Pillar Portrait reconstruction

From http://bronteblog.blogspot.com/ :

Sarah Walden, the author of the Pillar Portrait reconstruction, has written to us to share a video showing the process of the digital reconstruction which brought Branwell back from behind the pillar:

A digital reconstruction of Branwell Brontë back into the sibling portrait group he painted. Reportedly, Charlotte Brontë showed this portrait sans Branwell and smelling of fresh paint to Elizabeth Gaskell after her siblings' deaths. I have used GIMP to dodge and burn the faint paint variances to "draw out" the features of Branwell that have shown up as the paint has faded over there years on the pillar. I used Emily's eyes for his. The song is my own composition.

You even can buy merchandise (a T-shirt with the Pillar Portrait plus Branwell back in) on zazzle.

History to Herstory

The Guardian's Northerner Blog announces the revamping and launch today, October 7, of the website History to Herstory, which up until now was one of the few repositories online where many manuscripts of letters written by Charlotte Brontë, Ellen Nussey, etc. as well as lives and manuscripts of countless famous and not-so-famous Yorkshire women could be seen.
http://bronteblog.blogspot.com/

October in Haworth

October is the month where autumn is now well underway and early morning frosts are a reminder of winter to come. The days will become noticeably shorter as the month progresses. Autumn colour can be seen as the trees and hedgerow leaves change.

What to see

Garden birds such as the Blackbird, Blue Tit and Robin will be seen more frequently as their need to find food increases. This time of year is a good time to start feeding them. The start of the month Meadow Pipits can sometimes be seen in large numbers as they migrate to other areas. Redwing and Fieldfare will be migrating from Northern Europe to winter in Britain.

The leaves on Trees and hedgerows start to change colour to a yellow - gold colour. The reason why this happens is that during the summer when there is plenty of sunlight the leaves produce chlorophyll This is the green you see and it converts the sunlight into energy. The red orange pigment is there in the leaf but is covered up by the green, in the autumn there is less light and so the making of chlorophyll stops and the green fades away to reveal the red - orange colours underneath. As the tree canopy is gradually lost Grey Squirrels can be seen moving around in woods, busy looking for acorns.

This is the time Jays are also active burying acorns to eat during the winter.

October is a good time to see fungi, cool damp days you will find many types in woodland and fields.

Fewer insect will be seen as the cold weather sets in, early in the month if the weather is warm you can still see butterflies such as Red Admiral.

Haworth-village.org.uk/nature

‘October 4th, 1847.TO W. S. WILLIAMS

Dear Sir,—I thank you sincerely for your last letter.  It is valuable to me because it furnishes me with a sound opinion on points respecting which I desired to be advised; be assured I shall do what I can to profit by your wise and good counsel.

‘Permit me, however, sir, to caution you against forming too favourable an idea of my powers, or too sanguine an expectation of what they can achieve.  I am myself sensible both of deficiencies of capacity and disadvantages of circumstance which will, I fear, render it somewhat difficult for me to attain popularity as an author.  The eminent writers you mention—Mr. Thackeray, Mr. Dickens, Mrs. Marsh, etc., doubtless enjoyed facilities for observation such as I have not; certainly they possess a knowledge of the world, whether intuitive or acquired, such as I can lay no claim to, and this gives their p. 334writings an importance and a variety greatly beyond what I can offer the public.

‘Still, if health be spared and time vouchsafed me, I mean to do my best; and should a moderate success crown my efforts, its value will be greatly enhanced by the proof it will seem to give that your kind counsel and encouragement have not been bestowed on one quite unworthy.—Yours respectfully, ‘C. Bell.’

Is this the Mrs. Marsh Charlotte is talking about?

‘October 3rd, 1851. Dear Nell

‘Dear Nell,—Do not think I have forgotten you because I have not written since your last.  Every day I have had you more or less in my thoughts, and wondered how your mother was getting on; let me have a line of information as soon as possible.  I have been busy, first with a somewhat unexpected visitor, a cousin from Cornwall, who has been spending a few days with us, and now with Miss Wooler, who came on Monday.  The former personage we can discuss any time when we meet.  Miss Wooler is and has been very pleasant.  She is like good wine: I think time improves her; and really whatever she may be in person, in mind she is younger than when at Roe Head.  Papa and she get on extremely well.  I have just heard papa walk into the dining-room and pay her a round compliment on her good-sense.  I think so far she has been pretty comfortable and likes Haworth, but as she only brought a small hand-basket of luggage with her she cannot stay long.

‘How are you?  Write directly.  With my love to your mother, etc., good-bye, dear Nell.—Yours faithfully,

‘C. Brontë.

Keighley News gives an update (and an unforgettable picture) of the current status of the Haworth Couldn’t Wear Less calendar initiative to raise money to refurbish Haworth's parish church:

Volunteers have been stripping off to help raise the £1.2 million needed to refurbish Haworth’s parish church.

They have come forward to be part of a pair of charity Calendar Girls-style calendars for 2012.
These will feature people either living or working in Haworth, including some local councillors. They will be pictured against familiar Bronte Country landscape, all wearing a lot less than usual. (...) 

“We’re calling them ‘Haworth Couldn’t Wear Less - His’ and ‘Haworth Couldn’t Wear Less - Hers’. “We are looking for some local businesses to provide about £1,000 worth of funding to cover the costs of printing and for outlets willing to sell the calendars for us from mid October. “People can follow the project on our Twitter account which is @HaworthCalendar.” [says Sarah Granby]. She said she would also like help from someone with computer skills to put together a thermometer-style graphic which can be featured online and updated to allow people to keep track of how many calendars are being sold. People willing to support the project can email haworthcalendar@aol.com.

http://bronteblog.blogspot.com/

The Manchester Evening news reported a few days ago that the new estate, Moss Side, named one of its streets Elizabeth Gaskell Square. 

Streets on new Moss Side estate named after Elizabeth Gaskell | Manchester Evening News - menmedia.co.uk

The Parsonage