Happy Birthday, Beatrix Potter

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.

Beatrix Potter, born on this day in 1866, from The Journal of Beatrix Potter, 1881-1897

Published.

I remember I used to half-believe and wholly-play with fairies when I was a child. What heaven can be more real than to retain the spirit-world of childhood, tempered and balanced by knowledge and common-sense?  Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.

Beatrix Potter, who published her book Peter Rabbit on this day in 1902

Happy Birthday, Potter

Potter, Down the Garden Path, 1903

I remember I used to half believe and wholly play with fairies when I was a child. What heaven can be more real than to retain the spirit-world of childhood, tempered and balanced by knowledge and common-sense.

Beatrix Potter, born on this day in 1866

Persistence.

Potter, Spring, Harescombe Grange, Gloucestershire, 1903

More and more I have come to admire resilience.  Not the simple resistance of a pillow, whose foam returns over and over to the same shape, but the sinuous tenacity of a tree: finding the light newly blocked on one side, it turns in another. A blind intelligence, true.  But out of such persistence arose turtles, rivers, mitochondria, figs—all this resinous, unretractable earth.

Jane Hirshfield 

Retain.

Potter, Rabbit Eating from a Bowl, 1893

I remember I used to half believe and wholly play with fairies when I was a child. What heaven can be more real than to retain the spirit-world of childhood, tempered and balanced by knowledge and common-sense.

Beatrix Potter

Believe.

Happy Birthday, Potter

Potter, Lepiota Friesii, 1896

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.

Beatrix Potter, born on this day in 1866

Believe.

Thanks, Mum.

Happy Birthday, Potter

Beatrix Potter was born on this day in 1866.

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.  I remember I used to half believe and wholly play with fairies when I was a child. What heaven can be more real than to retain the spirit-world of childhood, tempered and balanced by knowledge and common-sense.

Beatrix Potter

The Strange Life of Beatrix Potter: A Story of Rabbits and Mushrooms ...

Pleasures.

If I have done anything, even a little, to help small children enjoy honest, simple pleasures, I have done a bit of good.

Beatrix Potter

Happy Birthday, Potter

Beatrix Potter was born on this date in 1866.

Believe there is a great power silently working all things for good, behave yourself and never mind the rest.

Beatrix Potter

Happy birthday, Potter.

Beatrix Potter was born on this day in 1866.

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.  I remember I used to half believe and wholly play with fairies when I was a child. What heaven can be more real than to retain the spirit-world of childhood, tempered and balanced by knowledge and common-sense.

Beatrix Potter

The Strange Life of Beatrix Potter: A Story of Rabbits and Mushrooms ...

Happy birthday, Potter.

Beatrix Potter was born on this day in 1866.

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.

Beatrix Potter

Mushrooms.

Potter, Lepiota friesii, 1895

When you think of Beatrix Potter, you might think of one of her beloved creations: the gullible Jemima Puddleduck, impertinent Squirrel Nutkin or, of course, the foolhardy Peter Rabbit, risking it all in Mr McGregor’s garden for a few broad beans and radishes.

You’re probably less likely to think of mushrooms.

CONNECT

Happy birthday, Potter.

Beatrix Potter was born on this day in 1866.

Believe there is a great power silently working for all things good, behave yourself, and never mind the rest.

Beatrix Potter

The Tale of Beatrix Potter

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Three



Four

Happy birthday, Potter.

Beatrix Potter was born on this date in 1866.

Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.

Beatrix Potter

CONNECT