The Llama and the Lama

The Latin American Llama
is sometimes confused with the Lama.
Two ‘L’s for the beast,
one ‘L’ for the priest
in Tibet, who knows all about karma.

 

During daylight train journeys, even ones I’ve done many times before, I prefer gazing aimlessly out of the window to reading, or doing the ‘Guardian’ crossword. One gets glimpses into strangers’ lives as the train goes past their back gardens, sees tempting deserted river banks, once a flasher in woodland displaying himself to the passing train, and is sometimes surprised by the incongruous: between Paddington and Oxford once my mental running commentary said ‘There’s a farmhouse, and that’s their cabbage patch… now a field full of sheep, and there’s a bull all alone in his field… now a flock of Llamas… Llamas?’ But the train was going too fast (in itself incongruous) for me to do a double-take.

Here are a Lama and a Llama; the one ‘L’ one is feeding an already well-fed goat, and doesn't himself look too ascetic: