Walking with camels

I do wish the weather would make up its mind what it’s doing.  Sometimes it’s pleasant, early spring sort of weather and sometimes it’s really cold and even snowing.  It did everything yesterday, first cold, then cold sunshine and finally a bit of snow.

 

 

 Mary Rogers, Dolly and I tried to go for a walk round Rouffiac Lake – about 6 or 7 kms.    We started out in sunshine then got the snow about halfway round.   At this point I dragged my hat over my ears as far as possible to ward off the cold. 

 

 

 

Mary and I usually talk about all kinds of things so I can’t remember if our main subject at the time was drink or camels, when Mary told a story about a camel she had known in Suffolk.  She said that she used to go to a riding school (with horses) whose owner offered camel rides as an extra.  She never took a camel ride.  But the camel available for the rides died and the nearest available replacement camel was a young male purchased from Glasgow zoo.  He duly arrived and was found to be rather grumpy and stroppy.   It was arranged to have him castrated as a means of calming him down, rather than cheering him up, and the young camel never recovered from the anaesthetic, but died without regaining consciousness.   A subsequent autopsy found him to be suffering from massive cirrhosis of the liver.  It’s debatable whether the keepers at Glasgow zoo had been slipping him alcohol to calm him down, or whether he was just so used to the booze that he became grumpy going on the wagon in Suffolk.  Glasgow does have a good reputation for boozers, though.