13th April - Day 32 - Deja Moo
Before you say it - I know the picture contains sheep and not cows - as the title of today’s blog would suggest. I actually saw the English Longhorn cattle first this morning (I really hope that’s what they are or I might not be able to return to Derbyshire later) but more of that in a little while.
What I spent most of the journey worrying about was the three escapees risking life and lamb on the road. This time, one of them was a lamb which you can see if you look very carefully to where I have indicated. I never know what you are supposed to do in these situations as accidents wool happen but as I couldn’t stop very easily, I ended up just saying to them loudly as I went past that they needed to go back in the field (I know you now think I really have gone mad expecting sheep to understand and respond!.) What I don’t know is whether, like cows, sheep are supposed to have regional accents. No - this is not an April Joke. A lot of fuss was made a few years ago about researchers identifying regional accents in cows’ mooing. (if you don’t believe me, search the BBC website!) So - perhaps Derbyshire sheep can’t understand De Da commands. I’m sure that’s the only reason why they didn’t respond in any way, sheep or form. Anyway, hoping that all went wool for the three of them, back to the cattle and today’s useless fact.
I’d thought that longhorn were a fairly recent breed in England but apparently they were bred in the 1700s. They rapidly declined in numbers until they were rescued by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust in 1980 and have now made a significant comeback (You see aren’t you glad you now know that!). Despite the rather scary horns, they are apparently a docile breed - not that I’d want to check that out - given the stare the one at the front is giving me! There was also no mooing to be herd so I was unable to check whether we would udderstand each other. I know the puns are terrabull and I am udder no allusion that you are probably groaning by now - so I’ll finish - and err on the side of cowtion.
