Happy in Hampshire!

Jane Austen adored her beloved birthplace and the place where she lived for the majority of her life – Hampshire. She led a quiet life as a rector’s daughter in a small village and yet, drew her inspiration and influences from the limited social circle around her. No doubt, the beautiful, rolling countryside of Hampshire must have been a great source of inspiration for her novels, and while many of her heroines delighted in the amusements a larger town could offer, it was apparent from her letters that she would always remain partial to the Hampshire countryside.

I am so happy and overwhelmed to reveal to you, my dear readers, that I am now living in Hampshire, too! A happy coincidence, although I should admit that the exact location might have had something to do with my preferences!  Or was it fate?

Persuasions or not, here I am, enjoying my life in a small country town in Hampshire, just a short bus drive away from Alton - and easily accessible to Chawton, which I plan to visit soon, perhaps on the occasion of Jane Austen’s birthday next week?

What have I been up to since I last wrote in my blog? Worried about the loss of electronic data, having lost a vast amount of my food blog that I had maintained online for years, I decided to print out my blog in the form of a picture book. Out came a collection of three picture books, including most of my posts from 2010 onwards – and all this for me to cherish my memories of my trips to Austen country and my other essays on Jane Austen’s life and literature.

In addition to that, several trips to the local library, picking up fun titles such as the ones below, to entertain me during the dark winter evenings.

Having said that, these days  I am more likely to be reading one of these instead:

My daughter loves this P & P counting picture book, and I love introducing her to some of the concepts in my favourite book!

I hope to  be able to gather some more material for my blog while I live here, children permitting of course…