Being watched

It's been another beautiful day in Ohio and I had a great time on the road with Cynthia. My first school visit was at a preschool in Wooster (no Jeeves). It was a lovely, attentive class and we had a good chat about the books. I was impressed by the teacher's method of laying down mats with the kids' names so they knew where to sit. This kept them in place the whole time.

Then a treat – a visit to Cynthia's nephew's alpaca farm! When I took out my camera, the foremost white (or perhaps biege – there are three different pale colours, but my memory fails me on the third one) alpaca in the blip walked forwards with purpose. Maybe she thought I was taking out food. She had quite a determined look. We were shown to the barn where the young were having a little break from the herd. The youngest (the central black one in the extra photo) is two months old and he was lifted up so we could pat his very soft fur. The humming noises they made surprised me.

The afternoon was spent in Amish country. The drive to the school saw us pass horses and buggies, and haystacks in the fields. The road was very hilly and I could see that cars would be a problem, cresting hills and finding a buggy just below the peak. Cars need to go at horse's pace to be safe. At the school, the kids were quiet, but I could see in their smiles that they were enjoying the books and my babbling on about them. The teacher had some good questions for me, too. We swapped places at the end so I was the audience and the teachers and children were the performers, singing a song for me. That was really sweet.

A late lunch beckoned at Mrs Yoder's Kitchen and I tried a few things for the first time: mustard egg, lime and pear jello, broccoli and nut salad, and pumpkin pie. It was all delicious.

I saw wild turkeys on the way back, but not much else in the way of bird life. I also smelt skunk, which is quite unique, but there was no sign of the smelly beast.