Embarking On A Course of Study

Jane Austen's "The Watsons" Manuscript Up For Auction

How could anyone bear to part with it?

http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=47642

Link to Austen Collection at Goucher

If you want to explore the collection at Goucher online - here's the link:

Austen Collection at Goucher

Podcast of Talk on The Burke Collection Devoted to Jane Austen

 
You all may or may not know that I'm a Goucher graduate. It was alma mater of Alberta Burke who, with her husband Henry, created an amazing collection of works by or related to Jane Austen.

If you'd like to listen to Goucher College Librarian Nancy Magnuson's lecture on this collection:

PODCAST AVAILABLE OF NANCY MAGNUSON'S LECTURE ON BURKE COLLECTION Goucher College Librarian, Nancy Magnuson, was the guest speaker at the fifth annual Jane Austen Birthday Tea at the Omaha Public Library on December 13. Her talk, "A Collector’s Love Story," tells of Alberta and Henry Burke and their travels to build one of the world’s finest library collections devoted to Jane Austen. The Burke collection is housed in the Special Collections at the Goucher College Library.

From a wide and often obscure variety of sources, the Burkes collected articles about the life and times of Jane Austen, her works, films and offshoots of her works, and the publishing and collecting of Jane Austen materials. Included are typescripts of screen adaptations and articles, some written by Henry Burke, and some unpublished writing. There is correspondence between the Burkes and other Janeites, particularly David Gilson, and some JASNA materials. Photocopies of Jane Austen's letters and a list of dissertations about her should be of use to researchers.

Alberta Burke's scrupulously kept records provide a wealth of information for bibliographers and collectors. Stuck into her heavily annotated Jane Austen: A Bibliography by Geoffrey Keynes is her handwritten list of "books not listed by Keynes in Period of Bibliography." The Burkes collected auction and exhibit catalogues as well as publishers' announcements, and much of the correspondence includes bibliographic information.

The other areas of interest to the Burkes, particularly costume and travel, are well represented in the Collection. The papers of the Burke family, such as photographs, recipes, a marriage certificate and a few other documents, are also available.

The collection also includes Bicentenary postage stamps, a doll, engraved silver plaques commemorating the novels, a cameo bisque porcelain plaque, mug and pillbox, and mementos of locations such as Chawton or places mentioned in the novels.

TO LISTEN   

(Turn down your speakers, it comes on rather loud, so be ready! There is also lots of 'housekeeping' at the beginning so start around minute 5 and you should be close to the introduction of Nancy Magnuson and the start of her talk.)

The talk took place on the same day as the JASNA Maryland Chapter's celebration of Jane's birthday, so Nancy leads a toast at the end. Here is the text of the toast (also done at JASNA):

Jane lies at Winchester--

Blessed be her shade!

Praise the Lord for making her

And her for all she made!

And while the stones of Winchester,

Or Milsom Street remain,

Glory, love, and honor

Unto England’s Jane!

- Rudyard Kipling, Epigraph to "The Janeites"

 

    If you'd like to read this short story, you can find it here:  The Janeites

Austen Overload in a Good Way - 19th Century Cultural Arts Program at Johns Hopkins' Evergreen

 Well the universe does certainly answer one's call! Since getting back to this project I got my first JASNA newsletter which had a blurb about the Chawton House Fellowship given to a member for a project/study at Chawton Library over the summer (doesn't have to be academic - woo hoo!), there's the Austen conference, and now the Evergreen House at Johns Hopkins is having a cavalcade of events related to 19th Century culture and arts, including a day of dancing, fencing, food, etc. this Saturday, the 26th.

But wait, there's more!

There's an exhibit:

Privileged Pursuits: Cultural Refinement in Early Baltimore

February 4, 2011–April 17, 2011

In the early 1800s, music, dance, literature, fine art, and civility were thought to be a part of a complete education. Homewood Museum's sixth annual student-curated focus show explores how young Baltimoreans were instructed in these and other cultural refinements This student-curated focus show explores how young Baltimoreans were introduced to these and other cultural refinements through parental instruction, printed materials, tutors, and specialized schools. Evidence has been drawn from Carroll family correspondence, rare books, and other period items. An accompanying display located on the main level of the Milton S. Eisenhower Library, adjacent to Homewood Museum, features objects from the Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries.

Poetry:

Emergence of American Voices: Early 19th-Century Poetry: March 26, 5pm reception, 5:30pm reading / Presented by faculty and students of the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars / $8, FREE for Members and JHU students.

And a festival!

Festival of Historic Arts: April 10, 12–3:30pm / Learn an old-fashioned skill or art as it may have been practiced in 1800s Baltimore / FREE with paid museum admission

There was also a painting class, but it was early Feb and I missed it.

The list of events and registration info here:

JHU Evergreen House - 19th Century Doings

What an awesome spring this will be! If you're local - check out these events.

 

Trying to Get Back into the Swing of Things: Austen Conference in Pittsburgh in March

I so suck at this project. I freely admit it. I was finishing revisions on a novel, had several editing jobs in a row, two back to back killer colds and then there were the holidays. I just couldn't keep up.

But, trying to redeem myself by joining JASNA (finally!) and now plan to go to the upcoming Austen conference in Pittsburgh which includes an Assembly - woo hoo! See info below if you're anywhere within driving distance of it and want to attend. It's about $100 for the conference and the assembly.

JASNA Pittsburgh’s first annual Jane Austen Festival

 

The Pittsburgh region of The Jane Austen Society of North America will hold a day-long Jane Austen Festival and Assembly Ball on Saturday, March 12, 2011. Please join us for a day dedicated to celebrating and examining the work of Jane Austen! Speakers will include:

• Joan Klingel Ray, Professor of English and President’s Teaching Scholar at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, and author of Jane Austen for Dummies;
• Gaelen Foley, NY Times bestselling author of fifteen adventure-filled historical romances set in the Regency period;
• Linda Troost and Sayre Greenfield, Professors of English and editors of Jane Austen in Hollywood.

Registration, Costume Rental and Regency Emporium will open at 9 am. The conference, with multiple concurrent workshop sessions, will take place between 10 am and 5 pm. Workshop topics will include costume, gardens, dancing rules and etiquette of the period, Austen in films, and more.

The evening’s Assembly Ball and live music will run from 8 pm to 11 pm. Dance workshops will be offered during the conference to prepare you for the delights of the evening.

FOR MORE INFO AND TO REGISTER: http://www.janeaustenpgh.org/news.htm



 

In Vain I Have Struggled, It Will Not Do! or Kicking Pamela to the Curb

I just can't do it. I've tried to read Samuel Richardson's Pamela but it is just too boring and irritating. I kept picking it up and putting it down over and over and then avoiding it and because it was the next book in line, I felt rather paralyzed about moving on to the next without finish it.

But abandon it I must.

The same thing happens over and over as told in the voice of a young servant girl: her master grabs her, fondles her, kisses her, then gets angry when she resists. He lays low, she writes to her parents, worried and upset, promising to come home, then decides to stay to finish embroidering a vest or something, thinks he's reformed, he tries again, repeat.

Nope. Can't do it.

The girl's an idiot. If my boss kept repeatedly shoving his hand down my top (and let's be clear he would only get away with that ONCE), I'd be out of there pretty fast, racing back to my parents' house. But no, she must finish doing some sewing first. ??? 

Here's a bit of the speaker:

My dear Parents,

O Let me take up my Complaint, and say, Never was poor Creature so unhappy, and so barbarously used, as your Pamela! O my dear Father and Mother, my Heart's just broke! I can neither write as I should do, nor let it alone; for to whom but you can I vent my Friefs, and keep my poor Heart from bursting? Wicked, wicked Man!--I have no Patience left me!

(this after he's grabbed her several times already - and each time she's so surprised!)

At the end of the letter:

This was the worst of all! God send me safe fromo this dreadful wicked Man!

And then she goes back to her work.

I'm supposed to read this for 502 pages? Bye bye Pamela. I don't think even Jane could have tolerated you that much.

Instead, I have picked up a delightful book called Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies, which was given to me by my friend Shara. She picked it up in a bookstore in London on her last trip.

What is it? It's a prostitutes directory my friends. Hurray!

  From the jacket:

Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies was a bestseller of the 18th century, shifting 250,000 copies in an age before mass consumerism. An annual guide book published at Christmas time, it detailed the names and specialities of the capital's prostitutes. During its heyday (1757-95) Harris's List was the essential accessory for any serious gentleman of pleasure.

Awesome.

Of course I'll give you samples!

Mrs. St--ton, at the Shoe-maker's, Corner of Upper Newman-Street.

A fine plump widow betwitched, as she says, she is the wife of a captain S--n, who is gone abroad; but her passions are not to be confined, and thinking life not worth her care, without the thorough gratification of that most noble sense, she gives an uncontrolled loose to all her desires, and places the tree of life into the garden of Eden, as often as inclination invites.

Betsy Miles, Cabinet Maker's Old Street, Clerkenwell

Known in this quarter for her immense sized breasts, which she alternately makes use of with the rest of her parts, to indulge those who are particularly fond of a certain amusement. She is what you may call, at all, backwards and forewards, are all equal to her, posteriors not excepted, nay indeed, by her own account she has most pleasure in the latter. Entrance at the front door tolerably reasonable, but nothing less than two pounds for the back way.

Mifs H--arington, Newman-street.

...she will immediately conduct you in a very complaisant manner to a convenient sofa, and suffer you there to take a view of her haven of delight, where pretty ringlets hang in tempting curls over the cupidinous font, in return she likewise expects a view of nature's gifts from you, which if she thinks clean and properly adopted, she will unload for two pounds two.

Busy place that Newman-Street.

I just can't imagine Darcy or Bingley using this book. Henry Crawford is another matter entirely.

Here's a bit about it on the BBC:Harris's List.

Use This Search Engine and Raise Money for Chawton House Library

Chawton House was the home of Edward Knight, Austen's brother, and the property on which the house she and her mother, Cassandra, and Martha Lloyd lived in until her death was located.

Using this search engine, which is a hub for (Yahoo!, Bing, etc.) will raise money for Chawton House Library every time you click.

Make it your home page!

http://chl.easysearch.org.uk/

Jane Austen Fight Club

This is just too brilliant for words.

Conservatory Visit, A Long Linger in the Palm Room

Baltimore has the Rawlings Conservatory in Druid Hill Park, a glittering glass bubble on a slight hill at one entrance to the park with a small sprawl of a garden to one side. It was much too hot the day I went to stroll outside as there was very little shade, but I found many cool and delightful places to linger inside - especially The Palm Room, lush and impressive with fronds many feet wide rising upwards to the glass dome. I felt like I was in the Wonka elevator, it rose so high.

 
  
And lovely, lovely mists of water everywhere. Walking through the various rooms you are repeatedly moving through these veils that create an invisible curtain across many of the paths.

Except for staff I was alone, and for a minor donation ($3) enjoyed sojourns in the Mediterranean and the desert, including a long mental soak in a fountain complete with koi. How wonderful would it be to have a tea in one of the rooms! I would love to spend more time there and learn more about the various species of flowers and plants. I sent in a form to volunteer, but haven't heard back yet.

There was something deliciously wild and dangerous about the place. These plants were not delicate and beautiful - they were mostly strange and oddly shaped. I felt like I was looking on undersea creatures that normally live in the deep dark, and that had been dragged into the light. Like any moment a thick leafy tentacle would wrap around my ankle and whip me into the depths of a plant or some bright pink flower would exude a deadly fragrance.

I might need to read up on those that traveled to far away lands bringing back exotic species for study and propagation. (Forget The Orchid Thief. I couldn't get through it.The writing was too dull for me.)

More pics and the history of the conservatory:

 

History of the Conservatory

The word conservatory is derived from the Italian “conservato” (stored or preserved) and Latin “ory” – a place for – and was originally used to describe a non–glazed structure used for storing food. Later the word was used to describe glazed structures for conserving, or protecting, plants from cold weather.

The earliest known conservatories date from the 17th century, but not to designs that would be familiar to us as a conservatory today. At that time they were merely stone structures with more glazing in them than the buildings they were connected to. They were used by the scientific community, nobility and the landed gentry to protect plants, especially those that they had collected on their European tours and wished to grow back in the colder climate of England. Plants and seeds were also being collected by explorers further afield in Australia and South America and needed protection when they were grown in the UK.

Possibly the first conservatory in Britain was constructed in the Oxford Botanic Garden, another was built soon after in the Chelsea Physic Garden.

John Nash designed four conservatories for Buckingham Palace in 1825. But during remodeling of the Palace under William IV and the architect Edward Blore, Nash’s replacement, they were moved and one of these went to Kew in 1836. This became known as the Architectural Conservatory and is the oldest of the 19th Century glasshouses still standing at Kew today.

There are literary mentions of conservatories at this time so the writers and the readers were aware of them. In the Jane Austen novel Emma written in 1814; Mrs Churchill, a very grand lady, is referred to by Mr Weston saying, “In Frank’s last letter she complained, he said, of being too weak to get into her conservatory without having both his arm and his uncle’s!”

It wasn’t until later in the 19th Century that conservatories became more popular. This was due to several factors. Until 1845 there was a tax in England on glass that was levied on the weight of the glass, so panes were thin. What’s more, in the mid–19th century, wrought iron was expensive. Cast iron was mass-produced and much cheaper, but it was weak in tension and only suitable wherever loads were carried in compression, such as columns. Wrought iron was used in tension and a prime example of this is in the roof of a conservatory. But in 1856 Henry Bessemer invented the Bessemer converter, which enabled steel to be produced more cheaply than before. Unlike wrought iron, steel contains no slag and has a higher carbon content. As a result it was harder, even better in tension and therefore suitable for the roof of a conservatory.

Sir Joseph Paxton, (1801–65), was the Duke of Devonshire’s gardens superintendent, his iron-framed conservatory at Chatsworth House was built between 1836 and 1841 and covered three–quarters of an acre – at the time it was the largest glass building in the world – shaped like a tent and 277ft long and 67ft high. The largest sheet glass generally available then was three feet long but Robert Chance, a noted glassmaker of the time, managed to produce four–foot sheets for Paxton's benefit.

Eight boilers heated the conservatory through seven miles of iron pipe and it cost over £30,000 to build. There was a central carriageway and when Queen Victoria was driven through, it was lit with twelve thousand lamps. She noted in her diary in 1842 that it is ‘the most stupendous and extraordinary creation imaginable’.

Unfortunately, the Great Conservatory was demolished in 1920 it had needed ten men to run it and huge quantities of coal to heat. During the Great War, the gardeners had gone off to fight and coal had not been available for non-essential purposes, so all the plants had died.

However, the Great Conservatory at Chatsworth became Paxton’s model for the Crystal Palace, the story of which is as follows. On 11th June 1850 Paxto took the train to London. There at a meeting of the Board of the Midland Railway, he sketched out on a piece of blotting paper his plan for the Crystal Palace that he planned to build for the Great Exhibition of 1851.

Twenty–four hours later Paxton had sold his idea to Prince Albert, and commissioned Fox, Henderson & Co. a firm of contractors from Smethwick to build his great glass palace. By 19th June his drawings were complete and Fox Henderson had calculated the cost of the ironwork and every square foot of glass. 24–hours later Paxton met Robert Stephenson, the famous railway engineer, who was a Commissioner for the Great Exhibition. Paxton showed him his scheme and immediately secured his support.

“Nothing can stand against my plans”, Paxton wrote in jubilation, “everybody likes them”.

Erected in 22 weeks the Crystal Palace covered 19 acres, at the time this was the largest enclosed space on earth. It was five times as long as the Palm House in Kew (no doubt by design 1,851ft long), higher than Westminster Abbey and contained 293,635 panes of glass.

With over 6 million visitors, it was a major advertisement for glazed structures and thus exerted an influence on the popularity of conservatories during the latter part of Victoria’s reign and into the Edwardian era. Paxton received his knighthood from Queen Victoria for his design of the building.
Inspired by the Chatsworth Conservatory and before the building of the Crystal Palace, the Palm House at Kew was built (1844–48) by Richard Turner to Decimus Burton’s design, it is the world’s most important surviving Victorian glass and iron structure and is 363ft long, 100ft wide and rises to a height of 66ft.

Conservatories again enter literature at this time. In the Oscar Wilde novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray” first published in 1890, we find, “A week later Dorian Gray was sitting in the conservatory at Selby Royal, talking to the pretty Duchess of Monmouth, who with her husband, a jaded–looking man of sixty, was amongst his guests.” In his play “An Ideal Husband” first produced in 1895, a conservatory is where off–scene action takes place in Act 4.

Finally, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel Duet written in 1899 there is a lovely quote which possibly indicates the pretentiousness of owning a conservatory at this time, “The Lindens is the name, and it is on the Maybury Road…Such a nice little lawn in front, and garden behind. A conservatory, if you please, dining–room and drawing–room.”

Perhaps it was the Great War that put a temporary end to the popularity of the conservatory. Many of them would have been cold, draughty places in the winter with the quality of sealing and glazing available at the time and inadequate insulation would also have made them expensive to heat.
Certainly, by the 1920s and 30’s, cast iron conservatories built in the Victorian era would have succumbed to frost damage and rust.

Over the last 40 years there has been a renaissance in their popularity as construction problems have been overcome and a new wave of technology such as double–glazing, self–cleaning glass and solar glass have emerged to make them easy to maintain and heat. Under floor heating, without huge quantities of coal and miles of pipe, can also be installed using electric heating that costs just pennies run. Paxton and the Duke of Devonshire would be jealous!

©Richmond Oak Conservatories Ltd.

Goodbye Evelina, Hello Pamela (and other updates)

I can't tell you with what satisfaction I write this post, having finished Fanny Burney's Evelina, the first 'real' foray into the books that describe the struggles of a young woman as she navigates the minefield that was society and its codes. Though their circumstances were slightly different, Evelina does a better job than Marianne. She is more demure and caring, and genuinely trying to be respectful of others and do the right thing. While Marianne cares more about her feelings first, those of others second, the expectations of society - not at all.

I can imagine Marianne's struggle to finish the book without throwing it across the room (I can also see her taking a deep breath, picking it up again, and examining it in detail for the 'how tos' it contains). But, really, Evelina didn't engage me. She is pretty and good and tries hard to do the right thing but doesn't seem to have any interests. I suppose she reads but can't recall any discussion of books. She is at the mercy of her relations (some very vulgar), and has to endure the attentions of several truly ridiculous men, who are presumptuous, arrogant, and fawning. Fortunately, we know Burney was exaggerating for comic effect. Still, you regularly think, "For God's sake, just slap the idiot and let's move on!"

It's satire of social pretensions, though, so one must endure with that in mind. Perhaps I just don't have the patience for 18th Century satire. I do love it in general. I've written it myself. It just seems more mean than funny in this century. The women are positively tormented. At the core of satire is always truth, so it's another reminder how at the mercy of a male-dominated society women were.

Fanny Burney

Let me take a moment to say that I'm trying to separate myself from the knowledge of how hard it was for women of that time and the reading of these novels. I'm aware of the struggles, the lack of money, power, and identity, the oppression, the perpetual pregnancies (and their risks), etc. I just can't really read and enjoy any of the novels if I allow myself to viscerally tune in to all the pain and suffering of the women of that period. It know it existed. It was horrible and unfair. But I can't hold that in my head and heart and read the novels at the same time. I wouldn't be able to enjoy them at all. And, as said, I'm not a scholar. I want to enjoy the books and feel connected to them; I'm not compiling a history or arguing anything. I want to find something in them that speaks to me. Some strength of mind and heart I can borrow from.

It's clear that I privilege feelings over ideas, which I didn't know about myself until now.

I will give Evelina that - she has strength (despite the usual female weaknesses in these novels - they just tire so easily, the poor dears).

Back to the story:

Plot Summary

Fanny Burney's memoirs and letters (etext)

The only interesting thing she does is prevent a Keatsian-like poet from committing suicide by rushing into his room and pulling the pistol out of his hands. You wonder where on earth she found the courage to do such a thing as she showed no real sign of either before. He turns out to be her brother (her estranged father was very busy - there are several long-lost children, it appears, until things are straightened out and one is exposed as a fake - a daughter, substituted by the real Evelina's wet nurse and brought to the father to take advantage of his wealth and position. The fake turns out to be the wet nurse's own daughter. That's also the most interesting plot point - but comes late in the book and is wrapped up in about 30 pages.

There is also a fraud perpetuated against the hero, Lord Orville, Evelina's future husband, by one of the fops, Sir Clement Willoughby (ah, no good can come of dating a man named Willoughby girls), but you guess it's him right away.

Of course she gets her man - Lord Orville - who is strong and sweet and always good and a gentleman. There's not much development of him either - the characters, what you know of them, seem to be solely shaped by how well they navigate the social codes. Unless they give an impassioned and overly flowery speech (hold onto your lunch, there are plenty of those), which still provides little or no insight into who they really are.

In the end, the lesson here is that she honored herself, her family and her virtue no matter what. In today's world, these are also good things, but you'll have to decide what to substitute for 'virtue' yourself. The goal is to only associate with people who treat you with care and respect and to believe in yourself and be true to yourself are very good lessons in any age.

No suprise, though, that Austen is leagues above Burney. She writes with more sense, intelligence, cleverness and class. She just plain writes well. With maturity.

So I think Evelina could be called a little bit of a 'romp' though I didn't much enjoy it as such. It's been called the 'chick lit' of its time. Samuel Richardson's Pamela promises to be more so as it caused quite an uproar and is told from the point of view of a "virtuous young servant who resists and denounces her oppressive master until, apparently reformed, he makes her his obedient wife." Jane Eyre, meet an early ancestor. And James' governess in The Turn of the Screw which, much as I love Jane Eyre, I enjoyed more for its brutal portrayal of a young woman who'd read too many of such novels and the tragedy that befell her as a result.

Pamela was deemed rather pornographic (now we're getting juicy), though that may have been a contrivance to sell books by a bookseller, and mock-novels (early fan fiction?) were out within a year, including Fielding's Shamela. Alexander Pope endorsed it, though. Does that count?

Sounds fun to me. I'm growing used to the epistolary form and, criticism aside, Richardson did write one of Austen's all time favorite books, Sir Charles Grandison. He also wrote a book of letter templates for young women (semi-literate young women), to "instruct them how they should think & act in common Cases, as well as indite." The letters would act as "short fictional cases of conscience" that would also influence (for the better) the young minds of these vulnerable women.*

Of Pamela Richardson wrote that it would "catch young and airy Minds, and when Passions run high in them, to shew how they may be directed to laudable Meanings and Purposes, in order to decry such Novels and Romances, as have a Tendency to inflame and corrupt."

I love how 'Meanings and Purposes' are captialized, but not 'inflame and corrupt.' I do agree that Passions should always be.

Reading these books is a wholly different feeling from rereading the Austen novels, as the latter are, to me, 'once removed' being written by a third party with an omniscient voice. Had S&S been written from Marianne's perspective, the feeling might have been more intimate between us, but as that's not the case, reading the books the character might have, that Austen definitely did, feels somehow like time traveling. Which is exactly what I wanted.

Good grief do I feel uneducated. These books should have been taught in college. I would gladly have added an extra year in order to squeeze them in.

Fun and Not So Fun Facts About Burney:

- She had a mastectomy without anesthetic, just one glass of wine.

- One scholar posits that her brother, James, had an incestuous relationship with their half-sister, Sarah but there is no evidence of this.

- Her work was admired by Samuel Johnson, David Garrick, and Edmund Burke.

- She supported herself and her family through her later writing - Cecilia and The Wanderer.

- Austen's title for Pride and Prejudice is taken from Cecilia.

- She burned her first novel, The History of Caroline Evelyn. She used it as the foundation for Evelina, who is the daughter of this fictional woman.

- Some scholars suggest that she suffered from dyslexia. She still didn't know her alphabet by the age of 8.

- She was a frequent guest of Hester Thrale, patroness of the arts, where she met Johnson, James Boswell, and Oliver Goldsmith.

Updates on this Project:

I've arranged an English Country Dance class starting in September at the same Hostel in Baltimore where we had the one class in January. This will be a month-long class taught by the same instructor. I just can't get to the Monday night dances at St. Mark's on a regular enough basis to really become even remotely proficient (or just not complete chaos in a skirt, wreaking havoc on the set as I move up or down), so it's just not as fun for me, those dances. Everyone is so nice and patient, but I become too self-conscious about not having enough practice to retain anything, so this class will help tremendously.

I was also at two events where I was seated at a table with people I mostly didn't know, so pretended I was at a large dinner party in Austen's time and introduced myself to those on either side and did a credible job of keeping up my end of the conversation, especially with the two older gentlemen I was seated next to at each event). I usually find those situations 'provoking,' and awkward. But playing this game helped a great deal. One was a dinner given at the opening of an exhibit of my uncle's Cloisonne at The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, the other was a tea and poetry afternoon in an old mansion in olumbia (20 mins outside of Bmore) at which our Poet Laureate, Stan Plumly, read and answered questions. I'm the Poet Laureate liaison, one of my many duties, so I staff him whenever I can.

This is certainly much longer than intended and it's a beautiful day outside - here's my current view, from where I sit at the kitchen table typing this:

And Keegan, guarding the door:

I went to a Conservatory this weekend, which is of the Victorian age, I know, but, who cares? Will post pics.