Inspired by the Classics: 4 Thoughts From Lark Rise to Candleford

Good morning (or afternoon!) and welcome! If this is your first time, I'm so glad you've found us, and if you are returning then it's lovely to have you back. A few weeks back I mentioned Flora Thomspon's 1938 classic, From Lark Rise to Candleford in a post on happiness. This trilogy of books, which has since been turned into a television series, focuses on life in a small village, Lark Rise, towards the end of the nineteenth century. There were a lot of little observations which I found quite inspiring and enlightening and thought that you might enjoy them too. 

"There were no bought pleasures, and, if there had been, there was no money to pay for them; but there were the sights, sounds, and scents of the different seasons: spring with its fields of young wheat-blades bending in the wind as the cloud-shadows swept over them; summer with its ripening grain and its flowers and fruit and its thunderstorms, and how the thunder growled and rattled over that flat land and what boil, sizzling downpours it brought! With August came the harvest and the fields settled down to the long winter rest, when the snow was often piled high and frozen, so that the buried hedges could be walked over, and strange birds came for crumbs to the cottage doors and hares in search of food left their spoor round the pig-sties."

I love these references to simple living, gently guided by the seasons. We are lucky to live in an area that experiences four quite distinct seasons, however I wonder if the children are as attuned to them as the children of Lark Rise were! With the arrival of spring here, my children are spending more times outdoors, climbing trees, playing with the neighbours and kicking a ball around. I'm so glad to see them doing this again!

"Poverty's no disgrace, but 'tis a great inconvenience!"

Do you think that this sentiment has changed in recent years? People are struggling more and that dreaded word - recession - keeps being thrown about. Poverty is a very real thing for many people in our country, although I'm not sure if we are doing better at making it less of a stigma, or a 'disgrace' than one hundred years ago. I also believe that poverty, in the context that it is being referred to here, has changed. The people of Lark Rise were considered extremely poor- but they all had homes, were able to feed their families (to a certain degree) and lived within a very tight budget. Poverty today presents itself as homelessness, going without meals, and unstable or insecure income. As for the inconvenience that Thompson refers to, I'm not sure that many people living in poverty today would refer to it in such a mild way! What do you think? Oh, and as an additional note, doing more things at home - making clothes, cooking from scratch, making cleaning supplies - were all considered something done by poorer classes. I think that we would do well to take this on board, if we haven't already. Rhonda at Down to Earth blog talks about this really well here, if you're interested. 

"Then they ate plenty of green food, all home-grown and freshly pulled; lettuce and radishes and young onions with pearly heads and leaves like fine grass. A few slices of bread and home-made lard, flavoured with rosemary, and plenty of green food "went down good," as they used to say."

Another aspect of the poverty experienced in Lark Rise was the reliance on homegrown food. I have to wonder how we have gone so far from this simple concept (perhaps it is the unrealistic photos online, replete with their hundred dollars worth of garden landscaping). Growing our own food doesn't have to be an expensive endeavour, not does it require acres of land. There is so much to gain from growing essential herbs, vegetables and fruit in pots, in small plots of land, in old garden-beds, on a sunny window sill, or a shady section of the deck. I don't understand why people don't recognise how growing their own food helps so much with grocery bills, but also with mental health (there is nothing like getting your hands dirty whilst watching some grow from your own hard work), physical health (plenty of time outdoors getting vitamin D, not to mention the healthy food you get to enjoy), and for the wellbeing of passing this pleasure onto children. 

"All times are times of transition; but the eighteen-eighties were so in a special sense, for the world was at the beginning of a new era, the era of machinery and scientific discovery. Values and conditions of life were changing everywhere."

 I'm not sure if we can say that the time we are living through now is that of a new era, but I do think that "values and conditions of life are changing everywhere." Just looking back over the ideas raised in this post - poverty, seasonal living, self-sufficiency - these are all evolving concepts in the 21st century and are being valued in very different ways. They are also changing concepts, dependant on the culture viewing them. My view of poverty will be very different to someone living in a war-torn region of the world, who has been experiencing it for years. Globalisation has impacted the way in which we value each other and the world around us, and I don't think that is always in a good way. Lots of food for thought here!

This book really showed me how far our way of life and our attitudes have changed in the last one hundred years. The importance of family, community, doing one's best, and being there for others were all motifs throughout the book. There were things I didn't agree with (there usually are when I read books from previous centuries!), but I recognised them as being culturally acceptable thoughts from that time. I've said before that I don't believe in censuring things that don't align with modern values, but should encourage them to be read, discussed and learned from. We should not be too arrogant to think that just because we don't agree there is nothing there for us to learn. 

I hope you've enjoyed this little trip through Lark Rise and Candleford, and would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. Have a lovely weekend,