To Brest and Back

Well not quite but pretty nearly. A 10 hour drive north through the rain and spray and then a 9 hour – I’d beaten TomTom into submission and stopped him from taking me cross country - back the following day, complete with the animal trailer.

No I didn’t just do it for fun, it was to pick up the latest male in my life. So without further ado let me introduce you to Theo:-

Theo was unfortunately left behind in the UK when my other alpacas were shipped over 18 months ago. On shearing just before departure he had been found to have a bad case of mites and wasn’t passed fit to travel. Since then he’s remained in the UK until there was an opportunity to ship him with some others, which finally occurred at the beginning of November. He’s spent a few days with Robin and Linda of Utopian Alpacas in Brittany who are a wonderful couple. My thanks go to them and everyone else who helped in Theo's move to France.

Mother of Vinegar

Since the summer I’ve had a couple of bottles of wine with the dregs left in sitting in my kitchen waiting to grow a Mother of Vinegar. Today I looked in both bottles and this is what I found in one…

The wine has turned to very nice vinegar. I’ve now transferred the mother and the small amount of vinegar to a bigger crock and have added a bit of the cooking wine. From now on, any red wine dregs will be added so I have a supply of home-made red wine vinegar. I’ve followed the instructions on Rhonda Jean’s blog, down-to-earth, if anyone else wants to try.

In case you are worried you won’t know if it’s formed a ‘mother’ or if it’s gone bad, this is what came out of the other bottle. No problem deciding which one worked I think.