I'm living East London at the moment, but I spent a few weeks in North London in the beautiful area of Hampstead. Traipsing around heath a few weeks ago, I came across a beautiful hidden glen of trees and purple heather, (I imagine its heather and I am going to pretend it's heather for the sake of not having to look up what it really is...feel free to enlighten me, but for now, it's lavender colored heather. Or better yet lupines!), and it reminded me of one of my favorite books from when I was little. It is called Miss Rumphius, written and illustrated by Barbara Cooney. It is a tale of Alice's adventures of exploration around the world and her quest to make the world a more beautiful place, which she does by planting beautiful purple lupine flowers. I have always loved this book, of wonderful travels and exotic destinations...it seemed such a comfortable kind of fairytale, where the heroine lives a life of adventure and ends her days with the sentiment to leave the world a better place than she found it. Barbara Cooney's illustrations are so great and take you to lands of far away in such a homey way...I have always liked how she portrayed Miss Rumphius. What style! And the pretty red hair is so perfect for an independent lady of spirit. :)
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