Driveway/Passo carraio

I continued taking out the loosened grass and weeds from the driveway. I must have taken six big wheelbarrow loads out. It’s rather like lifting stones out of a seedbed: they just sprout up again from the endless supply underground.

This driveway is a very modern addition to the house- maybe from the 1960s or later. Probably put in when the house further down the tack was built. Previous to that there was little or no wheeled access but a v steep oxen/donkey track. Back then a lot of stuff was moved by ox-drawn sledges. A metalled road was only put into the valley in the 1960s.

I’ve been listening to Chris Whickam’s excellent book on Medieval Europe - a really innovative comparative history that puts the various bit of Scottish and English history I’ve been reading into a much broader perspective.

I had never come across the word ‘Simony’ before - the purchase of an ecclesiastical office - against which there was a great outcry in the 11th century.