"Jane Eyre"--a Book Club Discussion and more

This month for book club we read the classic, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. In case you somehow missed reading the book in school or seeing the many movies that have been made from it, here's a brief summary. Jane is a headstrong girl who was orphaned as an infant. She lives a difficult life with her aunt and three cousins until she was sent to boarding school for orphans when she was ten. The school was another difficult experience, but she becomes well enough educated to become a governess. During this job, she meets Mr. Rochester and love follows. However, as with any good story, the relationship is fraught with trouble and there are many difficult decisions to be made.

What my club thought:
My club all enjoyed reading or rereading Jane Eyre. We had a lively discussion that involved the actual story and characters, Charlotte Bronte and her sisters, the difficulties of being a published female author at that time, how much of the novel was autobiographical, and the influence of being a rector's daughter on Charlotte Bronte's writing. We concluded that we appreciated the complicated writing structure of the book compared to what is written today and found the moral dilemmas that were set up for Jane throughout the story an interesting study.

What I thought:
I got a lot more from reading Jane Eyre as an adult than as a student. It's an enjoyable read that I recommend.
_______________________________________________________________________________

But wait, there's more--A thought from Wally and Theodore:

Speaking of Jane Eyre, there's another book that involves her--The Eyre Affair: a Thursday Next Novel by Jasper Fforde.

The book involves time travel, a police state, and the plucking of Jane Eyre from the novel--a little different from the style of the original Jane Eyre, but a lot of fun. It mixes humor with an exciting plot. Give it a try. If you like it, there are more in the series waiting for you.


For a more extensive review of the Tuesday Next novels-- aplacetoreside.blogspot.com/2011/04/one-of-our-thursdays-is-missing-book.html

Food Waste Friday--March 23, 2012

It's time for Food Waste Friday, when the Frugalgirl encourages us to post pictures from the previous week of wasted food from our household. This accountability hopefully will help us to be more careful with our food and maybe save some money. 

Here it goes for this week.

 

 

 

 

We had no waste this week, so we celebrated by having green eggs and ham (and brown and white eggs too) for breakfast. We're lucky that we have a friend that sometimes gives us eggs and she always includes a green one in the bunch.

 

 

Outing

Day off, no school, family outing.

Snack factory, belts and bags, potato chips.

Clock shop, gears and lathes, old watches.

Horse farm, stables and hay, wobbly foals.

Good weather, no crowds, perfect day.

A Second Look--March 21, 2012

Spring is officially here both on the calendar and in the yard where things seem to be blooming almost before my eyes. What a magical time.

 Here's what I saw this week during a Second Look.

Peach blossoms

A new variety of daffodils

Crocus

I'm not sure what this is. It starts with just one green leaf, but grows another one before the stem and flowers emerges.

Forsythia

Spring Star Flower

  Pieris japonica

Oops! update

Three months ago my camera was accidentally dropped into water and didn't survive so well. After a few days it could take pictures again, but often you couldn't tell what the pictures were. I gave it another test today to see if time had helped its problems. There was little change. It still takes pictures, however they are not exactly true to life. Now I have two working cameras--a regular camera and a psychedelic one.

Pictures from my Oops camera.

In the collage above can you find: a box of Cherrios, a can of Pepsi, books, a broom, a sleeping cat, a clock, and a telephone?