Good morning. Drizzle here too today, much like yesterday morning, when I had a phone call to see if I could help out and go "on a little adventure". A few sheep had got out from a field a couple of miles away and were now roaming the woodlands and grounds surrounding a large private estate. This place releases a lot of pheasants and I often hear a distant volley of shots from there on their shooting days. To add to the interest, at the centre of the estate is an abbey that is over 900 years old. I've never needed much persuasion to go off and play in forbidden woods, so it took only a second to decide to put my other plans for the day on hold.
It was only after we entered the trees from where the sheep had first escaped a few days ago that I was told how extensive the grounds were, about 1,000 acres for the sheep to play hide and seek in and only 4 of us to find them, plus we wouldn't be using dogs. Fortunately there had been a siting the day before, so we set off through the neglected woodland in high hopes. As we walked I was told tales of the strange people that had sometimes inhabited the woods, in houses that were now abandoned and derelict. It was a mixture of woodland tracks, many with leaning trees above that had blown over and hung up in other trees and open grass areas. Straight out of the brother Grimm's fairy tales. All the fallen leaves and wet weather made it slippery, slow walking and quite muddy in places.
At least the ground conditions gave the advantage to Tonto, as our shepherd/guide became nicknamed. When the trail split two ways he studied the ground and announced "Five sheep pass um this way ->", so we followed him along a short muddy lane, then spread out over a small rise as it opened out into another grassland area. We saw the sheep at the same time they saw us. They were obviously enjoying their freedom and wanted it to stay that way, so they took off at high speed down the hill, with us following some distance behind. I volunteered to play sheepdog, going off in a wide Away (anti clockwise) circle in the hope that I could make them think their best escape was to come back up the hill, instead of carrying on down towards the abbey. Sometimes you get lucky, it was the best fetch I have ever done, the Dog would have been proud of me.
Theory had it that the sheep would probably go back the way they came and theory was doing pretty good until someone from the estate came up one of the hard surface tracks in a Land Rover. They knew to expect us, but by the time we had done the polite introductions, the sheep had turned the corner and were gone.
We split up into the woodland, but nothing could be seen. At least we were fairly sure they had not sneaked back behind us, so we came back to the track and Tonto did his stuff again, picking up fresh tracks once more. Sure enough, there they were, not more than 100yds further up a trail, then they vanished again. Don't ask me how those 6 six sheep (one more than our Tonto first said - he can sure track, but he can't divide by four), with almost pure white fleeces, can disappear when there is no snow on the ground, but they were gone again.
Right, split up once more, with me going through the wood to the right. This part was quite overgrown, with some big hollows in the ground that were probably workings of some past century. I remember thinking it was just the sort of place where wngsprd would be concealed up a tree, waiting for a passing deer. Well I saw nothing brown, nor white either. My phone rang to say they had been sighted and I came back down in time to see Tonto was now playing the Pied Piper. With whistles and a bucket of corn he had enticed them out into the open, across a lane, then into a field with a secure fence and gate. Phew!
) on that estate. Sounds like a real adventure. Another interesting way we have morphed the English language - you say anti clockwise and we say counter clockwise (at least here in these parts).
