COWED?

Lots of ex townees of my acquaintance, now moved to rural parts, still retain some of their urban fears about the wide open spaces and the denizens therein. I am most reluctant to enter a field in which there is a Bull however docile it appears to the casual bystander. After all 'Beware of the Bull' is put up for some good reason, presumably. And I have to confess I am not altogether comfortable when in too close vicinity to horses and cows. And especially cows with young. (Only a few days ago a woman was trampled to death by cows in Yorkshire as you can read here)

Hence my nervousness when some of the family taking a break from eating their way through the Wife's Big Birthday found ourselves in very close vicinity to a a bovine family group on the top of Duns Law. We had no dog with us, unlike the victim of the
Yorkshire fatality but the cows seemed over interested in the visiting bi-pods; its one thing having a small bird eying you up from a nearby branch but quite another having a large hunk of underdone beef breathing down your neck at very close quarters. Ar any moment a calf could have broken out of the ranks and we might well all have been squished by the pursuing stampede of anxious and single minded mothers.

On a whim (Diplomats are trained to deal with the unexpected with the unusual, or vice versa)I addressed the herd on behalf of the Scottish Nationalist Party as a contribution towards political awareness as a Westminster election looms. Large brown eyes glazed over and the rally dispersed as the audience went off in search of less intellectually demanding entertainment. I suspect any how that that they were Liberals at heart or it may have been that my simple message, albeit an ancient Merseian proverb, had struck home:

The Grass is Always Greener on the other side of Duns Law


(NO Townee of Transmere: the Black Cow is a Bull-not on Duns Law but in the Lammermuirs)

Labels: Cows, Rural denizens, SNP, trampled under foot

  ¶ 8:33 AM