Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Walk #237: An Alpaca Baby...

After sleeping til ten this morning, I drove home. Kylie and Jazzy joined me on my walk. One of our neighbor's Alpacas had a baby two days ago. The girls were quite excited to show the baby off to me.

Then we walked some more, with me trying out my new camera (the same make and model as the old one).


I could have bought a much fancier camera. But why? I am an amateur. This way I can continue to pack my camera in my shorts; drop it in the dust; have it be submerged in rain; cram it in my day pack. In short, abuse it without feeling too much guilt.

There is a certain joyful cheesiness in a cheap camera. Real life isn't perfect. Neither am I. My photos reflect that...
By the way, some photos have been added to some earlier posts (from before the old camera died).

5 comments:

Ian Woofenden said...

Biked to town for errands and appointments and such. Bikes are SO handy and quick for getting around town! And great for socializing -- I had some good laughs with a friend's young son.
12.13 miles
1:10
10.38 mph average
29.51 mph max

Jacqueline Donnelly said...

Allan, your photos are great! And I agree, if you buy a really expensive camera, you might baby it and not bring it along where it might get damaged. I've dropped two in the river (I went in too!) so I wouldn't want to carry anything I couldn't replace for a reasonable price.

The alpacas are darling! Gosh, it must feel good to get home.

Allan Stellar said...

Woods,

Thanks...but the photos certainly don't come close to the beautiful photos on your blog (which is more than worth a look see).

Yes, it is good to be home. I wish I didn't have to travel so far for work, but the wages in the Bay area are high enough that I make as much part time there, as I would working full time in the Foothills.

From Ian's posts (quite inspiring), I'm ready to grease up my bike and start using that more. It is four miles to the nearest store. Up and down two huge hills. It would be good for me...

Next year I plan on keeping this thing going, although it will be more ecectic: "365 Bikes, Hikes, Walks, Runs and Reads". Kind of like Bill McKibben's "A year of living strenously".

allan

greentangle said...

Not sure if I've ever seen alpaca in person--look like a mix of llama, giraffe, and deer.

Someone else who numbers their walks joined the NBN:
http://turtletalkwithtootie.blogspot.com

Allan Stellar said...

Green,

I'm told alpacas (personally, I think seperate species deserve to be Capitalized, but oh well) are from Peru. Domesticated there. High altitude creatures that are coveted for their fibers. My neighbor thinks she is gonna get rich selling the fibers. She tells me that there are around 180,000 of them in the US. You can see "get rich schemes" on TV, advertising having an "alpaca" farm.

Seems kind of cruel to take such a cool weather loving, high altitude creature and make them live in the heat of the Foothills.

Every once and awhile we take a wheelbarrow over to our neighbor's and get a mound of alpaca dung for our garden. Gonna take a whole lot of dung to make this garden grow...