Jane Eyre II

"I sought the orchard, driven to its shelter by the wind, which all day had blown strong and full from the south, without, however, bringing a speck of rain. Instead of subsiding as night drew on, it seemed to augment its rush and deepen its roar: the trees blew steadfastly one way, never writhing round, and scarcely tossing back their boughs once in an hour: so continuous was the strain bending their branchy heads northward - the clouds drifted from pole to pole, fast following, mass on mass: no glimpse of the blue sky had been visible that July day.

It was not without a certain wild pleasure I ran before the wind, delivering my trouble of mind to the measureless air-torrent thundering through space."

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

(first published in 1847)

I've finished reading Jane Eyre (again) and found lots of beautiful references to the weather throughout the book. I enjoyed it more than the first time i read it - maybe looking for weather descriptions helped. I'm going to write them all out and then see if i can match any days (roughly) with any of the days i'm recording throughout this year with the weather station sited at the Bronte Parsonage Museum... we'll see.

Since finishing the book i've started and am half way through The Cloudspotter's Guide by Gavin Pretor-Pinney. It's a delightful book and pretty funny too - get a copy if you can and try to learn your clouds.

By the way, under no circumstances is anyone allowed to comment on the state of my desk in the background of the image above. It's a work in progress and i know where everything is.