing, art, plays, documentary films, pleading for donations . . . all sorts of folksy stuff.
Oh MM, you just made a big smile break out on me. Hadn’t thought of it, but that makes perfect sense you would have done the whole javanese dance thing. Very very cool. I certainly don’t pretend to understand the music or the tradition, but like Omir, I like what I see and hear!
oh yeah, you were already pretty high on my cool meter, but you just bumped up another notch, lol.
So have you stopped stalking the garden centers for unsuspecting flowers? We’ve got some real good stuff on the way here now!
Are you burning the midnight oil again? Past my bedtime, I tried to make a resolution to be in bed by 11:00 in honor of my impending re-entry into the noble work force.
But I’m having fun and I don’t wanna go to bed!
Today I put the photos I took at the Ultra Greens Nursery on a disk to give to them. Aside from that, haven’t been doing much with my camera, trying to get a writing project done.
I wish I could see your garden! It must be getting pretty sensational by now!
I’m still alive and somewhat kicking after a long day of digging weeds, pesky invasive perennials and planting 6 more delphiniums and some other stuff. Didn’t get any pics taken because I was so busy on my hands and knees, but there’s some great stuff getting ready to go here.
We just watched Jarhead a bit ago… I liked it a lot more than C did, but I’m a die hard Jake G fan, so….
But still, I thought it was a really good critique of the present Iraq war couched in the Gulf War I context. Guess I liked the guiding irony of the film a lot more than C did… but then, it was directed by Sam Mendes of American Beauty fame, so I was predisposed to like it. Well and lots of nice shirtless Jake scenes… hehe.
Not big on war movies, myself, but I know there are some good ones. If you read Pride and Prejudice, I’ll watch Jarhead, LOL!
How does your body hold up with all that crouching and digging. One reason I can’t get too into gardening is a back injury from dancing that gets pretty cranky the minute I put any kind of stress on it.
was the big block for C as well. This is one of those rare films, like Full Metal Jacket that gives you an in your face view of what it’s like for the guys out there. Lots of boredome. Masturbation. More boredom. Masturbation. Boredom. Meet the wrong Iraqis. Oops, war over, time to shoot your rifles. You didn’t kill a single person. It’s definitely worth a look, and I did warn you I’m a huge Jake fan, so there. 🙂
Yeah, the body doesn’t fare too well with all that work. I’m feeling it now, but it’s worth it. It’s not so much the work on the ground, it’s the getting up that gets tricky sometimes. 🙂
I did read Pride and Prejudice and Emma when I was in HS. I know, my sense of irony is much more refined now, but Austen just never set me on fire. I’m sure if I had the time to revisit it now, I’d think otherwise. Ok, so I thought it was “chick lit” back then… slap me.
Dare you to venture into Flaubert territory though… that’s my adult’s vision of delicious ironies.
Yes, Full Metal Jacket was great. I also like the Vietnam War situation that was part of Forest Gump. Unforgetable.
You are so brave to soldier on with your valiant gardening project, bringing beauty into the world, when it is hard on your body, too. That’s my excuse, so I guess I have no excuse now! But even photography takes its toll, when I get into the belly flop photography mode especially.
Gardening is so totally worth it. I guess I just don’t have the patience. Just stick plants in the ground and pretty much leave them to their own devices. The other big consideration out here in the desert is the water. And it just gets so beastly hot for much of the time.
so well… I’d be so challenged by your climate for growing things. I’d just go for all succulents and the tolerant annuals, most likely. Ok, I’m betraying a midwestern bias here… we have the seasons, so it’s a must to take charge of them. Does that make sense? We view the weather world as much more than rain/no rain … think in terms of seasons. Which is something that drove me nuts when I lived in FL. There were no discernable seasons, just hot and humid/less hot and humid. Anyway, I’m glad you like what we’re doing. You’ll see more of it soon, I promise.
Tomorrow night’s movie (rain 70% predicted) is The Constant Gardener. Kinda psyched about that one. It will hit way home to me on the pharma angle, I’m sure.
Huge Ralph Fiennes fan here. Have even learned to pronounce his name correctly! He has done lots of great work, but Quiz Show is still my favorite performance. Top ten on my Sexiest Men list. Constant Gardener is an interesting film, I would like to see it again. Rented it up in Monterey.
I wish I had known more about gardening when we first bought the place. Speaking of succulents, I got one flat of ice plant a couple years ago and it has completely taken over one entire corner of the garden growing up and down over everything. Plus we hardly ever water it. And you have seen the jade situation. It’s also hard to plant for the shade vs. sun around here. It’s like two different planets.
There are no seasons here to speak of and I grew up in upstate New York, so I really know what I’m missing!
all the time, lol. One was in Kinsey the other was not. But Liam was in Batman Begins which we watched last night, and he was not nice there. Kinsey, however, was one of the more amazing films I’ve seen in the past couple of years.
We’ve been wanting to get ice plant going here, because it’s actually hardy, and I found a few clumps of it blooming out at C’s parents’ place recently. It’s definitely one for the back yard area, and we have spent so much time, money and effort on the front so far… and now the north side, which is what you’ve seen lately (last week or so). OH, and you’ll like this… I weeded around so many little CA poppies today, and then threw a whole bunch more seed out in certain areas. We love that stuff… so that can be your plant in our garden, since I always think of you when I see it anyway… lol.
That’s a tough one for me! Apples and oranges, LOL! Haven’t seen Kinsey, yet, but looking forward to it.
That’s lovely about the poppies. I should plant some, but it seems like they bloom for such a short time, is it really worth it unless you plant lots of other flowers to keep the beauty going.
Well, guess I’d better put the baby to bed now. I’m finally winding down after my totally fun day!
Night, night and see you in the morning light IVG! (I wonder where everybody else disappeared off to?)
Evening all, I hope you’ve had a fine weekend so far. I need to pull out the pictures I took at Folklife yesterday to see if anything turned out decently. I got some pictures of a group of Scottish lassies doing a Highland fling to the strains of “Donald, Whirr’s Yer Trosers?” but it was indoors and I was too far away for the flash to do anything but annoy the people in the next couple of rows, so we’ll have to see.
to continue with the Tom Waits motif. Much was accomplished around here today, with delphinium plants, seeds and larkspur seeds sown. Not to mention moss rose plants, flowering kale and celosias to boot. But, my FBL friends, this is the plant to keep your eye on, as it will burst forth in late Aug/Sept with myriad blooms resembling orchids. The humble toad lily Tricyrtis sp. variety unknown… IT will rival the other IT in beauty. Stay tuned…
I love being the first one here.
Just think, that soon won’t be a problem for you. When do you get your DSL modem?
It’s going to be a shock to the system … 🙂
It will make a big difference on diaries that have lots of pictures and graphics. You’ll be able to keep up in the fast Lounges now!
When it gets big w/ lots of commenting I sometimes just sit back and read.
Yep. Prepare to drink from the fire hose!
Damn you Maryb!
You got the first table!
bwaaahaaahaaa
Hi, Olivia!
Haloooo from a sunny Monday mid-afternoon Downunder.
How are things w/ you all? Did you have a good w/e?
We got our new alpaca settled-in, and cut down/up another tree for firewood. The usual.
What’s this one’s name and temperament. And how are they all adjusting to one another?
He’s a three-year-old wether (neutered male). He’s very feminine in appearance, and very protective of younger alpacas.
He’s a bit shy, but easy going with the other alpacas and, thus far, willing to be a the bottom of the pecking order.
He definately does not like dogs, and charges Luna when she gets too near the fence. He’ll likely get used to her in time, but I’m glad that he takes an agressive stance towards dogs in general, as they are biggest hazzard to livestock here.
Here he is hiding behind little Inti.
He came with the name “Sandy,” but we’ll probably call him something else.
“guarding” the flock – just out of spitting range.

plan. If they want to escape they’ll have to trip over her first. 🙂
It is indeed her cunning plan.
In France Pyrenean Mountain Dogs are known “mat dogs,” for their habit of lying on the door step or in gateways. This allows them to keep track of everyone’s coming and goings – because anyone trying to get in or out will have to trip over the dog, thus waking her up.
I like maryb’s comment above LOL.
They are the sweetest looking animals. Good to hear that he’s fitting in well. 🙂
You’ve got the cutest animals period keres. Between Albert and these guys and the ducks and beautiful Luna … 🙂
We certainly gravitate towards “cute” in our animal selection criteria. Although some might say that Muscovy ducks are “an aquired taste.”
Myriad/Imogen is definately cute, but I’m a bit too tall and angular to be called cute myself, so I’m not sure how I got let into the herd. 😉
Opps. This is keres, not myriad. Myriad forgot to logout.
Besides, she would have said “Cooooooo-EEEE.”
’cause you never know … 🙂
HI, maryb!
Hi,O! (yay DSL tomorrow!)
Hi, keres (cute alpacas)
Hi, lurkers! (come on in the water’s fine)
Hi everyone else!
Hi MM. How was your day? Watching the earthquake news couldn’t have been nice for you.
Yes, the news coming out of there is pretty horrendous.
How has your w/e been so far? Do you have tomorrow off?
off topic, I’ve been having a good laugh reading hidden comments over at Orange. That “kos is a technofascist” e-mailer, that BooMan wrote about the other day, posted his screed in the open thread over there and is getting troll rated into oblivion.
I was just doing that very same thing! What an idiot. I decided to jump on the bandwagon and exercise super simian’s mighty troll-rating powers. I save it for special occasions and hope the “autoban” function kicks in.
Oh, I should but I haven’t. Part of me thinks they should have just had a good time playing with him rather than hiding him. Sometimes it’s fun to play with stupid people who post. And what he wrote is just so ludicrous.
Besides, I didn’t want to take the time to troll rate him when I had multiple GBCW diaries to read. 😉
Yup, I’m with ya there. Love those GBCW diaries!
Shoot, I miss all the fun over there.
I missed you in the earlier cafe. How are things today?
Thought ya’ll might like to see this photo of mythmother in her younger dancing days. Here she’s performing a Javanese court dance that comes from Yogyakarta. It’s called Srimpi, and is performed by 4 women.
How beautiful!
Javanese dance and music is just unearthly, I totally fell in love with it when I was a student at CalArts. Costumes are great, too!
That’s what I missed out on this year at Folklife. Every so often they’ll bring in gamelans and we’ll go sit for a while and listen to them play. I don’t understand the subtleties of the music but I like it.
I tried to get my sister-in-law and her husband to bring me home a gamelan last time they were in Bali but they claimed it wouldn’t fit into their suitcase. Bah.
Lame excuse if I ever heard one, LOL!
I studied both Balinese and Javanese gamelan and love them both. The best part is that you don’t have to be a crack shot musician, there is an instrument for anyone with a half way decent sense of rhythm and all the instruments are equally important, so it really builds community to participate.
Where or what is Folklife? Is it a school?
It’s a big folk festival held every Memorial Day weekend at Seattle Center, in the shadow of the Space Needle. They have folk music, crafts, storytelling, dancing, art, plays, documentary films, pleading for donations . . . all sorts of folksy stuff.
http://www.nwfolklife.org
Looks like it must have been lots of fun, Omir!
Oh MM, you just made a big smile break out on me. Hadn’t thought of it, but that makes perfect sense you would have done the whole javanese dance thing. Very very cool. I certainly don’t pretend to understand the music or the tradition, but like Omir, I like what I see and hear!
oh yeah, you were already pretty high on my cool meter, but you just bumped up another notch, lol.
So have you stopped stalking the garden centers for unsuspecting flowers? We’ve got some real good stuff on the way here now!
Are you burning the midnight oil again? Past my bedtime, I tried to make a resolution to be in bed by 11:00 in honor of my impending re-entry into the noble work force.
But I’m having fun and I don’t wanna go to bed!
Today I put the photos I took at the Ultra Greens Nursery on a disk to give to them. Aside from that, haven’t been doing much with my camera, trying to get a writing project done.
I wish I could see your garden! It must be getting pretty sensational by now!
I’m still alive and somewhat kicking after a long day of digging weeds, pesky invasive perennials and planting 6 more delphiniums and some other stuff. Didn’t get any pics taken because I was so busy on my hands and knees, but there’s some great stuff getting ready to go here.
We just watched Jarhead a bit ago… I liked it a lot more than C did, but I’m a die hard Jake G fan, so….
But still, I thought it was a really good critique of the present Iraq war couched in the Gulf War I context. Guess I liked the guiding irony of the film a lot more than C did… but then, it was directed by Sam Mendes of American Beauty fame, so I was predisposed to like it. Well and lots of nice shirtless Jake scenes… hehe.
Not big on war movies, myself, but I know there are some good ones. If you read Pride and Prejudice, I’ll watch Jarhead, LOL!
How does your body hold up with all that crouching and digging. One reason I can’t get too into gardening is a back injury from dancing that gets pretty cranky the minute I put any kind of stress on it.
was the big block for C as well. This is one of those rare films, like Full Metal Jacket that gives you an in your face view of what it’s like for the guys out there. Lots of boredome. Masturbation. More boredom. Masturbation. Boredom. Meet the wrong Iraqis. Oops, war over, time to shoot your rifles. You didn’t kill a single person. It’s definitely worth a look, and I did warn you I’m a huge Jake fan, so there. 🙂
Yeah, the body doesn’t fare too well with all that work. I’m feeling it now, but it’s worth it. It’s not so much the work on the ground, it’s the getting up that gets tricky sometimes. 🙂
I did read Pride and Prejudice and Emma when I was in HS. I know, my sense of irony is much more refined now, but Austen just never set me on fire. I’m sure if I had the time to revisit it now, I’d think otherwise. Ok, so I thought it was “chick lit” back then… slap me.
Dare you to venture into Flaubert territory though… that’s my adult’s vision of delicious ironies.
LOL, IVG!!!
Yes, Full Metal Jacket was great. I also like the Vietnam War situation that was part of Forest Gump. Unforgetable.
You are so brave to soldier on with your valiant gardening project, bringing beauty into the world, when it is hard on your body, too. That’s my excuse, so I guess I have no excuse now! But even photography takes its toll, when I get into the belly flop photography mode especially.
Gardening is so totally worth it. I guess I just don’t have the patience. Just stick plants in the ground and pretty much leave them to their own devices. The other big consideration out here in the desert is the water. And it just gets so beastly hot for much of the time.
so well… I’d be so challenged by your climate for growing things. I’d just go for all succulents and the tolerant annuals, most likely. Ok, I’m betraying a midwestern bias here… we have the seasons, so it’s a must to take charge of them. Does that make sense? We view the weather world as much more than rain/no rain … think in terms of seasons. Which is something that drove me nuts when I lived in FL. There were no discernable seasons, just hot and humid/less hot and humid. Anyway, I’m glad you like what we’re doing. You’ll see more of it soon, I promise.
Tomorrow night’s movie (rain 70% predicted) is The Constant Gardener. Kinda psyched about that one. It will hit way home to me on the pharma angle, I’m sure.
Huge Ralph Fiennes fan here. Have even learned to pronounce his name correctly! He has done lots of great work, but Quiz Show is still my favorite performance. Top ten on my Sexiest Men list. Constant Gardener is an interesting film, I would like to see it again. Rented it up in Monterey.
I wish I had known more about gardening when we first bought the place. Speaking of succulents, I got one flat of ice plant a couple years ago and it has completely taken over one entire corner of the garden growing up and down over everything. Plus we hardly ever water it. And you have seen the jade situation. It’s also hard to plant for the shade vs. sun around here. It’s like two different planets.
There are no seasons here to speak of and I grew up in upstate New York, so I really know what I’m missing!
Look forward to you getting out with your camera!
all the time, lol. One was in Kinsey the other was not. But Liam was in Batman Begins which we watched last night, and he was not nice there. Kinsey, however, was one of the more amazing films I’ve seen in the past couple of years.
We’ve been wanting to get ice plant going here, because it’s actually hardy, and I found a few clumps of it blooming out at C’s parents’ place recently. It’s definitely one for the back yard area, and we have spent so much time, money and effort on the front so far… and now the north side, which is what you’ve seen lately (last week or so). OH, and you’ll like this… I weeded around so many little CA poppies today, and then threw a whole bunch more seed out in certain areas. We love that stuff… so that can be your plant in our garden, since I always think of you when I see it anyway… lol.
That’s a tough one for me! Apples and oranges, LOL! Haven’t seen Kinsey, yet, but looking forward to it.
That’s lovely about the poppies. I should plant some, but it seems like they bloom for such a short time, is it really worth it unless you plant lots of other flowers to keep the beauty going.
Well, guess I’d better put the baby to bed now. I’m finally winding down after my totally fun day!
Night, night and see you in the morning light IVG! (I wonder where everybody else disappeared off to?)
{{{{{{{{{{{IVG}}}}}}}}}}}}}
I should head off here too… but I’m a night owl. I didn’t really expect to see too many around here tonight, given my own scarceness lately!
Our CA poppies bloom pretty much up until frost… that’s why we like them so much… all those fire colors really late and they self seed like crazy.
Anyway, time to call it a night.. just posted a teaser pic of our main toad lily downstream…. it’s a beauty, but you’ll have to wait!
Evening all, I hope you’ve had a fine weekend so far. I need to pull out the pictures I took at Folklife yesterday to see if anything turned out decently. I got some pictures of a group of Scottish lassies doing a Highland fling to the strains of “Donald, Whirr’s Yer Trosers?” but it was indoors and I was too far away for the flash to do anything but annoy the people in the next couple of rows, so we’ll have to see.
to continue with the Tom Waits motif. Much was accomplished around here today, with delphinium plants, seeds and larkspur seeds sown. Not to mention moss rose plants, flowering kale and celosias to boot. But, my FBL friends, this is the plant to keep your eye on, as it will burst forth in late Aug/Sept with myriad blooms resembling orchids. The humble toad lily Tricyrtis sp. variety unknown… IT will rival the other IT in beauty. Stay tuned…
