Same old, same old….

Same old, same old….
By Alyson Staines

It was a sunny day, warm too; unusual for the Lake District and a welcome change thought Nora as she lay on her comfy patch of bracken watching the humans. Various shapes and sizes in brightly coloured clothes, tramping up the same old well worn path to the top of the mountain.

This irritated her. Over the years the path had got wider and wider, more and more worn as the humans followed each other, up and down, day after day, rain or shine. More often than not, the former thought Nora and she gave a rueful bleat!

The lush sweet grass and other tasty foliage she and her flock had once enjoyed in abundance were gradually being replaced by stone and slate being brought in by big, noisy  mechanical birds, ready for humans to cover the worn, bare earth.

As a group of humans passed by, a skylark lifted, singing its lilty melody. Was that annoyance or a happy song?Nora could never quite tell and if she were being honest, it did slightly annoy her, un unnecessary fuss she thought.

Just then one of the humans stopped and grabbed hold of what Nora knew to be a camera. It pointed in her direction and started clicking. Nora stared nonchalantly as she chewed her cud (hoping they’d get her best side). The humans cooing and making strange baa-ing sounds! One of the smaller humans was starting to get uncomfortably close, little hand grasping out towards Nora’s beautiful, multi-coloured fleece, synonymous with her Herdwick breeding.

Enough is enough though Nora; she jumped up and backed away, bleating loudly. Ba-ah, I’m off, ba-ah, wait for me, ba-ah, don’t leave me with this lot! She turned on her hoof and trotted off along the same old familiar, well worn, bare sheep track behind the rest of her flock, one after the other, just as they always had done, day after day, rain or shine…….