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“There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they'll take you.”
Beatrix Potter
Where shall we go on our Easter weekend rambles? Not the beach, not the park, not to friends and family. Seeing as we're all on lockdown together, apart, I thought I'd take you on a little romp around Beatrix Potter world! Writer, illustrator, natural scientist and conservationist, Beatrix Potter was born in Kensington, England in 1866 and was educated by governesses, isolated from other children. (click here for more about Beatrix Potter)
Her love of landscape, flora and fauna and the woodland creatures who make their homes in its midst make her hugely successful children's books amongst the most endearing and enduring stories of all time.
We may learn a lot from Beatrix while we're sequestered, young or old. Simply look around, into and under the trees in our yards or outside of our apartment windows. There's a magical world out there and within our imaginations if we listen to the birdsong long enough.
I've always loved maps, ask Nicky Ovitt, who hand illustrated the map on the back of my second book, Fog Valley Winter. Maps take us place we never dreamed of.
Beatrix left behind quotes of how she perceived her childhood gifted her the way she looked at the world and the treasures it, in turn, produced.
Happy Easter, and Passover friends.
“Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were--Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter. ”
“I hold that a strongly marked personality can influence descendants for generations.”
“Believe there is a great power silently working all things for good, behave yourself and never mind the rest.”
“Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.”
“I cannot rest, I must draw, however poor the result, and when I have a bad time come over me it is a stronger desire than ever.”
“Thank goodness my education was neglected.”
“I remember every stone, every tree, the scent of heather... Even when the thunder growled in the distance, and the wind swept up the valley in fitful gusts, oh, it was beautiful, home sweet home.”
“It is said that the effect of eating too much lettuce is 'soporific'.”
“Thank God I have the seeing eye, that is to say, as I lie in bed I can walk step by step on the fells and rough land seeing every stone and flower and patch of bog and cotton pass where my old legs will never take me again.”'
“In Summer there were white and damask roses, and the smell of thyme and musk. In Spring there were green gooseberries and throstles [thrush], and the flowers they call ceninen [daffodils]. And leeks and cabbages also grew in that garden; and between long straight alleys, and apple-trained espaliers, there were beds of strawberries, and mint, and sage.”
“The place is changed now, and many familiar faces are gone, but the greatest change is myself. I was a child then, I had no idea what the world would be like. I wished to trust myself on the waters and the sea. Everything was romantic in my imagination. The woods were peopled by the mysterious good folk. The Lords and Ladies of the last century walked with me along the overgrown paths, and picked the old fashioned flowers among the box and rose hedges of the garden.”
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