When I was a child, I remember seeing a postcard that one of my relatives had received from a friend who was visiting Ireland. From what I recall, the postcard was an image of a flock of sheep walking down a country lane and impeding the progress of a solitary figure on a bicycle.
It’s just one of the rules – and absolute joys – of country life, that you give way to sheep. And, while you wait for these serene, bleating balls of fluff to pass, it does give you that opportunity to just halt a while and realise that you don’t always have to be rushing hither and thither (a much underused phrase, I think). I had time to think of that phrase recently, while halted in total gridlock (wink) when attempting to ride through Branton a week or so ago:
