New photos of our alpacas taken last weekend

JandJ Flynn
JandJ Topaz and JandJ Chastity
JandJ Nettle

JandJ Chastity JandJ Golden Wonder & JandJ Henley

JandJ Rufus

JandJ Rufus is so cute & very like his brother Finn, whose photo is on our leaflets. We just missed his birth. His mum Vermillion is a reddish brown, hence her name & always has pretty cria. She has had 6 cria with us 4 boys and 2 girls & as she is our oldest alpaca at 15, we have decided to retire her this year.

Rufus is now 6 months old, a lovely red brown colour & a little smaller than the rest but still has a gorgeous face.

JandJ Delight

Delight arrived second on the 24th at 4 oclock so very late for a birth, this is her mother Bliss' first cria so that might be why. She was a small but very determined little cria, always at the front seeing what is going on. Delight is very like her mother in every way, jet black & a little narrow but when we look at Bliss now we can't believe that she was ever that size.

JandJ Nettle

On Friday 24th June we had 2 births. The first one was Nettle, this is her nickname as at the moment she doesn't have a real one.

Her mother QAI Claire came into the country with her mum Drew Barrymore as a cria born in transit. Claire is the most beautiful alpaca, very gentle & calm just like her mum. Leo was Claire's first cria & he is a large gentle alpaca now living with Kim, Steve & Jo. Her next 2 cria were not so lucky & we lost both Chance & Enchanted before they were 4 months old, both of whom were stunning.

So this little girl, prettiest little cria we have, is very special & we really want her to live. We watched her being born & then left her & Claire alone to bond, I went back to the field an hour later to check on them & couldn't find Nettle anywhere. She had managed to sit down in a clump of nettles at the side of the field shelter & I got stung getting her out, so Nettle is her name for now. She is the only alpaca not registered & has to be by Christmas Eve at the latest, so fingers crossed we will be able to give her a very special name but to us I think she will always be Nettle.

JandJ Golden Wonder

Golden Wonder was the next cria born on 20th June. His mum is Mississippi Moonlight one of our original 4 alpacas & he is brother to Hope, Destiny & Dream. Golden was an amazing colour when he was born, really golden, hence his name & as he has got older it has gone slightly lighter.

Open Afternoons

Our 2 Open Afternoons were brilliant. We really enjoyed showing our alpacas to everyone who came to see them. Normally when we are out & about talking about the alpacas we are at shows or events & only have a few aged about 1 or 2 so it was lovely to show off the cria (babies) with their mums, Friday is now nearly 6 months old & Freya the youngest 2 months. I hope everyone who came found the afternoons interesting.

If you couldn't make the dates we opened, we are going to have another open day in the Spring. We are always happy for anyone interested in owing alpacas to ring for an appointment to come & see them.

Yorkshire Alpaca Show at Thirsk

JandJ Hope

We had a fabulous day at Thirsk yesterday. Very early start but it was worth it. We took 6 alpacas & came home with 5 rosettes and a sash. James was one of the penning stewards & we took some of our products to sell as we are members of the Yorkshire Alpaca Group.

It was the first time we had entered any girls this year & we decided to take Hope, Peace & Ruby Tuesday & our boys who we have shown before this year Kitt, Frazer & Diesel.

The stewards decided that Peace should be moved from the brown class to the black class. This meant that in the first class of the day, the intermediate female black huacaya class, Hope was the first alpaca into the ring & Peace was 5 alpacas behind her. Hope was given a 2nd Rosette and Peace a 5th. As the 1st & 2nd of each class go forward to the Championship for Champion Black Female Huacaya Hope was in the ring again & this time came away with a Reserve Champion Black Female Huacaya sash. We are so pleased with this, as it is our first sash & Hope is the daughter of Mississsippi Moonlight one of our original 4 alpacas.

Ruby Tuesday was next in the ring in a large class of fawn girls & unfortunately did not get a rosette. People wandering round the pens though did really like Ruby the best out of all our alpacas.

Next it was the turn of the boys, Diesel was first as he is black & came out with a 5th Rosette.

Kitt was next, he is a gorgeous beige & the son of my alpaca Skylark, & he came out with a 2nd Rosette.

Frazer was last, our lovely white out of yet another of our original 4, Luminaria who always has gorgeous cria, he was in a large class, the top 6 were pulled forward & Frazer was one of them, then the judge placed them in order & he was moved to 3rd place which he kept and came out with a 3rd rosette.