A six-spotted tiger beetle from a hike on 5/6/23.

"Rochester is problematic" yes?? that's the point? There's literally a bit in the book when Rochester tells Jane that he thinks she could fix him and she tells him that he should fix himself. And later in the narrative, when he's made the decision to work on himself and feels regret for his past actions, only at that point does Jane marry him. The point is that Rochester is a deeply flawed man who needed to realise that he had the capacity to improve on his own, without asking someone else to make him into a better person.

Corn water tower angle 3, Seneca Foods, Route 14, Rochester, Minnesota (LOC)

John Margolies, photographer. 1988

Maria Street, Rochester, New York.

I forgot if I already asked you or just thought about it:

Do you think Adele is Mr. Rochester's biological daughter? He doesn't think so and Jane couldn't find any resemblance between them but maybe she just takes after her mother a lot? But I have to admit it's a better look for Mr. Rochester if he takes in the illegitimate daughter of the woman that cheated on him out of pity than his own child out of obligation.

Either way I think Adele is a very sad character although it doesn't seem to bother her. Then again, she's only seven when we meet her.

I think it's impossible to know if Adele is Rochester's or not, because some kids don't look much like their father and DNA testing won't be around for about 150 years. I will always find his confident denial ridiculous.

That said, I think he denies Adele is his child because that makes him more of the hero of Adele's story than just someone acting out of obligation. However, it would also be pretty impossible for anyone to force him to take care of Adele, what with international borders and proof that Adele's mother was unfaithful, so I do think that Rochester's care of his maybe-daughter is admirable, no matter what you believe about her parentage.

Adele does seem to have landed in good hands, so I don't exactly feel sorry for her. She is doing better than the majority of natural children born in this era. Also, I find her characterization freaking hilarious. It's VERY revealing of Charlotte Brontë's prejudices. Here are two quotes:

I e’en took the poor thing out of the slime and mud of Paris, and transplanted it here, to grow up clean in the wholesome soil of an English country garden.

As she grew up, a sound English education corrected in a great measure her French defects; and when she left school, I found in her a pleasing and obliging companion: docile, good-tempered, and well-principled.

It's pretty heavily implied that Adele, either by nature or very early FRENCH nurture, is going to grow up into some sort of harlot unless they ENGLISH her away from the depths of Hell. And the way Jane Eyre talks about the French mother seducing the poor English Rochester, as if he didn't wander into France with the exact intention of finding a mistress... Well Charlotte Brontë seems to think very poorly of the French is all I'll say, despite the fact that she could clearly speak and write French herself.

(This isn't supposed to be out of malice for the other state game polls! I got a good chuckle out of most of the New York polls :) )

A nurses' strike is looming at Rochester General Hospital this week. The system that delivers and manages half the care in the Rochester area is preparing to keep operations running during the scheduled union picket. The Rochester Union of Nurses and Allied Professionals says members are ready to walk off the job beginning Thursday morning. Rochester Regional Health, which runs Rochester General Hospital, was notified that the work stoppage is planned from Thursday at 7 a.m. until Saturday at 7 a.m. Nurses are planning to walk the picket lines at that time, no matter when shifts end. Officials with Rochester Regional say the health system plans to bring in hundreds of nurses during the strike from what it calls a nationally respected agency. It intends to maintain all services without interruption from emergency department response to scheduled surgeries. RRH says the strike comes after 15 negotiating sessions with the union to get its first contract.

Holy Trinity church and graveyard, Northumberland.

Day 285: October 12, 2023

Rochester, VT.

Kenneth Josephson - Front Street, Rochester, NY

Minor White, Snow on Garage Door, Rochester, 1960

The Raid on the Medway, 1667 by Willem Schellinks

WHO WANTS A TICKET TO IDKHOW IN ROCHESTER ON SATURDAY?! i cant go anymore unforch. please dm!

"Red and Blue doesn't care about you! Revolt!"

Seen in Rochester, New York