At Home with Jane Austen

When I took this photo, I was I standing at the cross roads near the home where Jane Austen lived for her last eight years. During these years she wrote most of her major works. Jane lived in Chawton Village, England from 1809 to 1817.

This is one side of the large cottage, the door to the left is the entrance to the kitchen, and the door on the right goes into the parlor. Originally the entrance was on the street side of the house. I am taking this photo from the side garden, which is shown in the photo below. The entire time I was here, my thoughts were "Jane walked in this garden, Jane sat in this room...."

Below is the back garden. The grounds are lovely,
and I wonder if they were so when Jane lived there.

I took this photo below to show the beautiful moss
growing on the tree's trunk and the stone fence.

This is the dining room where the Austens had their meals.
Jane would have been in charge of breakfast each morning.

Today I want to share with you why this room was so special to me (as I mentioned in my first Jane Austen post). Can you see it?
It is not the tea wares, nor even the tablecloth with Jane's own needle work on it.

It is not this lovely dress.
You can not see it in the photo of the dining room as it was behind me as I took the picture. I heard from my friend that it was a nightmare to create! How does my friend know this? She just happens to live next door to a very talented seamstress who does many important historical projects, one being to recreate Jane's clothing! All the dresses in the house were made by this gifted lady. I will show the rest in another post.

Here is the reason this room is so special to me...this is where Jane sat each morning and wrote. Here, at this spot, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma and Persuasion were written...imagine that....at this little table by the window!

This is a poster about the history of her writing spot.

I have long admired Jane and her ability to write stories
that draw us in and transport us to another time, stories that teach us about humanity.

Standing there by that table, my admiration for her grew immensely. While I pamper myself with a laptop, a Lazyboy and hot chocolate, she wrote day after day on this tiny table, sitting in that little hard chair....with a quill!
What an amazing woman she was,
what an imagination and understanding of human beings she must have had!

Thank you so much for coming by and visiting today.
I appreciate each and every one of you!
Hugs,
Terri