I know that you know that this isn't my peony. I can't grow these beauties in the Texas Hill Country. These are Linda Lear's tree peonies, in her Bethesda (MD) garden, each one more gorgeous than the next, with layers of delicately ruffled petals cupping the heart of the flower like layers of softly ruffled lace, so thin as to be almost transparent. Linda and John were gracious hosts, and their gardens and house were lovely, not to mention their four terriers, the "girls" with whom they share their home and their hearts. What a delightful bunch!
Sharing the podium. Linda and I did two library programs last week, at the new Rockville Library and at Chevy Chase. Our topic: "Two Authors in Search of Beatrix Potter," an unusual program, with a biographer and a fiction writer, both pursuing the same subject. The programs were just an excuse, of course, for the two of us to get together and do some serious thinking out loud about the ways we've tried to represent Beatrix's life, Linda with the biographer's documented facts (the results of eight years of research and writing) and I with the fiction writer's imagination. Between the factive and the imaginative, we hope we've created something approaching the shape of Beatrix Potter's life. We're grateful to the fine audiences who came to listen to our explorations, and to the librarians who made the arrangements. Thanks, everyone! (And special thanks to John and Bill, for sharing these events with us.)
Reading note. Nobody sees a flower really--it is so small it takes time--and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.--Georgia O'Keeffe