Standing in her pictures

The last two days have been fantastically full--

Yesterday, Sarah, my cousins, Jean and Steve, and I, traveled up and down the narrow, winding roads Of The Lake District with a British Blue Badge guide that I hired for the day. Val Abraham is an expert in the Lake District and was able to take us to a multitude of sites associated with Beatrix Potter. We visited Wray Castle, an impressive Victorian Gothic home, the first of the Lake District summer homes that Beatrix's family rented as she was growing up. We saw Derwentwater and the woods where Squirrel Nutkin lived, and Saint Herbert's Island, the home of Old Brown. We drove high up to Little Town and The Newlands Valley where Mrs. Tiggy Winkle lives. We also took a hike alongside Fawe Park (the inspiration for the garden in Benjamin Bunny) but the estate is private with a tall board fence around it, so we just peeked over and through the fence boards like paparazzi! (if you don't know who Mrs. Tiggy Winkle, Squirrel Nutkin, Old Brown, or Benjamin Bummy are--please go immediately to your nearest bookstore or library!) Time and time again yesterday, I found myself in the middle of a Beatrix Potter tale--face to face with a landscape, a tree, a path, a garden, that I had seen before on a page in her tales! What a wonderful day...we collapsed into bed and slept so soundly that we didn't hear a drop of the rain shower that fell during the night.

In her journal dated November 17, 1886, Beatrix Potter wrote of her impression of Near Sawrey, "It is as nearly as perfect a little place as I have ever lived in, and such nice old-fashioned people in the village..." Sarah and I will be leaving Near Sawrey tomorrow morning, and though I am ready to be getting home to Hawkins Family Farm, I will truly miss this special place. I wandered around the village today using a pictorial map from the Society that illustrates the village as it is now, and contains notes about what it was like in Beatrix Potter's time. Since many of her book illustrations are from places she loved (and she loved this village), you never know when you might find yourself looking at, (or standing in) one of her pictures. Fields, tarns, footpaths, foxgloves, stonewalls, cottages, gardens...It is all truly magical! I finished the afternoon with tea and a warm scone topped with cream and jam...oh my!

Dear friends, I feel so privileged to have received the Lilly fellowship that has enabled me to begin this journey. I have learned so much about Beatrix Potter, her work and her legacy these last few months...and there is so much more to learn. It has been rewarding to write this blog, knowing that so many of you are enjoying it and learning along with me. I want you to know that Sarah and I have taken loads of photographs which I will post (when I get back to my computer at home) throughout the summer along with information and stories I have learned along the way. Then we will ALL be able to discuss "all things Beatrix" when this summer is over!

On to Manchester (UK) by train tomorrow, and then London on Wednesday to see Mary Poppins on the London stage...Oh My!

Thanks for reading, I hope you are well.

Your aff friend,
Kathy Hawkins