The thistle is the national flower of Scotland. I love the legend of how that happened. It seems that the Norse were invading Scotland and attempted to sneak up on an encampment of Scotsmen. One of the Norsemen stepped on a thistle and cried out in pain. His yelp alerted the Scots to the invaders and they won the day. This was supposedly in the late 1200s.
One has to ask, though, was the dude barefoot? I mean, really, how could he feel a thistle? I’ve been in patches of briars and burrs and they don’t hurt through your shoes. Even the leather shoes they wore back then should’ve given some protection, right? Anyone have any ideas?
Maybe it whacked him in the shin?
Jillian Chantal 
Here we call them weeds. You do have a point on the footwear. I googled “1200 Scottish Footwear” and it seems they did wear sandals. And, they were pretty open.
By: Lavada Dee on October 19, 2012
at 10:57 am
Love it. I’m glad I inspired you to google it, Lavada.
By: Jillian Chantal on October 19, 2012
at 2:36 pm
There’s a story in there somewhere. It would have been a great writing prompt on FF1H. 🙂 Good for Lavada, solving the mystery. lol
By: Laurie Ryan on October 19, 2012
at 7:59 pm
Lol re: writing prompts. I hate those weeks. I’m not any good at them – unless it’s an accident like this. Lol. Yeah, Lavada is a sleuth!
By: Jillian Chantal on October 20, 2012
at 8:29 am
Since it wasn’t seen, he might not have stepped on it; it could have hit him anywhere.Those things grow tall and I doubt that anyone had been mowing.
By: tonettejoyce on October 21, 2012
at 10:03 am
Yep- you’re probably right, no mowing, LOL!
By: Jillian Chantal on October 21, 2012
at 10:10 am