Rogations

It has been raining like fury all summer. If it doesn't stop soon, the crops will be ruined. We just cannot go on like this. We are going to the church for Rogations, to pray to the good God that he will have mercy on us and let the rain stop. How many prayers it will take, I don't know and I don't care--hundreds maybe. But surely He will take pity on us. If the rain lets up now, we still have a good chance of a grand harvest. It's not just us tenants that will be praying, but the lord as well, and the abbot and all the clerics in all the villages round about. The weather affects us all.

Later, we will all follow Sir Thomas, our priest, and the clerics in a procession around the churchyard, praying and singing. Then the men and boys will go all around the fields marking them out. They won't just be praying for good crops, you can be sure. When the men get together like that it comes down to more marking their land off. There's many a lad ends up being dumped in the river or puddles along the way as well.

I make sure that our little home is not left out, and our family will go around our yard and the house too, to ask the Lord's blessing.

Shearing

Like may other peasant women, Alice gained income from spinning and weaving. Our picture of her shows her using the distaff and spindle method of spinning. Matilda would learn the crafts early, beginning with picking out twigs and debris from the wool and later learning to card the wool that her mother would spin.