Once upon a time in The Land Of The Lakes...
It was once upon a time in the land of the lakes when Emma (writer of children’s books and maker of beautifully whimsical things) found herself accidentally nodding her head when Terry (former soldier in the British Army, entrepreneur, ne’er do well, and thinker of Big Ideas) informed her that the only sensible thing to do in their spare time, was to start looking after a herd of alpacas. The reasons he gave were as follows:
- Alpacas were funny-looking and would therefore, logically, be fun to look after.
- Having done some “solid research” he had it on great authority that alpacas were the easiest of animals to care for, in fact he would go so far as to say that “they would look after themselves.” (let’s fast forward briefly to days spent covered in mud, drenched by rain and battered by howling winds, attempting to memorise the dosage on a catering sized bottle of de-wormer.)
- They had moved to The Lake District! What better way to become part of the local farming community than to breed Peruvian livestock! (fast forward to years of quizzical/disbelieving looks, conversations that begin with “so what’s that then eh? Does it bite eh?” and then of course, the downright mockery.)
Based on three whole points of such profound logic, and bearing in mind their complete lack of experience, knowledge, land, or indeed alpacas, there was only one inevitable outcome. In a move that made no sense to anyone apart from them, they gave each other a wink and went off and did it anyway.
They started with a name. Because that was clearly the important bit…
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