Love of the Library

As you can probably tell by the title I’m going to write yet another “I love” post. Yes, I do write a lot of those, don’t I? But it’s so much fun writing about things you love and enjoy. It’s so lovely looking at the world and bits of your life and picking out things you love especially well as your topic for a post or two. It’s like counting your blessings and then writing about them, which I love. So many times we overlook our little blessings, the little happiness’ that make life such a beautiful thing, and writing blog posts on them helps you focus in on them I think. It helps you appreciate them and realize how blessed we really are. If you’re looking around at daily happenings in your life as possible blog post topics you are suddenly aware of how much you love these things that you are writing about. I write numberless blog posts in my head. Much more than I actually sit down and write. I’ll look at something and in my head start writing the beginning of a blog post about that thing, and they are lovely posts, but you see I always forget to actually write out those blog posts so they go bouncing and spinning away from me across the horizon. I am much too distractible you know. For when I sit down at my laptop, as I am now, I forget all about those lovely already-written-in-my-head blog posts and my fingers go pattering along on some other previously unthought-of strain of thought.

Now, I will be wandering altogether too far away from the point of discussion if I continue much longer on this stain, much as I would like to. One of my “in my head blog posts” was a blog post I often think of when I’m working. I work at the library, did you know that? Well, as I go around with my cart of books, lovingly putting the dear things in their proper places on the shelves I often think of a blog post just on how much I love the library. This blog post has many beginnings, many different turns and twists as I rethink it in my different moods in the different days. Most often it begins just as I’m beginning work for the afternoon and I’m feeling quite chipper and so happy with my little duties. I love starting work in the afternoon, I love putting those books down on my cart and alphabetizing them and that warm happy feeling of perfect happiness for no real reason at all. Just being happy.

A lot of people don’t like working in the children’s room, that’s because out of all the library (of course) it gets the most disorderly and messy. All of the children coming in and pulling out picture books and shoving them back in with grubby little paws. I used to not like that room quite as well because of that, but recently I’ve been falling more and more in love with the children’s room. Maybe it’s because all of my old friends are in there. All of those books I remember pulling out and sitting on the floor browsing through. I love watching the kids come in and browse around in the books. You can always tell the ones who love the books. There are a few who irritate me, these children always go instantly to the computers, yes, these ones are the trouble makers, but the book lovers, oh I love those little dears! The go quietly through the shelves with small fingers touching each spine. They get out great stacks, books of all different sorts and shapes, picture books, fiction, nonfiction, comics, but always great stacks of them and they sit down at the tables and rifle through them. Yes, they leave rather a mess for me to tidy up but it makes me happy to put away the books that they were looking through and reading at those tables.

I love looking up from my cart of book and hearing the little girl in the corner break out into a happy giggle at some funny part in her book. I love listening to the Mother sitting on the couch reading a picture book to her little boy cuddled into her side. I love the little boy who comes and tugs on my sleeve and asks “where are the books on dragons?” I love the sisters browsing through the books, the older poking the younger and saying “get this one! This one’s good!” and I love that I get to set out my favorites on display. I get to pick out the books that I remember loving and setting them up so that they gleam alluringly from the top of the shelves, saying “read me! Read me!”

I love people who read.

Read for real, you know. Not the people who say they read, but the people who are so busy with their nose in a book to even speak up and say they love to read. I love the rustling of many pages of the books as you pass the chairs set up in comfy hidden nooks of the library. I get rather excited when I see a person with a book I love in their hand. I was to cry out “THE EMERALD CITY OF OZ! YES! YES! READ!” and start bouncing up and down as I hug that beloved book. Or say “*gentle cough* I would go to the Jane Austen section if I were you. Oh and ignore that random zombie one that’s stuffed in there. *voice drops to a whisper* that one’s a phony. Trust me. It’s not hers. You’ll see the difference.” The impulse to kneel down by the young reader in the learn to read books and say “I always loved Amelia Bedelia. She’s over here,” grows almost irresistible.

I love the quiet atmosphere of the library as I work. Now I don’t even have to think about alphabetizing the books, it just comes naturally. I can get lost in my thoughts and look down and find out that all those picture books are sorted neatly from A to Z. I also just like the feel of the books themselves, because I love books. Someone was saying the other day how they didn’t really like touching the books, but I rather like thinking of all the different hands turning the pages to those books you know. Not that because of that I don’t wash my hand regularly while handling those books, I do, but the thought of the hands holding the books rather makes me happy than disturbs me like it does some.

I think my very favorite thing to do though is pulling off the hold requests from the shelves. Especially the ones that are being sent inter-library-loan to another library somewhere. I love thinking that the book I’m holding in my hands will soon be traveling across country, on a long journey with a little yellow slip saying it’s from my library, and that pretty soon some person will be coming to take that book home with them. I love imagining what sort of person is going to be getting that book. Imagining their appearance to go along with their personality, as I get rather a glimpse of that from the books they are requesting. The sort of book a person gets says a lot about them *nods* you get just a hint of what they are like and a glimpse of their personality. Yes, I love thinking about all these things as I hold the picture book with golden leaves covering the cover. Where will that book end up before it travels back to me? I wonder.

That’s all for now. I do believe I have said “I love” rather more even than I expected to when I began this post, but it’s true. I do love all of those things, and I’m quite happy thinking about all of them now.

My Baby Sister Meets Pooh Bear

Ella meet Winnie the Pooh

Winnie the Pooh meet Ella

May your friendship be long and lovely.



On a Certain Loveable Bear

I have a confession. Not so very long ago, I was babysitting for some friends one evening. It was bedtime for the kids, and after they had fallen asleep and were dreaming sweet dreams in their beds I wandered downstairs and found myself at a loss for something to do. The house was picked up, the kitchen clean, children asleep; I was free to spend my quiet time however I chose! Lovely thought indeed! Do you know how I chose to spend it? I curled up on the couch with the fire crackling, a cup of tea at my elbow and a book in my hands. A book on a certain loveable bear. That’s right, Winnie the Pooh.

I love Winnie the Pooh. In the first he brings back such sweet memories of childhood. When I think of Winnie the Pooh, I think of the quilt set that used to cover my bed. The quilt set with the Hundred Acer Woods covering it and pictures of Christopher Robin holding a balloon by the big oak tree and Owl sitting atop Eeyore’s back. I think of the soft stuffed animals in a basket upstairs in our playroom. Stuffed animals I don’t remember getting it was so long ago. You see I don’t remember when I first began to love Pooh Bear, he was always there. As far back as I can remember he was always my favorite. I have a vague idea of a memory of sitting down on the carpeted floor watching the old Disney cartoon as a tot of three, but I can’t decide whether this is a memory that I have created from stories my Mom has told me, or if it is a real memory of my own. Memories are funny like that, sometimes you think you remember something but you are remembering a picture of that something.

The old Disney cartoon is wonderful, I love the sketchy animation, and the adorable songs and Pooh with his rumbly in his tumbly. I can still watch and enjoy that movie with all the love that I used to have for Winnie the Pooh but I think to properly enjoy it I have to be watching it with one of my younger siblings in my lap or by my side. Sadly I can’t enjoy it the way I used to if I’m watching it alone anymore. I have to have my baby sister in my lap and be watching her face as I hum all the old songs.

The book however, isn’t like that. I can still pick up that book all by myself and enjoy it even more than I used to even, because I can appreciate now A. A. Milne’s writing in a way I couldn’t as a child. It is the same old well-loved stories, but now I am listening to his amazing style as I read. The thing about these old classic “children’s books” is how incredibly they are written. A. A. Milne chose, like E. B. White, to write tales for children, but they wrote them in such a way they are every bit as artistically written as any adult classic. The words they chose were carefully and selectively chosen, they were writing stories that appealed to children yet in a way they could appeal to anyone.

When I read Winnie the Pooh now I am amazed at the hidden wit, the cleverness that went into his stories. I am suddenly laughing away at something that Rabbit has said quite unconsciously of course, but A. A. Milne was conscious of it. He had planned it out to have just that affect on his reader. He was carefully choosing each word to mean something in the long run. Creating it into so much more than “just” a child’s story. It is a story for all ages. That’s what makes him such an amazing author. He is not writing a child’s story because it is the “easy way out” (they will never know the difference will they?) his “child’s story” is every bit as complex and detailed as any learned one for an adult. It is just that he is choosing to write it about childhood and innocence and those playmates of imagination one had of old.

What is so inspiring I think is the idea that whatever you write, be it fiction, nonfiction, a child’s book or even a baby’s board book should be written with the same effort and care. Whether the story itself be simple or complex the same amount of effort and love should be placed into the writing of that story and the words chosen.

Just think of all the inspiring children’s books and their authors, it is worth contemplating. So much inspiration to be gained from something so outwardly simple.

Back to Winnie the Pooh.

Besides the childhood memories, and the lovely style of these books, who can help loving the illustrations? They. Are. Adorable. Each word deserves a period for emphases. The animation of the Disney cartoons are awfully sweet but ten time sweeter are the dear little illustrations by Ernest Sheppard. I had such fun looking up pictures to go with this post and I had an awfully hard time selecting just a couple of drawings to go along with. I love them all.

Go dig out your copy of Winnie the Pooh if you haven’t in a few years and revel in my little childhood friend, because I love him.

*says in a loving voice* Dear Silly Old Bear.

Blogging and Dear Friends

Blogs, I love them. I love how creative people get with their blogs. They are almost like scrapbooks, scrapbooks that you create online and then post your writing on, or whatever interests you. It doesn’t have to be writing, some people post their drawings or pictures if they are more inclined towards those things rather than writing. There are so many different creative and lovely blogs.

Since I’ve made my own I’ve often gone skipping around in the “blog world” and I always come back excited and wanting to try something different with my own. I really have so much fun with it. I always have about ten different ideas bouncing around in my head for new posts that I would like to write, I have at least three right now and yet I’m choosing to ramble on about blogging itself rather than settling down like a dedicated little girl and writing out one of the ones I have been planning on.

One thing that’s never changed though, since I’ve made this blog, is that first and foremost what I write is for myself. I want other people to enjoy what I write, I want it to make them smile, but I know that this will only come about if I’m pleasing myself first. If I’m writing about something that I enjoy and want to write about, and if somebody wants to read about that then I’m very happy, but it doesn’t matter if they don’t you see, because I’m enjoying it.

So first this blog is for myself, and then of course I have a few very special people in mind when I write these posts. People that I know will love it because they love me and I know that when I am writing to make myself happy I am also making them happy. My Mom first. Each post is for her. I share everything I write with her and I always have. There is something so special about this blog for me because of the way when I finish a new post I always go running with the laptop to share it with her. I can’t wait for her to discover it on her own, I have to tell her about it as soon as I have posted it! I am so thankful for my Mom and how she loves reading what I write. It was through her that I began my passion for writing, her love of words and her wish to share all the best stories with me. Little Women, Anne of Green Gable, A Little Princess, we read those stories together when I was just a little girl, and goodness, she even found me “Writer’s Block Coffee” for Christmas at a little writing shop along with a biography on E. B. White. So yes, every post that I write is for my Mom because I know she will always love them. I know, too, that she will help me out when I struggle with my editing. *laughs* I get terribly long run-on sentences you know.

Then there is my wonderful Nana. She always supports me in whatever creative form my little fingers choose to dance to. She reads my words, listens to my prattling on about words and really, when I say prattling, I mean prattling. For once you get me started I can go chattering on and on about some form of writing or something I’ve written myself. Writing period. I prattle when I start talking about writing. Yes she always listens and enjoys my prattling and gives me useful editing tips on how to better my English. She has really helped me in getting a better foundation for my English, and I am so grateful to know that if I ever need help I can go running across the property to her house with my type-written paper waving wildly in my hand. She always gives me lovely new books that help me get re-inspired always to write. Authors that always inspire me to try harder to make my writing better. It always makes me so happy when she mentions having read and enjoyed a post of mine particularly.

Then there is Ethele. A lot of what I write I write with her in mind, she’s such a dear, dear friend. I know without asking that she will love each post that I make, that doesn’t stop me from asking anyways does it? I’m so very happy right now that I’m able to share this form of writing with her, it’s so much fun to discuss posts and talk about what we are writing with each other. I’ve made her a contributor on my own blog now so that she can go through things and generally make it that much more fun to share what I'm writing with! Anything I write I love sharing with her, because she always understands, she laughs at just the spot I meant to be funny, and she is pleased with just the spot I spent the most time on. A true kindred spirit, and I’m so happy to be able to share writing with such a lovely, lovely girl as her. No matter how long we talk I am always looking forward to the next "great long chat" Kindred Spirits are like that you know.

Then there is my little circle of sweet friends who I know read this because they tell me so from time to time. I hope that it makes them happy, that it makes them smile as they read this. I hope that they know that I am thinking about them as I choose through subjects to write about because I love them. It makes me so happy knowing they are reading this because it is something I want to share- with them.

You see, when I want to share what I write this is an excellent way. Not because I am sharing it with the world (Yes, world dear you may read too if you so desire, I don’t mind) but because I am sharing it with my very best of friends. I write these posts for my enjoyment and for their enjoyment because I know that what I enjoy they will enjoy too.

And I just want to say how much I love them all. All you who I share my blog with, and who help me along in my writing. I don’t know where I should be without you and I can’t say how glad I am to know each and every one of you.

I shall now finish off before I am reduced to a complete and utter state of mush.

*hugs*

Happy Little Nothings

I’m feeling very happy right now. Happy in a contented peaceful sort of way. This does not mean that I have anything to say that will constitute a very interesting blog post, yet when I’m feeling like I do now I nearly always feel the need to write. I always feel like writing when I’m happy- but when I’m sad too, it doesn’t matter if I don’t have anything of real consequence to say to begin with- it is simply to be writing that I wish for, and when have I really been at a loss for words for very long? There is always something to be writing about even though it was only a blank page with no beginning when you started.

The difference between when I write when I am happy and when I am sad is that when I am in a mood like this, so happy and contented and peaceful, I nearly always want to share, and when I’m sad I almost never do. There are a few select people that I can share the consequences of my sadness with but not many. The thing is, I don’t want to share something I wrote when I was “in the depths of despair” (to quote Anne Shirley of course), I want to share something that will bring joy and make people smile to read. It is my hope that they will come away feeling just a little bit happier after reading something I write. That they will find joy and happiness from what I write and take a little bit of that back into their lives.

High aspirations I know, but isn’t that what we should be trying to do in our lives and also in what we write? See, that’s the beautiful thing, when we look upon life with joy and excitement we nearly always share that bubble of joy and happiness with others. You know how when there is that one happy person in the room, beaming and talking excitedly about something, you can’t help but starting to feel a little bit of their joy and excitement?

I want to be like that. I want my writing to be like that.

What I hope is that something that I write will make someone somewhere smile, and when they go back to what they were doing they feel just a bit happier for reading what I wrote.

Sometimes we should stop writing all our worries and troubles and cares. Or rather stop writing it to share, because everyone everywhere is writing those things. We should look for the joy in things and share those moments of our lives. Even when we don’t really have much to write about, except the way your baby sister looked when she gave you that adorable smile today and when you found that perfect flower blooming up out of the weeds by your window. It’s like praying; sometimes people only turn to prayer when they need something. They turn to God when they are despairing and they are begging for something. We should not pray because we are always asking, wanting something, but pray because we want to grow closer to God and because we are thankful for the many blessing He has given us. We should pray out of gratitude more, and we should write more about the simple pleasures that nobody considers of enough weight to write about.

Happy little nothings that bring a smile to your face and perhaps would bring a smile to the face of someone who reads it.

Do you know what is making me so happy tonight?

The shining strand of Christmas lights that I have hung up above my window.

That sweaty baby head that was nestled into me this evening as I rocked my baby sister to sleep.

Talking to a dear friend while I was making cookies.

Those angelic little boy faces as my twin brothers lay curled up on their pillows. Strange how angelic they look when they sleep is it not?

That it is almost Christmas, and soon we will be able to lay our little baby Jesus in his manger beneath our tree.

And these are the things that are making me happy tonight. Happy little things that make me warm and fuzzy thinking about them.

I have, I know, rambled and rattled on dreadfully in this post, that is what happens to me as the night goes on and it gets later. I start to get less and less to the point and like to go scrambling of on some sub-sub-point, till even I can’t decipher the web I have weaved! The point really was to ramble on about why I’m feeling so happy right now, but also trying to be happy like that always. To look for the joy and beauty in things, and perhaps bring that joy and beauty into some chance reader's day and leave a smile on their face.

Write to bring joy!

Jane Austen Questionnaire

Well, I am a bit delayed in posting my Jane Austen birthday posts. I was busy celebrating her birthday with friends over and watching “Emma” while we knitted away! But of course I don’t want to not write up my posts just because her birthday is now over, so I shall write up for an “extended Jane Austen’s birthday” series of posts!

1 - What was the first Jane Austen novel you ever read, and who introduced you to it?

My first Jane Austen novel was Pride and Prejudice. I believe I was thirteen at the time. My Uncle was given Pride and Prejudice as a reading assignment in the English class he was taking at the time and I, wanting to share a book with him, found out that I just had to get a hold of a copy of this fascinating book for myself. Truth be told, I was hooked, he was not. From the very first page I was in love, and my addiction quickly went from there. I soon had read every single one of Jane Austen’s novels, as well as her “history of England” and the three copies of her juvenile writing, but Pride and Prejudice was the first, and as the first it will always have a special place in my heart. I remember curling up on my bed with the thick paperback copy and reveling in each word. I hung upon each word Jane Austen gave me, each word describing Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth, Mr. Collins, Wickham, they were all real, real and alive and conversing before me as I turned the pages of my now much-loved copy.

2 - Which is your least favorite Jane Austen novel, and why? (Everybody posts about their favorites... I want to know what's at the bottom of your list!)

Well I would have to say Mansfield Park. I love it as I love all of Jane Austen’s novels, however Mansfield Park just doesn’t leave me with that happy feeling I come away with from the rest of her books. It leaves you a feeling a little more subdued than many of her others. A little more like the heroine, Fanny, quiet and contemplative over life and her novel. I’ll talk about this a little bit more in question 11.

3 - Who do you think is the funniest character Jane Austen ever created?

Henry Tilney is in my opinion the funniest character apart from being ridiculous. Most of Jane Austen’s characters that make it impossible for you not to laugh at them are funny because of their very ridiculousness, but Henry Tilney is at the same time so very witty and amusing and yet not at all ridiculous or outrageous that I would have to choose him. I could of course choose to pick on of Jane Austen’s more ridiculous funny characters, however, there are so many of those I don’t think I’d ever be able to choose!

4 - Which Jane Austen villain[ess] do you love to hate?

Oh dear. Love to hate? Does that mean we are asking who I love to abuse unrestrainedly? *giggles wickedly* Willoughby gets that award. I loathe him, yet it’s just so fun to call him names and stick your tongue out (the horror! Would I do such an unladylike thing?) at the printed page when he makes an entrance. So yes, Willoughby has my complete and utter disdain, yet I would miss him rather if he disappeared because then who would I call outrageous names? *grins*   

 
5 - What's your favorite Jane Austen quote?

*cough* “You pierce my soul. I am half in agony, half in hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own, than when you broke it eight and a half years ago. Dare not say a man forgets sooner than a woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant.”

Yes, I had to bring up “Persuasion” sooner or later. It’s my favorite. I am in love. I have now revealed my little sentimental heart and shall move on before I am rendered into a complete sentimental mess gushing about how much I love “Persuasion.”

6 - If you were to "start" someone on Jane Austen, which book would you recommend to them first and why?

I think Pride and Prejudice is definitely the best place to begin. Perhaps I am prejudiced as this is the book I began with, do you say? Perhaps. It is quite likely. I do believe though that I would recommend for any reader to begin with Pride and Prejudice. How could you help loving Pride and Prejudice? How could you help getting caught up and wanting it to last forever? It is easy to read, sparkling, witty and all together love worthy. Then of course, I should want you to read “Persuasion” as it is my favorite and I love it the very best, however I should recommend Pride and Prejudice first.

7 - What is your absolute favorite Jane Austen film adaptation and why?Oh this is a hard one! Ack…probably Sense and Sensibility with Emma Thompson. I would have to say this one because I think it satisfies me on both scores, I think it is a lovely adaption of the book, staying true to it for the most part, and I also think it is a lovely movie taken apart from the book. So much you have to sacrifice the one for the other. I think this version was a very happy medium. Of course I miss the scenes they took away for the artistic quality but in the end it makes the movie itself flow much better. Plus I love the music! but I love so many of the different film adaptations it is so hard to choose just one! I like watching both the miseries which are so lovely and true to the books but also the more movie style films which are better in quality as a move. I think I shall have to do some posts on some different film adaptations now! *prances*

8 - If you could authorize a new film adaptation of one of Jane Austen's novels, which would it be and why?

Persuasion. Without a doubt Persuasion. I must admit I have only seen one version all the way through and the other one only a little bit into it. I couldn’t stand either. I vehemently dislike both versions and this could just be that I am not going to be pleased with any rendition of my favorite book, but they can do better than that. I know they can *puppy dog eyes*

9 - Which Jane Austen character do you most identify with?

Anne Elliot the very most I think. I identify with quite a few but I’ve always like Anne Elliot the best and in the same situation I think I would have acted likewise. Only perhaps not quite so much so perhaps? I know I would have been inclined to persuasion of those who were my nearest and dearest in such a situation, I would have tried to take care of my family as she does and I would have acted similarly I think in my deportment especially in that day and age. However Anne Elliot, being a character is more so in each of these things. I wouldn’t have been quite so quiet, shy, and probably not so yielding.

10 - If you could have lunch with Jane Austen today, what question would you most like to ask her?

Oh my! I can’t even say how much I am in love with the image that presents! Sipping tea over a luncheon with Jane Austen! My oh my! Well, you see I shouldn’t want to talk very much, I should want to listen. Listen with eager ears to anything she cared to speak of. So I would want to ask a question that would get her talking. Talking, so I could prop my head up on my hands and just listen. What I would like the very best to hear about would be “the mysterious seaside romance” as I have heard it called before. I would much rather believe in the “seaside romance of 1800” rather than the Tom Lefroy theory. Well what true romantic wouldn’t? The mysterious gentleman that Cassandra would speak of as the only man Jane ever loved? And who died so tragically only a few months after they met? What romantic’s heart does not quicken at such a tale? Yes, if I could ask her unreservedly anything I would ask her if it were true.

And yes, this is all from “Presenting Miss Jane Austen” my favorite biography of Jane Austen.

11 - Is there any one thing that you think could have been improved upon in one (or all) of JA's books? What is it and why?

I always feel slightly disappointed when I come to the end of Mansfield Park. I think that’s part of the reason why I don’t love it quite as much as the others. She (Jane Austen) tells us that everything turns out just as we wished but it feels that she is simply telling us rather than letting us see it. We live and breathe the rest of the story- we see each happening and hear each conversation- and then we come to the end, and she seems to quickly tell us what happens to end it all, and I am left feeling rather disappointed. I still love it, I just wish for more. I wish for the vividly of the rest of the story, and it isn’t quite there.

12 - If you could have lunch with one of Jane Austen's characters today, who would it be and why?

Could I invite Mr. Knightly and Emma to lunch both? You can’t take one without the other! Emma would be so much fun to chatter away with and then of course Mr. Knightly would even the conversation out and add a sensible calming strain to it, yes, it is they that I would want to invite over most of all! And after lunch we should go for some meandering walk through the woods!

I found this drawing off of the internet, I believe it is of Cassandra Austen, and I liked it so I am including it because I like pictures!

 

On Jane Austen's birthday!

I do a lot of ‘blog-skipping.’ In which I skip from one blog to the next thoroughly enjoying myself and reveling in gorgeous blog backgrounds, lovely posts and other simply lovely aspects of lovely blogs (let me tell you I always come back inspired!). Well, anyways, while skipping through blogs I came across a post by Miss Dashwood of “Yet Another Period Drama Blog” in which she announces that on the 16th of this month it will be Jane Austen’s 236 birthday!

Of course being a Jane Austen addict (and most proud of it) I grew quite excited at this news and could barely contain my enthusiasms which I then proceeded to prance around the house repeating.

So in celebration of Jane Austen’s birthday Miss Dashwood is giving our a challenge (let me now do a little quoting so I’m not just repeating and probably getting it all mixed up in my repletion)

“In the JA Book Challenge, each person is challenged to do one of two things BY December 17th: either read a new JA book that you have never read before, OR reread one that you have not read in the past year. You may begin right now, and you will be encouraged to post about your experience during the Grand and Glorious Birthday Week.


The Film Challenge is similar to the Book Challenge, in that you are challenged to either watch a new JA movie that you have never seen before, OR watch an "old" JA film adaptation with someone else who has never seen it before.


In the Biographical Challenge, you are requested to either read a good thickish biography of Jane Austen's life (not fiction: something real and scholarly) or watch a documentary on her life.”

Original Post

I have decided to reread Sense and Sensibility since I believe it is the only one of her stories that I have not read within the past year and *gasp* have only reread a meager once! So Sense and Sensibility it shall be!

I am not quite sure which movie to choose…I shall decide that presently…

And I am going to reread “Presenting Miss Jane Austen” as my biography since it is my favorite and I am beginning to forget quite a lot of it since it’s been a while since I’ve read it. Presenting Miss Jane Austen
I grew so excited about all of this that I drew a picture in Jane Austen’s honor! It started out as a simple silhouette, as that style drawing was very popular during her time. I then used the computer to darken my pencil shadings so it would look completely black and shaded in rather than sketchily shaded with my pencil and I added Jane Austen quotes behind the drawing. Lastly I added a picture of her signature at the bottom right hand corner, doesn’t she have just the loveliest signature ever? Yes, perhaps I was a bit carried away but I must say I rather pleased with the result!

I shall continue on this strain quite soon but for the present I must sign off!

A Drawing

A drawing that I just finished that I'm rather happy with. My Mom thinks I should add a bit of glitter to the headband, thoughts?

 

I wish the camera captured the detail a little better, it's still not as high of quality as I should like. A scanner works better but I am reduced to such measures that I must use a common camera! *throws a hand dramatically to forehead* what is this world coming to? I believe if you click on the pictures you will get a better view of the drawings. *nods*

Shall We Dance?

Shall we dance? One...two...three...one...two...three

(Picture from children's book by Libba Moore Gray)

"With a grin and a giggle, a hug and a whistle, we'd slap our knees and Mama would say: 'Bless the world it feels like a tip-tapping song-singing finger-snapping kind of day. Let's celebrate!"

I've always loved drawing people dancing. The gentleman bowing, the lady curtsying. Of course they were dressed in the proper attire, he with his cravat tied just so, and she with her elegant ballgown twirling around her.

(I remember being so proud of this drawing when I first drew it as a little girl!)

Then they would dance away.

Twirling around the dance floor, around and around.

Perhaps I've always loved this since I've always loved to twirl. I have always loved those very full skirts that flare out as you spin around in them. I've always loved that exhilerating dizzy feeling as the room spins around you.

I've always loved to twirl.

I had to post this video! I am in love. I don't think I can watch this too many times!

Shall we dance? One...two...three...one...two...three

NaNoWriMo ends; December begins

November has been here and gone (can you believe it?) and the last day of Nanowrimo has passed away! I finished off at 25,085 words. So I made it to the half way mark which was my goal! I’m really so bouncy and excited about it! Now, I know that my little half way mark is very little compared to what some wrote over the month of November, but I couldn’t be happier with my little 25,085 words. Really, I am quite proud of myself *pats self on the shoulder* this is the most I have ever written on one story, if you can believe it! Out of all of the hundreds of saved word documents in all the years that I have been writing busily away, I don’t think I have ever written that much on one thing, and much of it I wrote by hand.

I couldn’t be happier about reaching my goal for this story, for I really did have to work very hard to get there! What I would really like to do now, is to be able to print it out and see it all typed up! I still have a few ideas on where I would like to take this story, I didn’t finish it off just because I met my goal, I wanted to keep working on it. Though maybe not quite so quickly! And then I have to go back and edit it, my heart quails at the idea *mock horrified look* Actually, I will enjoy editing it quite a bit. I enjoy going back and messing with commas and semicolons, but sometimes I get so caught up in that, I am afraid I mess with the story. So I shall try to restrain myself.

The other thing is, now that Nanowrimo is over and November too (the two shall be forever fixed together in this post) it is now December! December is here, and you know what that means! Advent began last Sunday! Oh I love Advent! I love preparing for the birth of the Christ Child! Saying our Christmas novena each night as we gather around the Advent wreath and then singing ‘Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel.’ Well, we sing the first two stanzas; I don’t think we know the rest by memory! I love listening to Christmas music, and decorating our home. I love the nights with cold air coming in through my open window and looking out in the morning to see the pond just covered with a thin layer of ice! I do hope we will have snow soon!

And last of all, I do believe I shall share a song by Michael Buble that my Mom and I have both been enjoying. Now, of course, when I listen to it, I will always think of taking a drive somewhere with her, sipping coffee in the passenger side, and reading my book. Such lovely thoughts indeed!

Journaling Page

My Monday journaling page which I haven't posted until now!

Monday, November 28, 2011

Outside my window…It’s almost December already, just two more days, and it is surprising to look out my window and realize that it isn’t raining. The sky looks calm, with its unmoving clouds of light grey. Like someone who has cried all their tears and is now still and calm, listening to their own breathing, in and out, as they find they can cry no more. Why is it that rain and tears will always be compared as one? There are times when they seem very alike, when it feels like the clouds are crying down all their sorrows, but rain isn’t always like tears. I love rain, there is something so very beautiful about it, as if it were washing away all the dirt and grime and leaving the world clean and new once more. My very favorite short story by G.K. Chesterton is about looking at rain in that way; as a cleansing shower. There is something so very peaceful about listening to rain falling outside your window, listening to it falling on the rooftop and on the pond outside. There is nothing better than a hard rain shower, except we are always trying to avoid it. We ruin it by tucking ourselves under umbrellas and throwing coats over our heads so we are quite miserable if we get wet for all of our attempts otherwise. Next time it rains I think we should all walk out our door, throw up our heads and let the rain just fall down on us. Revel in the rain itself, go “singing in the rain”. Except it wouldn’t be that we were in love so we didn’t care how wet we became, it would be because we were in love with the rain itself, but enough about rain. It’s December, it’s not rain we’re peering out our windows hoping to see that’s snow. Snowflakes all white and sparkling and beautiful coming down, I wonder if we’ll see any soon?

I’m reading…a book by Georgette Heyer, which by the way I would really love to go read right now. I am beginning to want to start reading more Agatha Christie’s. I challenged myself, you know, to read all eighty-seven of her books. Just the fact that she had written eighty-seven books simply called to me, the fact that there were so many books by this author that I hadn’t read was like a challenging flag calling me to battle. I suddenly longed to be able to say, quite carelessly, “oh yes? Agatha Christie? I’ve read a few of her books…all of them I believe.” I printed out a list of titles and have been working my way through them, highlighting as I go. I think my currant count was thirty-four but I shall have to go back and count again, it’s been a while. My favorite is still “The Secret Adversary” mostly because of the main characters, Tommy and Tuppence. For me to love a book I must love the characters, I think that’s why my stories are always very character driven. Little to no plot (plot has always been a struggle for me) but my characters! They have my love, I love focusing on their personalities, their likes, their dislikes, little odd things that make them truly themselves. It’s interesting thinking about different people and what makes them unique and their own beautiful soul, and it’s because I love writing on that strain, my stories have always been very focused on the characters rather than on anything else.

I’m thinking…prepare yourself now, for this is the time where I am going to go off on a ranting monologue on NaNoWriMo. Once started I may never stop. You have been warned! First of all NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Best start at the very beginning you know. 50,000 words in a month, now that is a very large goal. For myself I set a smaller goal, half of the 50,000. I wanted to get to 25,000 words by the end of November. I have really never written that much on one story, and I’m almost there! Yes, dears, I know only two more days till December, as I have already stated above, but I only have 3,000 more words. Quite easy, really. Oh my! And I think this is the most I have handwritten on one thing before! I have been handwriting a lot on it, because we are on the road so much these days I have taken advantage of that and whenever we got in the car to go somewhere I would bring along paper and a pen and write and write. I really think this has been very good for my writing. The point of NaNoWriMo is that you write your first draft of a novel in a month without editing. To simply get yourself writing in large amounts and do your fanatic editing afterwards when you had actually gotten beyond that first paragraph. Which may not sound hard, but it is very. There were so many times I wanted to go back and use the backspace key unreservedly, and I must admit, there were a few times I did. I couldn’t help myself. Some of it was just too much for me, I had to change and erase. The inner editor forced me to do it! That nagging little editor just wouldn’t let me get past that paragraph back there, where I completely messed it up and so *hangs head ashamedly* I went back, and I changed it. I am a bad girl, I know, which is why the goal I set for myself was 25,000 rather than 50,000. Perhaps, who knows, next year I might make it to the full 50,000! 

Stylish Blogger Award

Oh my! It’s been a long time since I have posted anything! This is something I must fix, and quickly. Prepare yourself for a storm of posts with topics on everything and anything!

First of all, I just have to make reference to Victoria’s post where she was so very sweet as to “award” me with the “stylish blogger award” *warm fuzzies* http://raindropsandmoonlight.blogspot.com/2011/10/stylish-blogger.html

I think this is such a sweet idea; it’s basically way of telling people how much you enjoy reading their blogs and how you look forward to their posts. (Which you aren't able to do very often. For the most part you can’t just hop from blog to blog, commenting on posts by going completely off topic and gushing about how much you love that person’s blog. You want to stay on topic and comment on the content of the post, because otherwise you would be spamming. )

This is why this made me so warm and fuzzy and happy. It’s such a delightful feeling to know someone is reading your posts and enjoying them. When I saw her post I went running about the house with the laptop clutched in my hands “Do you see? Do you see?” yes, I was rather proud and quite bouncy and excited!

Now, the rule is I must now tell you seven things about myself, so *prances*

1.   I play both the piano and the violin. I have played the violin much longer, though at the present I am rather rusty on both due to *lowers voice* alackofpracticing. My favorite sheet music to play from is the ‘Phantom of the Opera’ for the violin. Really, the music for the ‘Phantom of the Opera’ just gives me little thrills.

2.   I am very bad at managing time. This is something I need to work on. I am little miss la de da and I’m always so busy thinking up stories, blog posts, or poetry I often forget there is such a thing as time at all…which can be bad…because you end up late for things.

3.   I love pretty scarves. Whether they are warm and knit or cool and flouting. They make me happy.

4.   Sharp pencils! I love sharp pencils! There is nothing better than a really sharp pencil writing those first words on a page.

5.   I have always loved bunnies. I have numerous little stuffed animal bunnies around but the one I love very best would be the one that stays forever in my room, she is up there right now, sitting floppily on my bookshelf. I named her Dr. Emma Rose Cottontail and I still love her, though the velvet on her nose is now rough, and her soft fur is now worn from limitless cuddling.

6.   My favorite book is Persuasion by Jane Austen. You just knew Jane Austen would make her way into this post somehow, didn’t you? Yes, I am obsessed.

7.   I love tea parties. For my birthday almost every year growing up we had a tea party, where we all dressed up in pretty dresses and sipped tea from lovely teacups.

Now the next thing you are supposed to do is to pass on this award to five other bloggers. I think you are supposed to choose people who have not been given this award already, but don't think I know enough blogs to pick and choose. So I'm not going to worry about whether or not they have already been given it, but use it as a way to tell them how much I like their blogs. I shall choose my very favorite blogs, the ones I love, whether they have been given this award or not, just to say how much I really do love reading what they write!

 Adela’s blog was the first blog I ever really fell in love with. One of the first reasons I started one of my own. I’ve always loved hers. The Artist's Desk

Victoria’s is definitely the one I haunt the most. The one I am constantly checking to see if she has posted something new recently. I love every one of her posts. Raindrops and Moonlight 

Madeline’s posts always inspire me to do some deep thinking, some real contemplating, and she always makes me laugh! Invisible Insanity

Imogen’s blog, which I have just started reading *prances* I love finding new blogs! Especially such lovely ones Dancing with Dragonflies

And though I know Jocy will never read this, I have to add her blog since I don’t think my list would be complete without hers. Seeking a Vocation

Fall Rambles

I’m thinking…this morning I feel in a very rambling mixed up mood; one of those moods where I go rambling from one topic to the next with very little warning. Who knows what sparks such a mood, it’s such a pleasant mood where I feel I could write and write about this that and everything. Write about simple nothings, let my pen dwell on silly little things and find things to ramble on about on them. It’s one of those days. I lean back in my chair, my fingers hovering over the keyboard and I wriggle expectantly thinking about all the things I could write upon. Oh I do think today I shall skip from subject to subject and not try to hinder myself, be warned!

I’m listening to...the Regina Spektor radio on Pandora, at the moment ‘Mr. Blue’ is playing, somehow this type of music is fitting with my mood right now. It matches with my mood; it’s peaceful, rather quirky and just a bit rambling. It’s very good writing music, most music is hard to write to, it’s distracting- you tend to go to thinking about the song playing and stop thinking about what you are writing- but this music plays in the background as you write away. Your thoughts flitter from this to that, and when you come to a pause, one of those moments where you sit back searching for a word or a sentence that will express what you wish it to, you can wander into listening to the song playing and wander back into your thoughts while listening. Sometimes Regina Spektor’s songs seem to flout of into nonsense that doesn’t seem to make any sense, and I’m not sure why but I like that. It seems rather strange that I like that, because for the most part I don’t like nonsense, Alice in Wonderland sort of nonsense. I’ve never liked that sort of thing- Alice in Wonderland has always just seemed so odd to me, so weird and strange. I like fairytales and fantasy, both of which can be filled with nonsense and I enjoy it, but I don’t like odd. I think it’s that I like pretty nonsense. I like nonsensical images that play with one’s imagination, but I don’t like strange or weird images, and I think why I like Regina Spektor’s type of nonsense is because even when it steps into nonsense it just flows. Her lyrics flow away into un-understandable poetry where the syllables are even and it has just the right amount of rhyming. So even when it doesn’t make sense it flows- it sounds beautiful to the ear- and I love the background music that flouts along and is relaxing and at the same time thought inspiring. Beautiful nonsense, it’s like those times when you feel like writing about the flower on the hilltop with butterflies and bees and suddenly snowflakes flutter around the flower; winter mixing with spring. Nonsense- but nonsense that leaves you with a beautiful image in your head. Yes, it is very good writing music.

Outside my window…Even as I write more and more morning sunshine is peeking through the clouds. When I first began the sky was a dark gloomy grey but the clouds are breaking and showing a white side to themselves. They break and they show glimpses of blue sky and sunshine. Not a warm sunshine, the sunshine of spring or summer, but a chill brisk sunshine that comes with fall. Oh! As I look out my window a little golden brown leaf fluttered down and landed there on the grass! Oh I do love fall! I love windy cool days, yes, I love the wind! I think I’ve said this before, and maybe I’m simply repeating myself- sometimes I find myself doing that…I wonder if this was something I’ve actually written or said before, if it was something I had put into words, or simply a thought that had gone swirling through my head one day. Thoughts tend to come to me like that, and I will play with them and let them simmer and swirl as I do other things, and then I will be writing or talking to someone and the thought will come back and I will wonder if I’ve put this thought into words- but today I don’t mind repeating myself. It doesn’t really matter if this is a thought I’ve had while shelving books at the library, or if this is a sentence I’ve put into voice in one of these journaling pages before. I don’t think I could ever grow tired of writing about fall and the little golden leaf fluttering to the ground, or the little bird landing on the branch above the pond and setting it bouncing up and down. I am sometimes hesitant of writing all these thoughts because of a fear of growing monotonous and repetitive, if one doesn’t have anything new to say one shouldn’t say anything at all, right? But sometimes talking about all those old thoughts, they grow into something new, they grow fuller and better thought out, and so if I wish to dwell on an old thought and write about it I think I will let myself unrepentantly! Here I come back to my original thought of how much I love watching the wind, and just fall! I love watching the trees sway to that fall wind and gently letting loose of their tight hold to their golden foliage! Oh that’s a word that I just love the sound of foliage! It just quivers and vibrates of poetry and beautiful words grouped together like beads slipped together on a string, with ‘foliage’ being that lovely beautiful bead that somehow stands out among all of those other lovely words. Somehow that words gives you in an instant a lovely image in your mind’s eye of a stretch of trees- a large grouping of them- all with golden orange and red leaves rustling together and coming off in large swirls that blow around and around that grouping of trees in the empty hillside and coming to rest on the grass. Oh dear, I think I’ve really rambled on a bit much here and should perhaps move on to the next prompt and try to be a bit more to the point and direct, but it’s just so much fun to ramble on, isn’t it? Where is the fun in an ugly outline numbered neatly from one to three? There isn’t- for the author at least!

From the kitchen…I have just gone and refilled my cup with coffee, more for the feel of the warm cup in my hands as I contemplate my thoughts and for the delicious smell of coffee flouting around the room as I put those thoughts into words, for the general ambiance of the coffee, rather than the coffee itself. There was something about the atmosphere in the air of this fall day as I ramble away writing on my journaling page that called for a steaming cup of coffee beside me as I mutter away. Oh it’s simply a lovely day all around!

I’m wearing…There isn’t much I can ramble on about in describing what I’m wearing, is there? Wrong! You belittle my powers of talking about nothing! I could say flatly I’m wearing a long sleeved-hooded shirt, jeans and a pair of slippers, but I can add that my jeans have a stain of flour that I rub from making pizza yesterday, that I rub off after spotting it just now. That my shirt is warm and cozy and navy blue in color, it feels like it could be a sweater it’s so warm and cozy yet it isn’t, and my slippers? What can I possibly say about slippers that could stretch a description of them more than stating they are indeed slippers? Oh the best for last, dear reader, the best for last! *takes a sip of coffee to prepare self for the ensuing burst of words* these slippers are slippers from a few Christmases past, because they are Christmas slippers they are quite obviously colors that speak of Christmas: red and white. The main body of the slippers is red and of a knit fashion, as if someone decided to turn their knit sweater into slippers and the white belongs to a fuzzy material that pokes around the edges and warms my feet. This fuzz has a queer way of deciding to leave my slippers and flout around me when it chooses to escape. It is fuzz that is quite interesting to watch as it drifts here and there, never quite setting. Now it sounds like I am shedding hair like some little doggy wandering around, but that is not so, you see it is just a very little bit of fuzz, but fuzz is worth describing in my opinion, even just the little bit that comes of my slippers, so I did so.

I’m reading…at the moment I’m still reading Jane Eyre, Oh for the days when I read Pride and Prejudice in a day, because I was able to spend all of time reading! Oh to be able to do that today! But no, this is a busy little life and I’m a busy little girl, with things to do and places to run off to and only a little bit of my free time to dispose to reading. Why I must even think and choose what I want to do most with my free time! I have to solemnly weigh the pleasures of cuddling up with a book, a ball of yarn and knitting, a sketch to work on, or piece of paper and a pencil and words to put into sentences, oh writing! One thing I have noticed that has come as a consequence of reading Jane Eyre, is the habit of addressing you, dear reader, as just that “dear reader” it is quite pleasure-full I must admit. It gives you the feeling that you are addressing a large group of people all interested in what you are saying, oh dear it is a bad habit inspired to give pleasure to one’s vanity! Bad habit, indeed! Dear reader, who readeth this (you see how it is a bad habit? It inspires me to add “eths” and “iths” to words that do not call for it, as if I were aspiring to mimic Shakespeare in his speech!) you must forgive me for “selfishness must always be forgiven, you know, for there is no hope of a cure” Oh dear did I just quote that insufferable creature ‘Mary Crawford’? Oh my! I really must stop this addiction to ‘Jane Austen’ before it gets out of hand (I think it already is, dear reader) because I can quote- not only quotes that I love from characters I like, but I can quote  bad and quite stupid sentences by character nobody is meant to like or respect at all! Moving on now…

One of my favorite things…I sit contemplating this thought, one of my favorite things, my eyes glance up to the wall where I have hung the fan I bought in Spain, it is red with flowers painted all across it- one of my favorite things…oh the color red! It is so bright, bold and cheerful! It makes a statement, bold and shocking! For the most part I like colors more laid back, gentle and sweet colors that are soothing and calming, but there is something about the color red as it stands out on my wall, and I have to say it’s one of my favorite things! Well, perhaps I should just say one of my favorite things is all colors, colors are so beautiful and I don’t know how you couldn’t! Perhaps not a very original statement, but just think how horrible it would be to be color blind! You wouldn’t see the beautiful colors that shine out there on this beautiful fall day! Not to see that golden orange color of the trees as the sun hits it! Oh if we could only always appreciate fully these little gifts that God has given us that we take so much for granted! “One of my favorite things” isn’t it sad that we really have to think about this question? Trying to come up with an interesting original answer- how about a very obvious one- like: being able to walk? Does anyone really say that? One of my favorite things is being able to walk? Unless you are in a wheelchair and you can’t do it anymore you take for granted walking like it was just something so every day and ordinary- which it is, and that’s the beauty of it! Have you ever stretched and paused for a moment “oh! Isn’t just amazing to be able to stretch out my arms like that?” I think we all need to spend a few moments in our days just thinking about things like that, feeling grateful for such amazing incredible things like life itself, walking, and stretching! We would all be so much happier in life if we would stop more and think about our little blessings that we take for granted. Stretch out your arms and wiggle your toes and think “Oh it really is a beautiful thing to be alive!”

I’m creating…up in my bedroom, under my bed a stack of paper lies. I have begun a sketch that may turn into something- but it may not- I never quite know. All I know is that the image for the sketch was just beautiful in my head and I won’t ever be able to capture the sparkling image that had come to me! I will try though, the idea of it is to have a staircase that starts out as a marble looking flight of stairs with a cream railing and rounded steps and it slowly fades into a concrete ugly looking set of steps like one sees everywhere, the type leading up to a grocery store. On the top of the stairs a girl is going to be standing, dressed in a trailing regency gown and a hand on the banister, and at the bottom a few “modern” young people will be standing around looking bored in skin tight skinny jeans and short-shorts, and I’m going to write at the bottom something like “Did you ever feel you were born in the wrong time period?” in a sort of script-y print, it was just a pretty image in my head the way it fades from the marble banister at the top of the staircase to the hard metal at the bottom.

A few plans for the rest of the week…why is it that in this moment I don’t want to think of any plans? Normally I love thinking up plans of what I am going to do with the rest of my week, but right now I don’t want to think of any. I am nearing the very end of all prompts I have for this journaling page, but I want to stretch it out as long as I can. I want to keep sitting here, conscience free, writing out all my thoughts and ideas in this moment- not thinking of what I shall do in tomorrow or the next day! I’ve had such a pleasant time of it this morning writing on, sipping my coffee and listening to soft music in the background! What a beautiful morning it’s been!

Around the house…oh around the house so many things I would like to do! How can I narrow it down to just one? I think I want most of all to curl up in that nice comfortable chair in my room and work out the plotline a little more in a story that is flitting around in the recesses of my mind. Yes, I’m still in my rambling mood, my mood for writing and I think that’s how I will be all day long! Ah well! I shall simply wait for evening to come, after all the business of the day and then I shall curl up in the darkening light and write then. For now around the house I will finish this journaling page and then I will go over to the table and work on Math with Eli. Put on my little granny glasses grab some knitting and sit in the corner of a little chair tutoring my little brother in a math lesson. The little granny math tutor I shall become! Why does that image suddenly appeal to me? I think I would quite like being a little granny in a rocking chair with some knitting and snow white hair…oh dear-y-o! *contemplates* I do believe I like the image but I shouldn’t like the actuality…well I would…but you see, I should like pretending to be a little old granny but not really one…

A Picture thought I’m sharing…Here I go scuffling outside, getting my little cloth slippers all sopping wet with dew so that I can get some pictures of the view outside my window, those pictures seem to be the best way to close up this journaling page. Pictures of a gentle fall day outside, to close up my rambling, wandering contemplations of my morning, my rambling, wandering lengthy contemplations! Pictures of the subtle indications of fall! Oh my! In uploading the pictures from the camera I found a picture Mom had taken of our fall table setting, I do believe I shall add that as well, it just goes so perfect! Notice the battered copy of Jane Eyre in the background? So picture credit goes to my creative Mama with that one :p That sums up my entire journaling page in one simple picture. Remember the saying “A picture says a thousand words” (I may have the wording off just a bit but close enough) that single picture sums up this entire long journaling page of words…which is now…3,008…my! I need to stop writing now!