Sheep

These two I saw sitting on a supermarket shelf and I decided to buy them, for who I don’t know but that doesn’t matter for the moment it made me think. Interestingly a one or many are all sheep, there are no sheeps ( no such word ) but they gather in a flock.

The general consensus is that they are dumb but if you observe them that’s just not true. They are highly intelligent with great memory and 270 degree vision. They remember up to 50 other sheep and grieve on death or parting from their loved ones. They defend each other and self medicate when sick looking for plants that heal.

Productive ewes can fetch around £200 but on average a sheep will cost £80 in the UK. The farmer will not take an IOU ( ewe ) and there are still these days sheep stealers roaming the countryside especially for those spring lambs. Occasionally you will literally see a black sheep in the family as you will in humans, that rogue runaway that stands out like a sore thumb. Otherwise they invariably come in white and their coat of wool is sheared, the trade of which once was the currency of England of the 17th Century. People made their fortunes in the Wool Exchanges where some traders were literally fleeced ( which of course is a term used still today when someone does a bad deal ).

Their life expectancy is 12 years though commercially they live only half of that. The sheep will follow the voice of the shepherd and the flock move together. As a result human characteristic are often compared when people follow just like sheep, Brexit, Covid et Al just a few examples. Shepherd Boris is gathering us all in our pen these days perhaps in some cases like lambs to the slaughter.

JS Bach wrote the Great favourite of mine ‘ Where sheep may safely graze ‘ and if you have insomnia a remedy is I’m told to count sheep. Anyway I thought I would pen this note for you today and remind you all that where there’s a wool there’s a way. Finally I decided to give these two above to my wife , my Shepherd who makes the best Shepherds Pie a man can have, someone I’ll follow as long as I can. ‘ My sheep know my voice ‘ Jesus, John 10 v 27.