Thursday, November 25, 2010

Leaves Falling

Leaves are falling
like huge colored snowflakes,
silent, steady.

Falling in sheets
looking oddly stunning
with their colors.

Adding to the carpet
thick on the ground like
homemade quilts

A patchwork in design
scraps stitched together
in unison.

Keeping the earth warm
until scooped up for bonfires
of memories.

Undressing the trees
leaving dark, bare branches
lifting upward.

Monday, November 22, 2010

It has been noted several times that Jane Austen poked fun at clergymen in her novels. Yet her father was a clergyman and her favorite brother became a clergyman after his bank in London failed. Jane adored both men.

In England, clergymen of the day (late 1700s and early1800s) in small local parishes, were rather casual. They didn’t have the responsibilities of today’s churchmen. There was no counseling of parishioners, devoutly religious sermons personally written or strictness of church guidelines. Their income did not necessarily come from the collection plate but from the surrounding farmers who paid in cash rather than produce.

Positions as parish clergymen were often bought from the wealthy landowner on whose land the parish church stood. He was the man living in the usually huge ‘country manor’ or in a castle. He would have owned the nearby town where the shopkeepers would pay him rent. He also collected rent from local farmers, from land he owned in Wales or Ireland and from land owned in the American colonies until the Revolutionary War ended that hold. Often he would be in parliament.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Jane Austen's Financial Position

Friend Rebecca sent a reference to me from the book At Home about Jane Austen’s family, quoting “that she grew up in what she considered to be an embarrassingly deficient rectory at Steventon in Hampshire, but it had a drawing room, a kitchen, a parlor, a study, library, and seven bedrooms—hardly a hardship posting.”

What Bill Bryson did not note was that the Austens were landed gentry without a large income. It must be noted that she had seven brothers and one sister. After feeding and clothing all of them, the boys needed extended educations, brother George was mentally deficient and was sent to another family nearby to be raised, and two of the boys went into the navy. All these positions had to be paid for.

At one time, Jane and her sister Cassandra were sent away to school so their bedroom could be used for paying students. Mr. and Mrs. Austen ran a boarding school for boys to acquire more income. Jane became so ill that the girls had to return home. She nearly died from the incident so they stayed home after that. More than once she commented that she grew up with all boys, first with her brothers then with the added school boys. Hence she was a tomboy, good at physical outdoor play.

Also, once her father died, their income was cut off completely. Her brothers then became responsible for her, her mother and her sister. She desperately wanted to earn her own money but her brothers did not think it seemly. She was gentry.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

A Too Busy Life



Sometimes life gets too, too busy. That’s what October was this year. I allowed myself to get overloaded with committee work which crowded what my goal of being here in beautiful, inspiring Macon, North Carolina to write full time.

October said good-bye with a spooky Halloween night and November entered in with more glorious shocking colors of brilliant reds, rusts, oranges, and golden yellows, standing side by side like soldiers of different armies. I was able to finish wrapping up my latest manuscript. Tidying up five years of work, padding it down and laying it in the drawer to ferment for a month before shipping it off to the publisher is finally here.

Now it’s time to update blog spots and such while the child (manuscript) enters its last month before coming public. Time to put what I’ve recently learned in classes to work. Check out my efforts of bringing photos to my blog starting with my original and revised books of Life & Labyrinth. Side by side. Enjoy.