The Mystery of the Itchy Scratchy Tweed Bits
Posted: Tuesday, 26 February 2008 | 9 comments |
Well, have alot to cover in today's blog...keeping the mystery until the end so you have to keep reading...
Firstly, thanks to all your good luck vibes the lambing course went amazingly well!! I am so impressed with myself...
I manged to "give birth" to a dead lamb out of the sheep simulator...ok, so maybe I was a bit hasty getting my electrical cable around the head, breaking the First Golden Rule of Lambing "DO NOT GET OVER EXCITED". And maybe I should have remembered to get the little feet out first instead of breaking the Second Golden Rule of Lambing, "DO NOT PULL ON THE FIRST THING YOU CAN TOUCH". But hey, I wasn't fainting, crying or being sick in the corner - hurray for me!!
Secondly, there is the small matter of the prize that was promised to TWS for the naming of our new doggie Cubair. As there is no update on Squidgy's book I have decided to award a surprise prize so please TWS can you email Carol at IBHQ with your address, get her to email it to me, and I will send you an appropriate reward!!
And now on to The Mystery of the Itchy Scratchy Tweed Bits....
Soaplady from Lewis ( I have some of your rhubarb soap in my bathroom it's gorgeous!) told us in my last blog that:
Soaplady: "I'll never forget how amused I was on first coming to the island to see the lady sheep walking around the place with large squares of brown tweed sewn over their relevant bits ... !! "
This revelation has caused no end of puzzling until our puzzlers are sore...
Modest sheep???
Flying Cat from whatever next!
Pardon my ignorance, but why do lady sheep have tweed sewn over their relevant bits? Is this modesty or some form of island birth control? Or maybe the gentleman sheep are turned on by the tweed patches?
Jill from EK
I have to admit, I'm also baffled about the tweed-on-relevant-bits. Is anyone brave enough to explain this mystery??
Michelle Therese from Things Go Moo in the Night...
So please can anyone out there shed a little light on this matter???
Posted on Happily Ever After at 13:56
Comments
When I asked local crofters, they told me that it was <literally> to stop the sheep being impregnated early, and giving birth to lambies at the 'wrong' time ... Sort of like a big tweed female barrier method ... :-) Hope that helps, and glad to hear you're enjoying your Rhubarb Crush ... :-)
soaplady from first time I ever knew anything other folk didn't!
It's clear that these 'ere sheep don't like sitting down on wet heather. Simple as that!
Barney from Swithiod sartorial
Or it could be activities thought up by and coordinated from Amish Lighthouse, trying to revive the Harris tweed industry.
Barney from Think before you post
A dutch bunnet...
Flying Cat from un capot anglais
tweed chastity belts for ewe's?????
island threads from ness
What time of year do they normally wear them? I can understand late summer-autumn as definitely for contraception. But - and this is a horrible thought - if they are wearing new patches in late-winter to early spring do they help with prolapses?
Susan from Leicestershire (Woolly Back County)
Even Arnish (!) would not go to such lengths to save the Tweed industry. Give the rabble rouser a break (after all, Arnish is not a Flight Controller desperate for tea! or a trip to the loo. "Hello, Kirkwall Traffic Control? No answer: so it is an emergency landing in Coll, after all ...").
mjc from NM,USA
AFS says it all, sorry Arnish.
Barney from Swithiod a freudian slip
There's many a freudian slip twixt tup and lip...
Flying Cat from feeling sheepish
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The story of one family's adventure as they prepare to leave everything behind and move to a remote croft house by the sea in Lewis...
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