Just a List of Some Plain Questions Tag!

Rachel at A Girl's Place tagged me in "Just a List of Some Plain Questions." 

Rules:

-Paste the button onto your blog post. (Done above!)

-Answer the questions of the person who tagged you--make it interesting and fun!

-Leave a list of new questions (or just pass the question list you answered) and tag a few people.

Rachel's list of questions:

1. What is your favourite ice cream flavour?

Hmmmm...Chocolate chip cookie dough.

2. Do you love Period Drama? Why or why not?

I like a lot of them, yes. Some I do not, but I often enjoy watching them! (Note: see my header. That should answer your question. :) 

3. What is your prettiest book cover?

Oooh, there are so many pretty book covers! I love this cover of Kilmeny of the Orchard: 

4. What's your favourite series?

Ohhh...Hmm...If two-book series count, I would say the Pat books by L. M. Montgomery. Only two books, but I still might count it as a series. I LOVE the Pat books and Mistress Pat, the sequel, is my very favourite book ever, tied with Rilla of Ingleside. 

5. Do you have a favourite flower? Which is one of your favourites?

I love violets. I was in raptures this spring over all the violets. White violets, some with purple streaks, yellow violets (haha, yes, yellow violets!) and, of course, the gorgeous deep indigo ones with speckles of gold in the center.

6. Do you write?

Why, yes! I've been writing for several years. When I was younger I wrote a lot of poetry, and I'm still working on a novel I started several years ago. I also do writing on this blog, obviously!

7. How old is your blog?

It's about 6 1/2 months old. Or rather almost seven. 

8. Do you love Lucy Maud Montgomery? Why or why not?

Well, I love her so much that I have already included her books in two answers already! Yes, yes, yes, YES, YES, I LOVE L. M. Montgomery!!!! She is my very favourite authour in the world. I've loved her books since I was seven years old. 

9. Do you like Fashion?

Well, it depends on what you mean by that question. My taste in clothing is not exactly what most people would call "fashionable." I mean, it's not super old-fashioned or anything, but it's modest and conservative and usually not name-brand clothing. I still like to look nice, though, just in a modest way. 

However, if you mean fashion like fashion design or fashion like I like looking at pictures of clothes, mostly for inspiration, then yes. I love to sew, and I usually alter the pattern in some way. I've made two prom dresses by piecing together patterns (some altered) and online tutorials and my own ideas. So I love fashion design. And I like looking at vintage clothing, mostly 1940's-50's and Victorian and Edwardian. :)

10. What's your favourite colour?

Purple. Has been for years.

11. Who's your favourite actress?

Hmmm...Emma Thompson?

12. How many brothers and sisters do you have?

Five. 

This was a fun tag, Rachel!
Now, to tag people...I'm going to tag a few people, but, as always, if I tag you, don't feel like you have to do it, and anyone else who sees this and wants to do it--you're absolutely welcome to. Please do.
Cordy
Anna
Natalie
and Rachel because she hasn't actually gotten tagged yet because she made the tag! I hope you don't mind if I tag you; you absolutely don't have to do it again. :)

And now for my questions...I am going to keep some of Rachel's, adapted; I don't love coming up with questions and I shall have to try to avoid asking questions I've already asked in tags!
1. Do you love L. M. Montgomery?
2. How long have you been blogging?
3. What are your top 5 hobbies (number can be variable)?
4. What's your favourite fruit?
5.  What's your favourite holiday?

Well, that's as many as I can come up with. :) Again, you don't have to do it, and you can do it if you want to and I didn't tag you!

"The adieu is charity itself." (Why Mr. Darcy is a man worth loving)

Being the Jane Austen fan that I am, I see Jane Austen content quite a bit. And among the most common Jane Austen-related things I see, praise of Mr. Darcy is quite possibly the most common. I've seen numerous "I Heart Mr. Darcy" items, pictures of Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy with any number of different captions, and so much more. He is, after all, the epitome of literary heroes, is he not?

But why?

He's handsome, he's rich, he's Mr. Darcy, and I've heard about his wet shirt too many times, but I want to say why Mr. Darcy really is a good man--and it has nothing to do with his looks or Andrew Davies's idea of manliness.

I suppose I should start at the beginning.

Mr. Darcy was a jerk. The first time I read P&P I was shocked at how this man--of whom I had heard so much that was positive--acted, and I wondered if I was mistaken. Perhaps it wasn't Mr. Darcy about whom I had heard so much raving. I was disgusted with him, and I agreed wholeheartedly with Elizabeth in all her feelings towards him. I wanted to slap him when he started showing attention to Elizabeth, and I silently cheered when Elizabeth still refused to even consider changing her opinions. I thought certainly Mr. Darcy would soon fade away, as such characters should. 

Of course, I was wrong. But I was also right about how Mr. Darcy was at first. 

No, he wasn't truly a jerk at heart, and he was, actually, a good man, but the way he acted--! His pride was too overbearing, and his manners were, obviously, terrible. 

And the fact is, if he had remained the way he was in the beginning of the book, Elizabeth never would have married him. If he had remained how he was when he first proposed to her, she never would have accepted him at last. 

The thing that makes Mr. Darcy a man worth loving is that he changed. And why?

Because he wanted to deserve the woman he loved. 

As you may remember, there were two particular things that Elizabeth said that stayed with Mr. Darcy, which things prompted his change:

"Had you behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner." and

"You could not have made me the offer of your hand in any possible way that would have tempted me to accept it."

He began to realise--and care-- how he appeared to others and he began to have a desire to change. 

Okay, hold on, Mr. Darcy (or Jane Austen, or whatever) said this all for me; let me quote:

"I was spoilt by my parents, who...allowed, encouraged, almost taught me to be selfish and overbearing; to care for none beyond my own family circle; to think meanly of all the rest of the world; to wish at least to think meanly of their sense and worth compared with my own. Such I was, from eight to eight and twenty; and such I might still have been but for you, dearest, loveliest Elizabeth! What do I not owe you!! You taught me a lesson, hard indeed at first, but most advantageous. By you, I was properly humbled."

One of my very favourite parts in the book is at Pemberley when Mr. Darcy shows such civility--and gentlemanliness! As he told her:

"My object then," replied Darcy, "was to show you, by every civility in my power, that I was not so mean as to resent the past; and I hoped to obtain your forgiveness, to lessen your ill opinion, by letting you see that your reproofs had been attended to."

That is manliness. Manliness is not wearing a wet shirt (Mr. Darcy didn't, by the way. That was the one part in the movie where Colin Firth wasn't Mr. Darcy.) or being handsome, it is being willing to become better for the sake of those you love. 

And that, my dear readers, is why Mr. Darcy is a man worth loving. 

My Favourite Things About Summer

Summer is here! And I'm bored to death already! So I'm going to attempt to write a blog post about what I love about this season of--

Summer, and sun, and all things hot...

Mr. Darcy, don't look so offended. It's only Olaf. 

1. I'm not stressed out about all the things I need to do because I don't have anything to do!

2. I can read all day if I want. 

This is, of course, because of number 1. If I don't have to do anything all day, then I can read all day!

3. I can go barefoot all the time--even outside.

(Rae! What a scandalous picture! 

Oh, hush, Rae. Can you think of a better picture to put?)

4. I can watch Pride and Prejudice without having to worry about school. (In fact, I'm partway through episode 3 currently...)

"Only that far? And you could actually bring yourself to stop watching before you got to me? Outrageous. I am most seriously displeased."

Yes, well, Lady Catherine, you must understand--well, actually, you're right. I should go finish watching. Just let me finish this blog post?

5. I can sleep in. 

Again, nothing to do, no school--I can sleep in! I even took a nap the other day and I never take naps. I think that shows how bored and "I-have-nothing-to-do" I was. 

6. It's green.  Let me demonstrate with a picture I took near our house about a year ago:

I know everything is green in Spring and we all love that, but, at least where I live, it's even greener in Summer. Or, rather, it's a deeper, richer green.

7. I know I indirectly mentioned this a couple of times, but let me officially say:

No school!

My 8th reason for loving Summer--

"...which, perhaps, I should have mentioned first..."

Is that I have more time for blogging! If I can but think of more topics, then I'll have plenty of time to write them out! :)

What are your favourite things about Summer? Are any of them things on my list?

I Have Finished at Last!

Some of you may remember this post about how much I hate Algebra II. Well, I still hate it, but...

I'VE FINALLY FINISHED IT!!!

 Now, yes, I know it's late to be finishing it. But I'll have you know that I started it late (because I was finishing Geometry, but we don't need to go there) and I actually finished the whole thing in about 6 1/2 months. I would have finished it much nearer to the beginning of June, but you may refer to this post about my life in the past couple weeks to see why I haven't been able to work on it. Today was the first day in a long time that I was able to go back to it, and I finished! (See, I've been really close for a long time. :) 

Another consequence of this momentously exciting post is that now...

I'M DONE WITH HIGH SCHOOL!!! 

Algebra II was the last class I had to finish up to complete High School, and now I'm done!!!

Oh, please, Mr. Darcy, you're dreamy and all that, but that smile doesn't go far enough. Let's try...

 and

That's better!

Anyway, just wanted to share that lovely bit of news with you all. :)

I'm back for a moment...

Perhaps no one has noticed my silence, but, alas, I have been sadly absent from the blogging world for about two weeks. 

Does anyone wonder why?

Well, perhaps not, but I shall tell you anyway, without giving too many boring details.

Two Wednesdays ago, my family left for Florida, and we had a three day vacation. We got back Friday night, and Saturday was insane because we had to recover from Florida and prepare for our Church's Girl's Camp the following Monday. I've been at Girl's Camp from last Monday until today. 

Both things were quite amazing, and here's a picture of the beach...

I'm afraid I may not be posting much in the next couple weeks either, but I shall do my best to catch up with everyone else's posts. :) 

Photographs {2}

I love taking pictures when there's a good picture to be had. A while ago I did a post with several photos I had taken. This post will include photographs of some beautiful things in Nature this spring.

Near our house, there's a road with a little brook going along it, and in the Spring, it was the most beautiful thing ever. It looked like a description from one of L. M. Montgomery's books, perhaps this one from Anne of Avonlea:

"There . . . down in the brook . . . that old green, mossy log with the water flowing over it in those smooth ripples that look as if they'd been combed, and that single shaft of sunshine falling right athwart it, far down into the pool. Oh, it's the most beautiful poem I ever saw."

 Is that not just absolutely gorgeous? Of course, the pictures do not do it justice, but use your imagination for the rest of it!

All along the brook were bunches of wild phlox scattered everywhere:

 And there were some darling little pink flowers that might be wild geraniums:

In our own yard we had apple blossoms in abundance:

One more picture of the brook to finish the post. :)

Well, there you go! What did you think? Do you like taking pictures? 

"It isn't as if birthdays were common things, Marilla."

No, I did not make this cake. This wasn't even my real birthday cake. Thank you, Pinterest. 

Monday, dear readers, was my birthday. Now, I've tried not to disclose my age on the internet, though I'm not sure exactly what harm it would do, butconsented l a select few how old I am.

I am the age Rilla Blythe was when Ken kissed her for the first time.

I am the age Anne Shirley was when she started teaching school.

I am the age Marianne Dashwood was at the very beginning of Sense and Sensibility. 

Now here I am, never having been kissed (thank goodness!), not starting to teach school, and not the co-heroine of a Jane Austen novel. But I'm "pretty nearly perfectly happy" with where I am.

To celebrate my birthday, I slept in, had wonderful meals, and got spoiled by my family with more presents than I deserved.
I also got my own phone, finally. Most people have phones by the time they're my age, but I, being homeschooled, had before had no need for such a thing. But as I'm going to go to Community College this Fall, we decided this birthday was a good time to get a phone.
I also got my ears pierced, another thing most people have usually done by the time they're my old, old age. But my mom doesn't have hers pierced and my dad doesn't see the point, so I had to wait until they finally consented. But it's done now!

I figure this doesn't show too much of my beautiful face on the internet...

Another thing I intended to do on my birthday was watch Pride and Prejudice (1995, of course). But then I didn't have time so I decided to watch Sense and Sensibility (1995, because I've already seen 2008 twice and 1995 but once).

However, I only had time to watch about 50 minutes of it. In fact, I still haven't finished it...I've been busy.

It was a wonderful birthday!