Ah, the sounds of morning …
Birds singing,
Photo by Brian Robert Marshall via Wikimedia Commons
tea kettle pouring,
Photo by Patrick George via Wikimedia Commons
and the pelting of peas upon windowpanes.
Photo by Parvathisri via Wikimedia Commons
Curious?
I thought you might be.
Pea pelting was the work of “knocker ups” in England and Ireland before alarm clocks put an end to the profession.
Note, gentle reader, that “knocking up” bore no resemblance to our modern slang terminology (ahem).
In fact, it was a valued service generally provided by elderly women and men, and occasionally undertaken by police constables looking to pad their paychecks during early-morning patrols.
Each morning, the knocker up was charged with rousing sleeping people so they could get to work on time. She would use a heavy stick called a truncheon to knock on clients’ first-floor doors. For residents above arm’s reach, the knocker up would wield a long stick, often made of bamboo, to tap upper-story windows.
Image courtesy of Au Bout de la Route blog
Some of the more adventurous knocker ups, like Mary Smith of London’s Brenton Street (shown below), employed pea shooters to hurl dried peas at windows until the sleeper within woke up.
Image courtesy of Basilica Fields blog
In return for their services, knocker-ups were paid a few pence a week.
Now you know!
Today is your debut. Welcome to planet earth!
My milk cow Maizy was due Feb. 26, so starting a week ago, I began checking in on her night and day every 3-4 hours. Rose Etta weighed in at 56 pounds and there were no complications during delivery—always a relief. Every thing about her is udderly perfect and momma Maizy always does such a good job delivering her babies. I was sooooo hoping for a girl!
I spent the morning with both of them, cleaning and washing up after the birth and getting Maizy milked for the first time in a couple of months. Once all my dairy chores were done, I headed to our design studio to finalize my next fabric collection, work on our MaryJanesFarm Sister Issue, finalize the front cover of our next magazine, work with Gabe on our new 
Oh, and also work with Brian on a new mud room we’re finishing. The idea with our mud room is to convert our farm facility into a boot-free zone. And because we all have such awesome footwear, it seemed only fitting that our daily line-up of boots show up in a properly decked out zone. Our two bootjacks are gonna get a workout. I know I’ll be taking my boots on and off several times a day but you know what? Mopping up all the manure we track across our floors is far more work.
