Now about sheep.....

...You know what a shepherd's crook looks like don't you? Yep, of course you do. I bet you starred in your primary school nativity play brandishing a stick with a tin foil-covered coat haNger fashioned to look like a shepherd's crook. Well, my question is....have you ever seen a shepherd's crook used? Yep, I know you've seen David Massey catch Michele on the heel in the nativity play dress rehearsal...but have you ever seen a SHEPHERD use one to catch a sheep? No I guessed you hadn't. Me neither until I espied a shepherd catch a lamb about the neck this morning. So what? Well I concluded that shepherd's crooks actually have a use beyond nativity plays and tripping up the girls at primary school.

That's about as profound as my thoughts got this morning as I pulled my hAlf-hundred weight bike and panniers up the Yorkshire Dales in the driving rain and aganst the wind.

Another thought.....if sheep were frightening, dangerous or aggresive animals then wouldn't the farmers' job be much more difficult. I wonder if the adrenaline rush of herding a bunch of man-eating sheep would attract a different sort of person into farning?

Now that we are all wearing synthetic fleece
Where does all that wool go?

Why do you only see Cumbrian sheep in Cumbria but as soon as you cross into Lancaster they are nowhere to be seen. What's that all about eh?

Why haven't sheep evolved to be a little less timid of humans? Whenever one passes them they run a mile like their lives were at stake. (hmmm, perhaps they know what their ultiate fate is...and at the hands of man. So, I guess they've got good reason to be frightened of every approaching human).