Although the exhibition Hope's Whisper has now finished at the Bronte Parsonage Museum I am still continuing to collect weather data from the station positioned in the Museum garden until mid October (a whole year since we started the project).
However, i have a bit of a confession to make - and i am truely, deeply sorry for how rubbish i am at being a good weather girl.
Every month i go and download the data - and i do a quick check to see if all the information has transfered to my computer before leaving. I do this by looking at one of the data charts showing temperature and air pressure. All has been fine so far....
During my last visit last week though, i noticed that the yearly data was showing that there had been no rain recorded for the last 2 months. How could this be? It's not like we've had a beautiful hot sunny summer is it?
So, i went to check the weather station and found that the rain gauge was blocked up with leaves and berries from the tree near by. Can i swear on a public blog? I'd better not - but think of a bad word and insert it into the following sentence:
"Oh ---- !"
If it makes anyone feel any better about it i had to reach up and un-block the rain gauge and in doing so the valve emptied the newly measured water all down my front.
Racked with guilt i've spent the last week realising the consequences of my bad weather girl antics - i can't now do a yearly summary of the weather data collected.
Insert another swear word here.
I went across to the Bronte Parsonage Museum on Tuesday to collect the monthly weather data and also to dismantle the 3 Bells sculpture in the front garden.
A few days ago i received an email from Jenna at the Museum informing me that the wheel had fallen off the sculpture in a storm during the night...
The sculpture has done quite well considering the weather this summer has thrown at it - the solar rotor continued to spin until the bitter end even though there were days when it wasn't sunny enough to get it going at all; and i managed to get a short video of the wheel going round in the breeze hitting the bell above it; and by all accounts the water powered bell collected enough rain to set the bell off a few times.
Although the sculpture is now gone from the garden, the exhibition is still on until 24th September - so you still have a few days left to see the work.
Hope's Whisper at the Bronte Parsonage Museum has been extended and will now be on show until September 23rd - so if you didn't get across to the Museum during the summer, you now have a chance in the next couple of weeks to make the trip.
Alongside my work are the Abraham Shackleton records showing the weather data he collected during the 1800's, plus a copy of the Babbage Report (there's details below about both subjects).
www.bronte.org.uk
Go to the Museum website for opening times and admission charges etc
Hope's Whisper finishes on 5th September, so there's only a couple of days left to see the exhibition at the Bronte Parsonage Museum.
The show seems to have gone very quickly, but i will continue to collect the weather data from the weather station in the Museum garden until mid October so i have a full year of information. I can then also finish the archive of weather postcards that the weather collectors so diligently filled in throughout the year.
Some pieces from the exhibition are going to be shown in another venue at the end of the year - but i'll fill you in on that nearer the time.
By the way - I've still not finished Shirley by Charlotte Bronte - i have to confess it is a bit of a battle.
