Catching Up

I'm really sorry there's been a gap in my blogging - a couple of weeks ago i moved house. It took a couple of days to pack everything up (i work from home), but the move wasn't too bad - we moved two streets down, but unpacking and getting everything straight has taken a while. I was also trying to work at the same time on three different projects and pretend i wasn't phased by the upheaval. Anyway, with various inevitable internet connection problems i am only just able to do a blog entry.

Bronte weather project wise i've just started to work again on the 9m long 6 month graph. I've looked through the old Shackleton weather records from the time of the Bronte's and converted his Fahrenheit readings to centigrade and am drawing the data onto the graph. If i crack on with it i should finish it later today.

I started to read Shirley by Charlotte Bronte - although i admit i am only a few pages in.

Did i mention i went to Haworth for two days just before moving house? I spent a lot of time roaming the moors to try and get inspired for the final push before the exhibition in June. I stayed in a terrible b&b on the street leading up to the museum - although if you're a heavy smoker and keen on dog hairs on everything you might think it heaven.

The images above show the Bronte inspired garden at the Chelsea Flower Show - i was there for the day with a friend on tuesday - a welcome break on a sunny day, away from trying to find essential objects lost in boxes in the house somewhere...

Patrick Branwell Bronte

During my research into the weather and connections to the Bronte writings i've concentrated on Charlotte, Emily and Anne - for obvious reasons. But i have also looked at the work of their brother Branwell too.
Born in 1817, Branwell was the only boy of the six children and was very close to his sisters, collaborating with them in their childhood writings. He decided to set himself up as a portrait painter for a while and had a studio in Bradford. 
It's turns out that he was a pretty rubbish painter - and failed at earning a living, so turned his hand to becoming a tutor. You can find out more on Branwell on the Parsonage website:
http://www.bronte.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=103&Itemid=113

In the Bronte Parsonage Museum are some of Branwells spectacularly bad paintings - one with some angel type figures in a heavenly scene. I was given permission to take image for the blog to show you some of his clouds - which aren't too bad i suppose. So, Branwell can be included in this after all.

By the way - i've been meaning to say thanks to all the comments that are posted on this blog - i really appreciate that you're reading it and having the time to comment - thanks!

Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte

"One evening, however, in the last week of the vacation, he arrived - unexpectedly; for a heavy and protracted thundershower during the afternoon had almost destroyed my hopes of seeing him that day; but now the storm was over, and the sun was shining brightly.
'A beautiful evening, Mrs Grey!' said he, as he entered. 'Agnes, I want you to take a walk with me to -' (he named a certain part of the coast - a bold hill on the land side, and towards the sea a steep precipice, from the summit of which a glorious view is to be had). 'The rain has laid the dust, and cooled and cleared the air, and the prospect will be magnificent. Will you come?' "

Agnes Grey written by Anne Bronte, published in 1847 under her pseudonym of Acton Bell.
I finished reading it last week - i really like Anne Bronte's writing in how it reveals the positioning of a governess socially, class structures and the different education for girls and boys. It's got a few nice weather quotes in it too, which i'll write up properly when i get time.

Six Months of Bronte Weather

It's been a few days since i did a blog post - but i have been working lots on the work ready for the exhibition in June at the Bronte Parsonage Museum.

I've started a 9m long drawing showing six months of data that the weather station has collected at the Museum. As i haven't got a desk that long in my spacious workroom, i've had to keep rolling the paper back and forth. I've finished 6 months of temperature and air pressure and i'm a couple of month's through the rainfall.

Also last week i finished the prints showing weather records from the months leading up to Charlotte Bronte's death and prepared a screen for Emily and Anne too and will try and finish those this week.

And, I also received through the post the lovely old wooden file boxes i ordered from Germany that will house the weather collectors record cards. They came wrapped in newspaper and there was a lovely weather report on one.

A good week generally.

TB and the Weather

This is a long entry - so stick with me...

Ages ago while i was beginning to research the Bronte's lives and the connections to the weather i noticed (from the Shacklton weather records kept from 1801 until 1857) that the year that Branwell Bronte and Emily Bronte died of TB, 1848, had very high rainfall: 40.38 inches when the average rainfall was 32 inches. And of course Anne died of TB in May 1849. So i started to wonder if there is a connection between wet weather having a bad affect on TB. I've tried to get hold of historical writings on TB and also to look at contemporary reports too. However it's not been that easy to find any research that links the two.

I got an email this week in reply to one of my enquiries from Professor Flurin Condrau from the Medizinhistorisches Insitut und Museum at the Universitat Zurich in Switzerland. My main question was: are there any reports that directly link wet weather to TB? Here is his reply (shortened version)

Dear Rebecca,

Your project sounds really interesting. It's funny that you ask these questions because it has to be one of the most relevant yet strangely underresearched themes.

The relation between TB and weather, or better still, climate is subject to an enormous literature often connected to the Alps. In other words, it's not so much about whether it rains or doesn't but whether high altitude might offer protection from TB. Of course, weather is itself something that needs to be culturally read - recently moving from Britain to Switzerland has taught me a lot about cultural readings of weather - so I doubt whether your question can find an answer: did bad weather contribute to the Bronte's TB.

OK? I hope this helps. I would be interested to hear more about this project as and when. 

Good luck with the work!

All good wishes,

Flurin

I'm thrilled he took the time to reply and in his email were a couple of names and links to things i should read. So, my quest continues.

The image above is a photocopy of Patrick Bronte's medical handbook that he kept in the Parsonage. Of Tubercular Consumption it says (amongst other things):

" The following draught is much worthy of attention as a palliative for the cough:

Take of extract of hemlock, extract of henbane, of each, five grains; mucilage of gum arabic, two drachms. Rub these well together until they are thoroughly incorporated, then add, acetated liquor of ammonia, pure water, of each, half an once; syrup, one drachm. This makes a draught, to be taken every four hours."

Not sure about that myself - hemlock and henbane?

The handwriting at the bottom of the text is Patrick Bronte's and he comments:

"Mr S..... surgeon, Leeds, said that change of place or climate, could prove beneficial, only in the early stage of consumption - that afterwards, the excitment caused by change of scene, and beds, and strange company, did harm."

Bronte Prints and a Cloud Shaped Like Me Dad

I've been going to the print rooms at UCLAN to use the facilities there to develop and produce a series of weather related prints about each of the Bronte sisters - plus i might extend the series to include Maria Bronte, Elizabeth Bronte and Branwell Bronte too. I've been using the weather records documented during the lives of the Brontes - i've isolated the individual numbers from the records and i'm over layering them to create dense, unreadable masses of black.

On another note - i was out walking the other evening with a friend and we spotted this cloud formation that has an uncanny resemblance to my dad - admittedly the mouth is a little slim, but the rest is pretty bob on.

Half Way Through

My trip to the Bronte Parsonage Museum yesterday marked the half way mark of the Weather Project. I've now got exactly 6 months of data from the weather station sited in the garden there.

There was also a meeting of some of my weather collectors who have now been gathering daily weather observations since October - it was good to see everyone and catch up -  we had a brief chat about what's been happening with the project since we all met. I'm going to spend the morning going through their completed cards.

The weather yesterday was all over the place - i travelled to the Parsonage through heavy rain and then sunshine, then there was hail showers on and off during the day and huge billowing clouds looming over the hills. I arrived home in the evening soaked through. Spring is here then.

I think you'll agree that my hail stones on cobbles shot could just be one of my best photographs so far.

Colours of the Bronte Sisters

I've just about finished the 3 colour wheels I've been working on (i just have to label them now).

One wheel shows the type of weather mentioned by Charlotte Bronte in Jane Eyre; one wheel shows the types of weather described by Emily Bronte in Wuthering Heights; and the third wheel shows the types of weather Anne Bronte uses in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

Each stripe is the percentage of the total weather references per novel.

I'm happy to have finished them - i got proper brain ache working out the percentages for each weather type - maths not being my favourite subject. But i enjoyed mixing paints and choosing colours and looking at colour theory again.

Road Block

I tried, unsuccessfully, to get to the Bronte Parsonage Museum today.

I set off from Preston on the train to Hebden Bridge through the slightly snow peppered landscape, but the closer to the Pennines we got the more snow was on the tops.

Anyway, because the road was blocked with snow between Hebden Bridge and Haworth the buses were cancelled. So i had to come home. Pooh (not my word of choice in this circumstance, but i'm aware that children and / or sensitive types might read this blog entry - fill in your best worst word you know - and that'll come close).

On my pointless journey i did manage to finish The Professor by Charlotte Bronte and take a couple of nice cloud shots from the train window.

Right - a cup of tea i think will mend everything.

The Professor

"Already the pavement was drying; a balmy and fresh breeze stirred the air, purified by lightening. I felt the west behind me, where spread a sky like opal; azure immingled with crimson. The enlarged sun, glorious in Tyrian tints, dipped his brim already. Stepping, as i was, eastward, i faced a vast bank of clouds, but also i had before me the arch of an evening rainbow - a perfect rainbow, high, wide, vivid. I looked long; my eye drank in the scene, and i suppose my brain must have absorbed it; for that night, after lying awake in pleasant fever a long time, watching the silent sheet-lightening, which still played among he retreating clouds, and flashed silvery over the stars, i at last fell asleep; and then in a dream were reproduced the setting sun, the bank of clouds, the mighty rainbow."

Charlotte Bronte

The Professor written in 1845/ 6 but not published until 1857 after Charlotte's death.

I've nearly finished reading The Professor, and if i pull myself together i should finish it in the next day or two. It's not brimming with weather references, but there are a couple of beautiful descriptions - above being a lovely example.

New Bronte Photo?

I got an email from a friend this week with a link to a website showing what might be a photograph of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte together - take a look and see what you think...

http://www.brontesisters.co.uk

Colours of the Weather

I've worked out which types of weather each of the Bronte sisters mention in one of their novels: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte; Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte.

With this information i want to paint some colour wheels with all the data. Because i have found that there are 18 types of weather mentioned i'm now deciding which 18 colours to use and how i want the final work to look. It's been a bit tricky working it out - some weather types are mentioned lots: wind or rain for example, but there are other types that are only mentioned once or twice: drizzle, mist or fog. And if i'm doing it in a circle i have to work out the percentage of times each weather type is used and calculate the size of the corresponding stripe.

I'm enjoying practising painting and i went out this morning to buy new brushes and paper ready to work on the final pieces.

Haworth Primary School Project

I spent yesterday with the Year 4 class from Haworth Primary School doing a project on the weather.

First we made paper windmills to use outside at the back of the Bronte Parsonage Museum to check the wind. It turned out to be a really cold, grey, fairly nondescript day, but we still managed to get the windmills to fly round in the breeze. We also did some creative writing and we collected rubbings on paper in the graveyard for the afternoon session too.

We spent the afternoon in the classroom making collages based on the weather - cotton wool seemed a very popular material for clouds and snow - but we also used lots of different types of paper, our collected rubbings, card and fabrics.

All of year 4 did great work - there were scenes of snow storms, lightening, sunshine and sun beams, hail, rain, wind blown trees, clouds, a sunset and a fantastic hedgehog. 

A good time was had by all.

Top Withins

Until now most of my time working on the Weather Project has been spent reading Bronte texts (novels, letters and poems) and with it being winter i've been ok with that. But now spring is coming i've been wanting to explore the area around Haworth and the landscape that inspired the Bronte sisters.

So, on Sunday i went up to Haworth and walked to Top Withins. It's a well trodden path and as it was a mild, sunny day there were lots of others walking out on the moors too. The birds are getting ready for spring - we could hear the eerie call of Curlew in the breeze and the crackle of Red Grouse being flushed from the heather. And i saw a couple of bees (a honeybee and a bumble bee). We had a butty at the Bronte Waterfalls by the Bronte Bridge and then continued up to Top Withins. 

There's a plaque on the ruin that explains "This farmhouse has been associated with 'Wuthering Heights', the Earnshaw home in the Emily Bronte novel. The buildings, even when complete, bore no resemblance to the house she described, but the situation may have been in her mind when she wrote of the moorland setting of the Heights."

I'm enjoying experiencing all the Bronte hype - there's so many Bronte pilgrims wanting to tread where the Bronte's might have been that the walk was signposted to within an inch of its life - you can't possibly get lost and there's no need for a map.

Mention of the Weather

I've been counting who mentions which type of weather in their novels: Charlotte Bronte in Jane Eyre (see below); Emily Bronte in Wuthering Heights and Anne Bronte in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

Previously i presumed that Anne Bronte mentioned the weather the least - but it seems i'm wrong. She mentions the weather more than Emily does, however she uses more general descriptions: she uses phrases such as 'spendid morning', 'fine weather', loveliest days', 'splendid evening' more than Emily and Charlotte who are more distinct with their observations.

Anne Bronte mentions the sun and sunshine most frequently in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

Emily Bronte mentions the wind most frequently in Wuthering Heights, followed by the sun, then snow.

Charlotte's Wind

I've been going through Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte to work out how many times and what type of weather conditions are mentioned throughout the book.

So, out of interest Charlotte mentions the wind the most - a total of 62 times. Closely followed by rain at 52 times and temperature at 46 times. There is also descriptions of the sky (28 times); the sun (25 times); clouds (24 times); snow (23 times); frost and ice (21 times); the moon and stars (cloudless nights - 19 times); storms and gales (12 times); thunder and lightening (6 times); mist (6 times); dew (5 times); and fog (3 times).*

I'm now going to see what kind of references Emily Bronte mentions in Wuthering Heights and Anne Bronte mentions in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

*It doesn't necessarily mean there are 6 thunder storms in the book - but that the thunder of one storm is mentioned a few times.

Emily Bronte's Poems

I am aware i've neglected the blog in the last couple of weeks, sorry. My life was taken over by having to do some fund raising for another project - but don't worry, even though i feel like the life has been drained from my body, i managed to survive the ordeal with only minor brain ache and i'm slowly regaining the feeling in my limbs.

In the meantime i have still been trying to concentrate on all things Bronte and went to the Bronte Parsonage Museum last week to see if i could see some originals of Emily Bronte's poems. 

There's not many originals of Emily's writing to survive and what the Museum holds is on display. So I couldn't handle any of the works and the image isn't great (the work is behind glass in a dimly lit room). 

How fascinating her writing is with minuscule text, ink blots and doodles. It's the smudges and idle little sketches that seem to bring it to life - Emily Bronte made those marks. Having said that, with her writing being so small,  behind glass in low lighting and my rubbish eyesight i couldn't read a bloody thing.

To a Wreath of Snow

 

O transient voyager of heaven!

O silent sign of winter skies!

What adverse wind thy sail has driven

To dungeons where a prisoner lies?

Methinks the hands that shut the sun

So sternly from this mourning brow

Might still their rebel task have done

And checked a thing so frail as thou

They would have done it had they known

The talisman that dwelt in thee,

For all the suns that ever shone

Have never been so kind to me!

For many a week, and many a day

My heart was weighed with sinking gloom

When morning rose in mourning grey

And faintly lit my prison room

But angel like, when I awoke,

Thy silvery form so soft and fair

Shining through darkness, sweetly spoke

Of cloudy skies and mountains bare

The dearest to a mountaineer

Who, all life long has loved the snow

That crowned her native summits drear,

Better, than greenest plains below –

And voiceless, soulless messenger

They presence waked a thrilling tone

That comforts me while thou art here

And will sustain when thou art gone

 

Emily Bronte (1837) 

 

I've just finished reading through a number of poems written by Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell Bronte - i'm hoping that i can also see any originals held at the Bronte Parsonage Museum later this week  - i'll keep you posted.

Thanks to Mike from Stanbury for the beautiful images of snow on the moors surrounding the Bronte Parsonage Museum taken in the last couple of weeks.

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

"But now, - at evening, when I see the round, red sun sink quietly down behind those woody hills, leaving them sleeping in a warm, red, golden haze, I only think another lovely day is lost to him and me; - and at morning, when roused by the flutter and chirp of the sparrows, and the gleeful twitter of the swallows - all intent upon feeding their young, and full of life and joy in their own little frames - I open the window to inhale the balmy, soul-reviving air, and look out upon the lovely landscape, laughing in dew and sunshine, - I too often shame that glorious scene with tears of thankless misery, because he cannot feel its freshening influence..."

Written by Anne Bronte (published in 1848 under the pseudonym Acton Bell) 

I just finished reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte. I like Anne's writing and although she doesn't use or refer to the weather as much as Emily and Charlotte do, there are a few lovely weather quotes within the text. A novel about the plight of a woman married to a drunk womaniser it reveals the lack of rights of married women. Anne's moralising can be a bit much at times (it could be 100 pages shorter) but i love that it points out the bad treatment of women in an earnest, unfaltering way. It's interesting that Charlotte Bronte tried to prevent any reprinting of it after Anne's death thinking that "the choice of subject was an entire mistake".

London Clouds

While in London I was perusing the displays in Tate Britain and saw this book of etchings by Alexander Cozens (1717 - 1786) "A New Method for Assisting the Invention in the Composition of Landscape" where he has made sample etchings with notes on how to depict clouds in artworks. I quite like the idea of a guide to the creation of clouds in art.

Weather Instruments

For a few days last week i went to London to look around various galleries and museums and i had time to go to the Science Museum to look for old weather instruments that might have been used during the time that the Bronte family were alive (1800's). Please also refer to my blog entry about Abraham Shackleton's weather records (23rd Nov: 'Weather Diaries').

There were only a few objects on show - and in the dull museum lighting it wasn't easy to get good shots - but the above shows:

A diagonal barometer by Joseph Finney c.1770

A travelling barometer by Nairne and Blunt, late eighteenth century.

A plate showing 15 temperature scales , from JT Desaguliers, 1745

A rain-gauge, early nineteenth century

Saussure's eight-hair hydrometer by Richer, 1789

A greenhouse thermometer by Dudley Adams, c.1798

Six's maximum and minimum thermometer, using indices, c.1780

Clouds and Collecting

I met all the weather collectors yesterday for a cup of tea and a chat about the weather. Plus they gave me their cards that they've filled in so far and collected replacement ones. 100 days have already passed since they started noting the weather everyday.

I've loved looking through the comments on the cards - often alongside the weather notes are personal additions about wildlife observations, family stories and effects the weather has had on daily routines (drying washing outside, journeys delayed, walks on to the moors etc). I really love reading them.

One event that got the whole group talking was an unusual cloud formation that they all witnessed (or not - to the annoyance of one collector). It was on 22nd Dec over the valley and was an Altocumulus lenticularis. My Met Office cloud books says: 

" These elegant lenticular ('lens-shaped') altocumulus clouds are formed when a flowing layer of moist air is uplifted by the slope of an intervening hill or mountain. The wind that carries the air over a mountain rises gently, cooling unevenly as it does so, sending bouncing waves of moisture-laden air streaming away from the obstruction. Lenticular wave clouds form in the crests of these air waves."

It was also later reported on the local news too.
One of the collectors noted: " Amazing cloud formation that looked like a 5 level multi-storey car park just hovered over."

And he's not far wrong - the image above is of Preston Bus Station (which is a multi storey car park above). An amazing cloud - an amazing building.

Thanks to Mike for the wonderful image of the cloud taken from his house in Stanbury.

Failing Eyesight

I spent a few days last week making drawings of the collected weather data on to graph paper.
Let me explain:

So far since October i've read hundreds of letters by the Bronte sisters and also Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte), Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte) and i'm half way through The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Anne Bronte). I've noted down all the weather references in every text.

During this time the weather station that is sited at the Bronte Parsonage Museum has been collecting data.

So, for the drawings i've tried to cross reference the two - finding a specific text written by one of the Brontes and tried to match it up with a date from this past few months.

Their letters are dated and refer to recent weather so they were easier to match, but there are some fictional references in the novels that i've been able to find similar days in October and November last year. Get it? 

So the image above shows:

"Folds of scarlet drapery shut in my view to the right hand; to the left were the clear panes of glass, protecting, but not separating me from the drear November day. At intervals, while turning over the leaves in my book, I studied the aspect of that wintery afternoon. Afar, it offered a pale blank of mist and cloud; near, a scene of wet lawn and storm-beat shrub, with ceaseless rain sweeping away wildly before a long and lamentable blast."

Chapter 1 in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.

Looking through the records from the weather station i found that Saturday 26th November was a pretty "drear November day", with heavy rain in the afternoon and gusty wind and clouds etc. So my drawing shows 12 hours from midnight on 26.11.11 

I have to say that concentrating for hours at a time focusing on graph paper has made my eyesight go completely to pieces. I suppose that now i'm in my mid 30's it's just something i'll have to get used to? I can feel an eye test coming on.