Excerpt from the Greenwood Abbey's records 4E 204.
Fredas, 13th of Midyear
It's almost two weeks into the season and we haven't had a drop of rain since the end of Second Seed. The poor crops would have withered away to nothing already if it wasn't for the Abbey pond, which has shrunk considerably in this drought. It hasn't helped that we've had to haul buckets upon buckets out to the fields and orchard to quench our parched plants. Thank the divines that there is no shortage of abled bodies around to help, although no matter how abled a body is that trek back and forth gets tiring very quickly.
Mother Abbess assures us that even if we were to have no harvest at all, the larders are sufficiently stocked to cope with two or three years of droughts. I think our dear Abbess wishes to alleviate all fears concerning the larder by insisting that the Mid year festival is held regardless of our trepidations on the state of our stock. Most of the elders still find the lack of a single harvest to be unsettling, myself included. They feel that with the addition of all the refugees and orphans; who've fled their homes and farms, our tunic belts are strained to point of bursting. Indeed since the death of General Tullius and Jarl Ulfric a few short months later, this conflict seems to have grown far more volatile.
Including Palin who arrived at our main gate 3 days ago, we now are in care of 15 orphans. Two of which are older than 10 the other 12 range from 3-7. Taking their food requirements into account is bad enough but tack on the Chirllow family, the Mistbrooks and the Stormrages totalling 16 people, and the 27 of us brothers and sister we have a veritable city here. Our poor Abbess has had a lot of work on her hands trying to get everyone comfortable. Thankfully the three families have helped Brother Olokun out keeping the orphans out of trouble and happy. They balked upon first meeting the "dibbun wrangler" but he was quite used to it by now. An orsimer nanny isn't something you see everyday. Many of us were opposed to the idea in the beginning, as I recall he didn't seem too keen on it either standing their like a snake among stoats. But caring for children seemed to be the reason why the blessed divines placed him here, he took to it like moth to flame.
I hope you'll excuse me but I must put aside my elderly ramblings. Lunch is on it's way, I can see Cherish through the window, oh bless her. What a kind young lady to help help such a rickety old man as me.
Brother Sinistra
Greenwood Abbey Recorder