The Jane Austen House.

Today I was in Chawton for the Jane Austen Society Annual General Meeting. (More on that in the next post). The highlight of the visit was touring the Jane Austen House Museum, also known as Chawton Cottage. This is Chawton Cottage from the back. from the road it looks like a large square building but I had always wondered what the back was like. Here you can see it is more ‘L’ shaped. The upstairs window on the far left is Jane’s room.

I can’t tell you how it feels to take a curve in the road and suddenly be looking at a place that I have longed to see for years. Chawton Cottage is where Jane wrote or revised all of her novels.

The quilt on display was made by Jane, Cassandra, and their mother, from clothing pieces. This was Jane’s bedroom up until the last few weeks of her life when they stayed in Winchester to seek better medical help for her.

This is the view from Jane Austen’s bedroom window out the back of the house toward the bakehouse.

That precious little table is where she sat composing some of the greatest writings in the English language.

The stairs she walked up, the doorframes she passed through, the window sill she leaned against, all touched me with her spirit.

The surrounding countryside is beautiful. The land here is more heavily wooded than I supposed, with meadows and farmland. The area around her home is a lovely low walled garden, serene and beautiful. It is not hard to imagine what it would have looked like then.

200 years ago Jane would have been composing the ending chapters of Mansfield Park, my favorite of her six novels. Was she already feeling weary from the illness that would claim her? As tragic as her destiny was, I can see that she must have found peace in the lovely garden and the ever changing verdure of the countryside she loved.

In some respects this was a pilgrimage for me. After reading her novels, juvenalia, letters, and several biographies, the people in them begin to seem like friends and neighbors. I know they say everyone who loves Jane Austen thinks they know Jane Austen. I feel I know her more closely now after visiting this place that was so important to her.

It was a lovely day.

-Lynnae

P.S. I must say something about my dear husband today. As some of you know he is deployed oversees. Today was his birthday and he didn’t have the best day. And here I am having the time of my life traveling etc. I just want him to know I was thinking of him often…….. Jon, I love you with all my heart and I can’t wait until we are together again. So many times I wish you would have been with me to smile, make me laugh, give me a little hug, or just share in the moment.

Love always, Lynnae

Remembering Jane Austen- In Winchester July 18th

Today marks the 195th Anniversary of the death of Jane Austen, one of the greatest writers of the English Language and my favorite writer. On this day I was very honored to be in Winchester Cathedral where she is buried. It is an awe inspiring thing to be in this town today. I thought there would be more people, but there were a few other admirers visiting the place where she was buried.

Above is a plaque more recently erected that mentions her life as an author.

Fresh flowers had been placed there. Above the plaque, stained glass windows are placed in Honor of Jane Austen.

Here is a brief description of the windows:

In the head of the window is a figure of Saint Augustine, whose name abbreviated is Austen. In the center of the upper row is David with his harp. Below that is an inscription in Latin remembering Jane Austen. In the center of the bottom row is Saint John, holding a book, displaying on the open page the first sentence of his Gospel… “In the Beginning was the Word.” The figures in the other windows represent the sons of Korah (1 Chronicles 9;19) carrying scrolls inscribed with sentences in Latin from the psalms, indicative of the religious side of Jane Austen’s character.

We also went to see the home nearby where Jane Austen lived her last days.

In a small upper room in this house she died in the arms of her beloved sister Cassandra. There is a small lawn across the street and we were able to sit under the trees for a moment and contemplate the scene. Few other people were around and there was a definite feeling of reverence for us as we sat and looked at the small, unimposing home.

God Bless you Jane Austen. I can’t wait to find out what you’ve been writing in heaven!

-Lynnae

Where Bloggers Create Studio Tour

Welcome!

I am on vacation in England right now, but I wanted to Join in the wonderful Where Bloggers Create studio tour anyway. Greetings visitors! I’m pleased that you stopped by.

I have changed a few things around since the last studio tour I participated in two years ago. This is what my studio looked like then.

I have rearranged the room a little bit and taken down the colorful wallpapers for the time being. Like many of you, my studio is also the guest bedroom. Since I am having a string of visitors this summer, the beds are set up for company. These pictures are from my studio, when I was setting out costume dresses for my Jane Austen party this spring.

Because my room is set up and waiting for the next guest, we had a makeshift studio in the breakfast nook. Here I am, in the black shirt, painting a still life with another friend in the room just off my kitchen.

We wanted to do some plein air painting, but when the day turned out rainy I put together a still life for us to paint.

And the finished project from that afternoon……

Thanks for stopping by!

-Lynnae

My England Trip- London

I am in England. It is my second day and this is really a dream come true for me. I am staying with my sister Julianna and her kind husband, who have a sweet little cottage style home in Reading. There are so many little nooks and Crannies! My daughter and I are sleeping in a little upstairs room that is so sweet it’s like being in a treehouse. I have an angled window right above my bed. Julianna also had some gifts for us when we arrived.

This is a one hundred year old copy of Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, my favorite novel, that she gave me as a birthday present. Isn’t it beautiful!

Today we went out to London, But we started the day with Breakfast at a charming and very yummy restaurant in Reading called Bill’s.. My daughter was excited to see the tower of London, so that was our main destination.

London Bridge.

We also went out to see Big Ben. OK, OK, I’ll post this picture, even though I’m not too happy about what is going on with my hair by this point! Jordan looks fabulous as always!

My sister Julianna and I with the London Eye in the background.

As you can see I’m having a great time and feeling totally spoiled here in the UK. I wish I could write about everything. But right now I’m feeling about as tired as this little girl…..

More to come….

-Lynnae

Thrift Shop China

Over the past few years I’ve collected china teacups and saucers for my friends to use at my annual Jane Austen party. I’m getting a nice little collection.

For quite some time I’ve considered collecting more china pieces to use for little get-togethers. The big hold up was that I wanted pieces with red. Well, it seems that the only china to be found with red in the design is Christmas china. Either that or people love it so much they don’t give it to thrift stores.

I don’t have a new china set of my own, a situation I hope to remedy in the future, but in the meantime I finally decided to give up on china with red in it, and just collect a few larger plates to mix and match.

Now every time I go in the thrift store I look to see if there’s a plate or two that strikes my fancy.

I love mixing and matching and stacking the plates. The plates can look so different when paired with another style that you notice new things in the design with every stack.

-Lynnae

A Pink Fiesta

Look what I just found!

Fiesta ‘Flamingo’!

This will be a great addition to my lovely rainbow of Fiesta dinnerware. I’m so excited!

The color is still in preorder but I ordered a few to add to my collection. I’m so excited. They look so lovely!

In other news…. Our England trip is less than a month away. I’m freaking out a little bit right now. And I’m so very grateful I have a sister who lives there to not only invite me, but be familiar with the area a bit. It’s strange to travel without my husband.

Speaking of his deployment, he ate camel meat. Can you believe it?

And on the home front, today is the last day of school. My daughter went to the park with friends and I brought them a bag full of treats to celebrate. And in an unusual twist for Washington, it actually LOOKED like summer. Hoorah!

-Lynnae

Painting Play Date

Why do we wait so long to get out the paints when we love it so much?

That’s what I’ve been asking myself.

A friend and I have been planning to have a painting day for a long time, but so many things kept getting in the way. Finally we settled on last Thursday (we had to do it before school let out).

Our plan was for some plein air painting, but living near Seattle we had to have a back up- I ended up putting together a still life in my breakfast nook.

Even though I’ve painted with oils before I’ve never taken a class, so she had some tips and tricks to show me as far as setting up and maintaining my supplies.

The hours FLEW by. We had to stop for a yogurt break at some point, and then it seemed only minutes before the bus was dropping off kids and it was time to get back to the mommy world. But boy did we have fun.

And you know what? I’m thinking of clearing out the breakfast nook and just setting up an art room there for the summer.

-Lynnae

PS- Speaking of Art Room, I have a link on my sidebar to the 2012 Where Bloggers Create blog party. Join in! It’s so much fun!!!