>>Ruby's post: Happy birthday, Miss Potter!

Beatrix Potter was born on July 28, 1866, which means that she's just had her 140th birthday--and she's still remembered with affection and admiration wherever her Little Books are read. (Hey, who among us will be remembered on our 140th?)

To celebrate this great occasion, we had a Peter Rabbit Block Party. It was Molly McGregor's idea. Molly, who owns the Hobbit House Bookstore next door to our shops on the east, is an equal-opportunity idea person. Which means that when she gets an idea, all of her friends get the opportunity to participate. She is also a huge Beatrix Potter fan. In her bookshop, she has a shelf of Miss Potter's books and figurines and toys and crafts. And she and China have made a Peter Rabbit garden in the back yard, complete with a scarecrow named Mr. McGregor (who reminds Molly of her ex-husband, Max), and a rabbit-sized wheelbarrow and a statue of Jemima Puddle-duck.

When Molly got her idea about the party, she invited all the shop-owners at the western end of our block to lend a hand. Of course, that means China and me, but also everybody at the Craft Emporium (in a rambling Victorian house owned by Constance Letterman), which houses nearly a dozen room-sized shops and boutiques. Everybody thought it was a great idea--not just fun, but a good attention-getter for all of our shops. So everybody pitched in.

China and I put tables out in the garden, and Molly decorated them with Miss Potter's books, baskets of rosemary and bunches of carrots and paper dolls of Miss Potter's famous characters. The food was easy and fun. Gretel, of Gretel's Candles, brought Peter Rabbit's Cucumber Sandwiches. Delia Murphy, from the Bead Boutique, brought Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle's Cheeseball, Constance Letterman baked several loaves of Flopsy's Favorite Chocolate Teabread, and Ruth Ann Gilman (Patchworks), brought Castle Cottage Carrot Cupcakes. I made gallons of Apply Dapply's Rosy Punch, which turned out to be a great hit, especially when a couple of teenagers who were kicking a soccer ball in the alley managed to score a goal in the punch bowl. Luckily, I had a reserve supply. We had to change the tablecloth, though.

There were lots of kids, of course, most of them too young to kick soccer balls into the punch bowl. Molly kept them busy with games and pictures to color. Her big white rabbit, Peter, was the guest of honor. Mrs. Tuttle, the librarian, brought her white duck, who looks just like Jemima (especially when she wears her bonnet and shawl), and the kids had fun acting out some of the stories.

While the kids were busy, China gave the grownups a tour of the garden, pointing out herbs that Miss Potter grew in her own garden at Hill Top Farm in the Lake District: St. John's wort, soapwort, houseleeks (here in the U.S., we call this hen-and-chicks), mullein, and tansy, and a lot more. To see some photos that Susan took in the garden at Hill Top Farm, go here and click on "Miss Potter's Garden."

When the afternoon got hot (this is Texas, after all), we climbed the stairs to the Hobbit Hole Story Room on the  second floor of the Hobbit House and listened while Molly (dressed up like Miss Potter, with Peter on a leash) read The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle. And then Susan read the first chapter of her new book, The Tale of Cuckoo Brow Wood. (You can read it too: go here, click on "Books in the Series," then on Cuckoo, and on the link to the first chapter.) 

The party turned out so well and attracted so much attention (Hark sent a photographer from the Enterprise, and China will be writing it up for her Garden Page) that we've decided to make it an annual event.

Read more about Miss Potter, in Beatrix Potter: Artist, Storyteller, and Countrywoman, by Judy Taylor.

Read more about Hill Top Farm, in At Home with Beatrix Potter, by Susan Denyer.

And don't forget Susan's Cottage Tale mysteries!

Your turn. What books did you read when you were a kid that still bring you joy as you remember them? Was Beatrix Potter among them? Other favorites?

Comments

[Patricia Pando]

Delighted to be joining you via the 'net. Wish I could have attended the party. I didn't know Miss Potter was only one day (plus 74 years) older than I! I'd have brought the cake.
I still have and love to read books from my childhood. My very favorite is Richard Halliburton's Book of Marvels. Second is Gene Stratton Porter's Laddie--followed by her other books. And of course, the fairy tales (my book was orange and had Peter Rabbit though he isn't fairy tale) and the Little House books. I could go on and on. All I did was read. Remember the orange covered biographies of famous people? I wondered why there weren't more women!

Patricia

[Deborah Nix]

I very much enjoy the China Bayles series although I have not yet read any of the Potter books. I've been an apparantly avid reader since third grade when the whole class went to lunch and left me sitting on a stepped bookcase engrossed in a book. And that was about 46 years ago.

By fifth grade I read mostly sci-fi but a book I went back to time and again was A Child's Geography of the World. I learned more from that book than several grades worth of social studies about the wideness of the world.

I also had Collier's collection of fairy tales but didn't much care for them. I guess I was a feminist even then - why were women always helpless and needing rescuing or having to take care of a bunch of guys?

I also read a lot of biographies and I'm with Patricia - I remember Madame Curie's and Ameilia Earhardt and those are the only woman I can remember.

Thank you for being an author willing to engage with readers.

Cheers,
Deborah

[Pam]

Hi Ruby!
I wasn't much of a reader when I was young girl - I *loved* being outside as much as I could - and I still do. It bothered my Mom that I didn't sit and read very much, so she read the Heidi series and Anne of Green Gables series to me before bed every night. On my own I read Girl of the Limberlost (my kind of girl) and Encyclopedia Brown, and borrowed Beatrix Potter, Nancy Drew and various other books from the library. I remember especially loving the illustrations in the Beatrix Potter books - and I still do! Happy Birthday Miss Potter!
Pam
P.S. As a baby, my Mom would hold me in one arm, and hug my older brother with her other arm while reading action, intrigue and mystery books to him, but it soaked into my brain because I have always loved those types of books. I remember reading Ian Fleming and Alistair MacLean books when I was around 13. I do love a good mystery!

[Meredith]

The Secret Garden! Such a powerful setting for a book that as an adult, I'm still dreaming of a walled garden of my own : )