In search of sanity

I checked the calendar, April the 1st has long gone. On a day where news reports were dominated by the horror of children trying to kill children I heard some idiot passionately arguing that farmers should not use dogs to round up their sheep as it causes them stress, instead they should use flags to wave at them and encourage them to move in the intended direction. As I turned up the radio I could almost hear Phil Drabble spinning in his grave as the chap continued to put his point of view forward that all farmers were unethical and exploited sheep, another voice spoke over him putting the farmers view that this chap was at best ill informed and at worst a nutter.

I have to agree. He must be a nutter and obviously had no idea what he was talking about, probably has'nt been near a live sheep. On the way to work the other morning Tracey and I stopped to help a farmer who was trying to contain a breakout of his sheep onto the main road. A truly giant example of sheep thundered down the road towards us as we tried to block its path with an Rx4 supporting ourselves waving and jumping around in an effort to head it off at the pass as it were. To no avail, this was a sheep with an eye on replacing one of the horses used by the horsemen of the apocalypse, and it spat its disdain at us as it shot past and headed towards the horizon. No number of flags would have made the sheep change its trajectory.

Then there is the flag waver, most farmers I know are close to if not already at pensionable age. The strain on the medical emergency services fetching wheezing geriatrics enthusiastically clutching giant silk flags to their painful chests doesn't bear thinking about.

Once again its a case of people who don't know what they are talking about, who don't live the life farmers do, who know nothing of the hardships faced or the care taken of the animals trying to tell those who do know what to do and worst still, how to do it.

I am at a funny age I think, one where I could easily become Victor Meldrew's son. I have just started to wear glasses for reading, I routinely shout at the television when it annoys me and today I felt an overwhelming compulsion to phone the BBC to complain about the nutter.

So to prevent myself becoming a nutter I went for a walk, the furthest point away from Rock HQ pictured above. I went in search of sanity and some peace and quiet. At one point I had as my walking companions two dogs, three goats, a ram, two lambs and a sheep. This is my mad world and I love it.