Happy Birthdays

Hello, and thank you for being here, I wasn't sure whether anyone would have stuck around and the fact that you have done has cheered me right up.  As promised, I am back for a witter.

Today is 17th January and I cannot let this date pass unmarked.  To begin with, Anne Bronte was born on this day in 1820.  I have read both of her novels, Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and if you haven't read them, I wholeheartedly recommend Agnes Grey which, in my opinion, is the better novel.  Anne's work seems to be less well-known than that of her sisters, Charlotte and Emily, and I think she deserves better.

In 2010 I visited Scarborough with the Best Beloved and The Teacher.  We parked the car at St Mary's Church and as we were walking through the churchyard we came across Anne's grave.  I had no idea that she was buried there so it was a surprise and it felt very odd to just come across her in such a casual way.  Obviously I asked the Best Beloved to take a photograph.

I was pleased to see that somebody still cared enough about Anne to have laid flowers but saddened by the dilapidated state of her headstone.  I know that coastal weather can treat stone harshly but I felt that the grave of such an important writer should receive some special care.  Well, it seems that little can be done to conserve the headstone itself but in 2013 The Bronte Society had some work done which included the laying of a new plaque - if you are interested, you can read about it here.  

17th January is a rather special day in our family for other reasons.  My great grandmother, Martha Jane Stevens, was born on this day in 1871.  She died more than twenty years before I was born but I have known this photograph for almost as long as I can remember and I have a tablecloth which she worked with knitted lace around its edge; we use it at Christmas and as I unfold it and lay it on the table I think of her hands doing the same decades earlier.  Martha is pictured here in 1900 with my grandmother on her lap.

We have another family birthday today, too: The Mathematician has been celebrating in Guernsey while I have been wistfully remembering earlier birthdays: little girls in princess outfits, sausages on sticks and jelly, wintry weekends spent in cosy cottages, Saturday sleepovers with a houseful of excited teenagers.  Here she is on her fourteenth birthday which we spent in a cottage in North Wales at her request.

Happy Birthday to Anne, to Martha and to The Mathematician!

See you soon.

Love, Mrs Tiggywinkle x