Not having to rush off for his 7.30 a.m. school bus, and with Chris off collecting Benj for the weekend, Ruadhri gave me a hand with the farm chores this morning.

First up, he fed his guinea-pigs.

Then the big pigs.

Next he gave some apples to the llamas and alpacas.

We’d brought the towel down with us to rub day-old Grainne down after a damp night. However, mum Windermere got a bit spooked out by the towel and spat at it! She tends to be overprotective of her babies. Grainne wasn’t very wet and it was a warm morning so we left her to dry out on her own.

Rors let the turkeys out next. The big black turkey was displaying, so Rors joined in.

Egg hunting next. We found the current stash but Cynthia was adding to them so we, and Roly the cat, left her to it.

The last job was to give hay to the sheep in their field and to the male alpacas in the stable. Here’s Rors getting busy with the hayfork.

There were all the animals’ water buckets to fill after this, Rickety Chick, the injured chicken, to feed, the polytunnel to water and then we checked all the lake grills to make sure they weren’t blocked by fallen leaves.

And that was the jobs done for the morning. Thanks Rors!