Every autumn/fall for the last few years I have gone acorn collecting on a local estate and successfully grown numerous small oak trees. (No idea what I will eventually do with them all)
This year, a week or so later than planned, I headed off on my annual acorn forage. As I reached the first oak tree along the path, there was no sign od any acorns. Maybe I was too late but there weren’t any signs of their “wee hats” lying the grass…strange…
Knowing that there were other oak trees along the way, I kept walking. I passed two fields of sheep and was level with a field with a horse in it, when I spotted five young sheep at the side of the path up ahead of me. I really didn’t think too much about this. It’s a gated estate so they weren’t in any immediate danger. I was more concerned about getting past them without scaring them.
As I approached slowly, they looked round then set off along the path at a trot in front of me. Were they joining my acorn hunt? They kept going, leading the way, as I sedately walked behind them pondering on how I was going to overtake them.
Eventually the path forked and my five fleecy friends trotted off down the right-hand fork towards other fields with sheep in them.
Stupidly, I assumed that they knew where they were going.
I continued on my up the hill.
There were no acorns to be seen. (A bit of Googling later on revealed that this is a lean year for acorns. Last year was a “mast” year for acorns that produced a bumper crop meaning that the trees need time to recover their energy reserves and haven’t produced any acorns this year…. Who knew?)
What I did find instead was conkers (horse chestnuts). Lots of them! Would they germinate and grow into mini horse chestnut trees? There was only one way to find out. I gathered some up in a bag then began to retrace my steps back up the hill.
As I was approaching the top, I wondered if my five fleecy friends had returned to their flock. A few yards further on, I discovered that they hadn’t. There they were in front of me again.
I slowed my pace and pondered on how to get past them this time without spooking them.
Again, they took one look and began trotting along in front of me.
I really hadn’t added “shepherdessing” to my To Do list for the day!
Were they now going to accompany me all the way back to the gate at the entrance to the estate?
No! All five of them trotted along quite happily until the path forked then they headed off down the same path I’d watched them walk down a few minutes before!
I made good my escape before they decided to follow me.
As a fan of Clarkson’s Farm, I now have to wholeheartedly agree with Kaleb Cooper – sheep are stupid! LOL
P.S. I have now planted my conkers so time will tell whether they sprout or not. I’ll need to wait patiently for spring to determine the success of this experiment.
