It is once more November, and as I sit here pen in hand under the light of a faltering desk lamp, surrounded by books and glared at by Google Scholar, I cast my mind back to two years before.
November in the Lakes is a beautiful time. The sun glances across the landscape setting the autumn trees alight in a blaze of gold, orange and yellow. It was on just such a day as the sun was making its descent to the horizon that we were walking the high moors and marvelling at the view.
4pm and it was paradise. By 5pm, we were lost on the high moor. The temperature was dropping rapidly and everywhere was dark. It would have been wise to at least have chosen a night with a full moon, but we were not wise.
What kit we had was not really sufficient and we were huddled behind a dry stone wall getting at least some protection from the cold wind that was rising. I felt panic. I was not sure if we would survive the night.
I saw a shadow move in the starlight. It was not clear what it was, and my panic only increased as it approached.
Finally, I realised it was a sheep. It nuzzled my partner and then suddenly turned and ambled quickly away. We were alone again and I returned to wondering how we could survive in the cold autumn wind.
I need not have worried, for 15 minutes later the sheep was back, and with a whole flock who surrounded us and protected us and kept us warm the whole night.
I have often wondered since about that amazing night. Sheep are so often characterised as unintelligent and willing to follow what lead they are given, but in that moment, a sheep recognised a need and mobilised a whole flock to meet it.
In the morning, they melted away back into little groups of two or three scattered across the hillsides. They didn’t ask for money or food or even gratitude. But gratitude is what we felt and I hope the sheep could feel it too.
It is a constant wonder to me that when an urgent need arises, somehow there is a solution.
Is this part of the way the universe turns, or is it just that I am somehow lucky.
Maybe one day I will find the answer to this question, but for now, I just plough on with my thesis in behavioural psychology — inspired almost entirely by the incident with the sheep.
