The Eastern Townships

The 'Eastern Townships' is a term which refers to an area of Quebec, east of Montreal, just north of the border with the USA and south of the St Lawrence Seaway, to which some American 'loyalists' moved after the American Revolution.  It is a beautiful rural area with some small towns.  There is a mixture of agriculture, with beef cattle, dairy cattle and horses along with arable farming, including maize.

Dave and Eva went out running this morning, while I took advantage of a lie-in before breakfast, which included home grown fruit and almond croissant, on the deck.  This overlooks the flower garden, where bird feeders have been set up, and we were treated to our first sightings of chickadees and, fleetingly, humming birds.

 There is also a chipmunk, who dashes around and enjoys the bird feed too.  Having only seen pictures of chipmunks before, I was surprised by the small size of this one.

 Our travels took us to an alpaca farm, where the owners have bred livestock for many years, and decided to look after alpacas in their retirement!  I now know that:

• Alpacas can live up to twenty five years;
• The gestation period is eleven and a half months;
• The babies suckle for about six months;
• The fibre is up to three times warmer than sheep wool
• The fibre can grown up to six inches in a year

The next port of call was the Olympic Equestrian Park at Bromont.   There was nothing  going on, but we parked the car and looked around briefly.  

After lunch, we drove to l'Orpailleur winery and were able to look at the information and equipment without having an official tour.  We were even given two small free samples! 

Back home, there was time to sit on the deck bird watching for a while and this time the chickadees were joined by a woodpecker and a humming bird came to take some of the syrup put out for her.