Riding as a passenger in the backseat gives one the opportunity to see things that the driver wouldn't even think about seeing! "Stop! Stop! Turn around! Back in the ditch are some interesting plants--teasels!" Yes, it's time to turn around to take a photo and pick some of these wild weeds as souvenirs and maybe make a fuller's brush remembrance of earlier times.
Photos of earlier teasel brush.
During historic times, in the cloth dresser’s workshop, a piece of cloth was hung over a perch (bar). The surface of the cloth was brushed using handles of teasels thus raising the nap of the cloth. A handle was a wooden, cross shaped hand tool which held several fullers’ teasels (Dipsacus fullonum). Cleaning and repairing the handles was done by the preemer, usually a boy. One cloth would be raised and brushed several times. 
A mechanised teasel gig was developed and introduced by 1770. There is a splendid model of a teasel gig designed by Hadens, on display in Trowbridge Museum (England) alongside a genuine machine.
Lovely, sticky things they are and when laid out on the cloth, a million little seeds fell out!
Ahhh! So THAT'S why we had to stop so you could take a picture. I never knew why they were so important.
ReplyDeleteThat is so very interesting. Thanks for sharing that information.
ReplyDeleteAnd aren't your neighbors going to love you when some of those tiny little seeds take root in their manicured yards? :)
ReplyDeleteYou'll just have to teach the neighbors to spin.