So here we go. But the real and true falling-in-love-forever took place while we were in England. Can you see why? Bubble gum pink ears. How could you not? Of course it was spring. Even next to freeways; they kept everything looking like a manicured park. They had them in the buttercups at Hill Top Farm with a bunny, of course. You all remember the bookmark I made from one of the lambs I painted in the book?
Then we put him on our Fine Romance Van for our cross-country tour β now back home in our driveway outside this frosty morning. Such a sweet thoughtful surprise! While we were immersed in thoughts and baaing of sheep in England I noticed that although Beatrix Potter was very proud of the prize-winning sheep she raised on her farm in the Lake District, heroically saving the rare breed called Herdwick from extinction.
She never made one of her darling characters a sheep. A sheep with an apron and some children, a straw hat or a basket.
Seems like a no-brainer for her, her cup of tea, and mine too. I think she probably got too busy with the real thing and just forgot! So with time on my hands, painting and writing in my diary one early morning in England, I imagined Lambie Pie for myself and put her in our book. Same Vintage? When I got home, I painted her for the second time. Betsy Flannery won the drawing and the book, and that little piece of Lambie Pie art.
They are penciled in. A complete surprise! This is how it is, from Beatrix Potter, to me, to Maddie, and then, where else will it go? Three dimensional! With curly back of the head, apron and flowers on the lawn! How did she DO that? Signed and dated! Precious to me. And wonderful people! I hope you had fun dipping your toes back into England today. I thought we deserved a little shot of fairytale springtime.
