Lost In Translation

I didn't expect my lost in translation post to turn into a lesson in Sheep Husbandry. Interesting though!

yes Cherry tree I DID think she meant spinnning wool, and it is something I have fancied having a go at. I don't know why, but ever sice I was a kid I visualise old Welsh Ladies in big skirts and pointed hats sitting at the spinning wheel.

Don't mind me. I am waffling

This thread has meandered from the OP which was about spinning on a bicycle
That would be OK if you are good at multi-tasking

This thread has meandered from the OP which was about spinning on a bicycle
That would be OK if you are good at multi-tasking

what happened there?!

Our demonstration was by a middle-aged English woman wearing a rather nice, unusual sweater which she had spun, dyed and knitted herself !

Somewhere I have a wonderful picture of multitasking but I can't find it. It is a medieval woodcut of a woman on a donkey. Tied on behind her she has pots and pans and bundles and a birdcage. Tethered behind are a couple of domestic animals, a baby is at her breast, and she is spinning with a hand spindle.

Ah! The good old days.

I have heard of spinning (excercise) but hadn't the foggiest as to what it actually was.

Found it! It is of jugglers on the road, from a broadside ballad c. 1450

Note husband - he is fully occupied leading the donkey, can't also carry anything.

Sheep on a bicycle:

Elegran

He probably told her he would take the difficult task of controlling the donkey!

Another woodcut, which could illustrate John Ball's open-air sermon on 7 June 1381 at Blackheath asking ‘When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?’ and stirring up the peasant class in the Peasants' revolt against their feudal landowners.

Maybe it should it be a link on one of the political threads as a campaigning poster for this June?

So much cleverer than much of today's rhetoric

Jalima He can't drive the car donkey, AND navigate AND entertain the children AND look out for a good place to stop for lunch AND clean up after the car donkey-sick dog!

but he can manage to shout at the navigator!!

A million years ago I made a complaint to one of the big sweet/chocolate manufacturers about a product, I think it was a "Topic" bar and got a nice reply and TWO bars as a replacement. I was telling my friend about this as we waited for the school bus and I swear the old biddy waiting with us moved several steps away when she heard me start to say
"I had a reply from Mars this morning......."

The mediaeval woman was probably bawled at for telling him the wrong turn-off for the castle and not warning him of a speed trap on the lane behind the smithy!

Maw

Instead of just pedalling away for the sake of it, spinning cycles in gyms could be attached to some form of useful machine - such as a spinning wheel, or turbine. They could power the lighting or heat the water for the showers, at least.

If the power produced by all the cycles in all the gyms could be fed into the National Grid, we wouldn't need any power stations.

Great idea!!

All that wasted energy

Yes years ago when my DD was early twenties she was in the bath on the phone to her friend with the door open I was in my bedroom next door to bathroom, I thought she was chatting to me so I was replying and that went on for about 3 or 4 minutes when I heard her say hold on a minute Sarah I need to speak to my mum and tell her I'm not speaking to her.