July 29, 2017

Beatrix Potter Birthday Celebration 2017!

Camomile Tea and a Clever Mouse!
In Beatrix Potter's "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" Peter overdid it by eating too many lettuces, beans and radishes in Mr. McGregor's garden. Mr. McGregor then discovered Peter and gave him chase about the garden. When Peter finally escaped, his Mum "put him to bed" and gave him some camomile tea.

July 28th would have been Beatrix Potter's 151st Birthday.


My daughter Sarah and I are admirers of Beatrix Potter and feel a kinship with her. We enjoyed teas, elevenishes and delightful conversations with Tasha Tudor. What fun it would have been to have had Beatrix Potter with us also... what we all together could have talked about... bunnies, gardens, ducks, old houses, old barns, and other aspects of country life and landscapes!


Tillie Tinkham the seamstress mouse at Corgyncombe and Hannah find some camomile flowers in the Corgyncombe Garden of Herbs.
Behind them is the lovely foliage of the Baptisia plant.


Baptisia in flower with Dame's Rocket in the background.


Tillie designed and sewed Hannah's lovely white pinafore apron.




Sweet violets, the first violets of spring at Corgyncombe.


Tillie Tinkham and Hannah enjoy a cup of camomile tea.
On the plate in front of them are some dried camomile flowers.
Hannah has a fresh camomile flower floating atop her tea and Tillie has some petals floating in her tiny cup.


"Poorly Peter" Rabbit and his cousin Benjamin in "The Tale of Benjamin Bunny" by Beatrix Potter.





When I was four I decided I needed a little house all my own. I used to go over to my neighbor Ginny's to play in her playhouse. I took my Daddy by the hand to see Ginny's playhouse. My Daddy soon set about the task of making me a playhouse.

In the photograph above, I was  pretending I was a bride. As you can see in the photograph, there is already a wash hanging on the line! Inside my little house I had my own iron and ironing board. In Beatrix Potter's "The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle", Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle takes in washing for the other characters in Beatrix Potter's stories.

I delighted in all the flowers that were around and about my little cottage. The view from the kitchen window looked up the hill where there was a white picket fence with pink and red climbing roses. Behind the playhouse there was another picket fence with an arbor that also had climbing roses. Pink and white peonies grew going down the hill past my Mum's clothes line. My Daddy picked me a bouquet of the peonies and I told him that I would someday use this bouquet when I married him. The sunflowers were on the edge of my Daddy's huge vegetable garden. When I  was growing up my family had goats, sheep, chickens, ducks, and rabbits. The barn for the animals was across the lawn and through the lilac hedge.

Beatrix Potter was an inspiration!


Me standing by the Mock Orange outside our back door. What a lovely scent as one comes and goes!
In Marta McDowell's "Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life", she mentions that Beatrix Potter had Mock Orange at Hill Top.


Tillie Tinkham has been the seamstress mouse for the dolls and critters at Corgyncombe for many years.
Above, Tillie, with golden thimble, and Hannah are inspecting and admiring the gathers on Hannah's new pinafore.
The Golden Thimble Society commenced as Tillie wanted to assist the Queen Anne English Wooden dolls with their needlework.




Beatrix Potter wrote and illustrated "The Tailor of Gloucester", the story in which the mice help the tailor finish a very important garment in time.
Behind the Tailor mouse figurine is an old apothecary jar filled with dried roses.


Hannah sits in a chair that Seth Tudor made, a miniature replica of one that Tasha Tudor sat in do her artwork.


Tillie Tinkham hand stitched the ruffled cap as she thought it was just the thing for Emma!
Emma wore it to a tea party with her friends!


Tillie Tinkham has a frock and millinery shop, "Tillie Tinkham's Frocks and Fashions", on the ground floor of the old dollhouse that came with the address 863 Park Avenue above the door. The little girl who originally owned it lived at 863 Park Avenue.

The dollhouse, with its two large opening doors, reminds us of Beatrix Potter's doll's house at Hill Top.


Some of the photographs and some of the writings on this post are from previous Corgyncombe Courant posts that can be found here on the Corgyncombe Courant and from our web site and our previous postings elsewhere on the internet.

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atthecottagegate@yahoo.com
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Photographs, images, and text copyright © 2000-2017 Diane Shepard Johnson and Sarah E. Johnson. All rights reserved. Photographs, images, and/or text may not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from Diane Shepard Johnson and Sarah E. Johnson.

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