A Tale of Tails A Legend Born Tribute Story To Beatrix Potter

The garden wept. Flowers dipped their heads, and rabbits scurried to their warrens, hiding their heads as though turning away from what was needing to be faced. There was a quiet that came over the garden. The only sound the pitter pat of raindrops tapping on leaves, and plopping to the ground, like tears falling from heaven.

Even the grass held its breath, the swooshing and swaying that was usually heard, a distant memory only to be recognised by the woods themselves, that knew by the sense of the earth that their world was holding its breath. A caterpillar humped its way over the cornerstone of a cobbled path, then, realising that something wasn’t quite right, stopped and turned its head to take in the scent of the quiet air.

Squirrels darted through the trees, gibbering and chatting to each other as though saying, what to do, what to do, and then hushed by their mothers, turned and buried their heads into their tiny hands. A crow, who had been watching this with interest, took flight from the tree, and swooped down to land on the porch of the house. Leaning closer, he tapped his beak against the small diamond window. Tap, tap, trying to get attention from the creature who he knew lived inside. But the quiet of the house confused him, and with a sigh, he swepped back up into the air, his wings causing a disturbance that set the warm still air in motion, and making leaves swirl and fall upon the ground.

Sunlight poured down, and the heat of the day began to disipate, leaving puddles of shadow beneath the flower pots that hung from the hook on the wall. Silence. Then, as the day began to creep slowly into night, a first stirring of movement.

A hedgehog, his hunger overtaking his sense of confusion scuttled forward across the grass. The movement broke the spell and all the creatures of the garden seemed to stretch and, as though awakened from a deep sleep, wiped the dream from their minds. The wind, catching the movement, sighed, causing a gust of air to sweep across the landscape and touch the flowers. Their heads bopped back up and turned towards the setting sun. The rabbit shook himself and shuffled back out of his burrow. Raising his head to the sky, he twitched his little nose, and hopped over to the patch of carrots that were sprouting up from the earth. He began to munch on the tiny orange vegetable, and as though it was a signal to all the other animals, they began to search for food, and go about their daily business.

But the crow, who had flown back to stand on the branch of the tree, looked towards the house one last time. With a caw that sounded mysteriously like, goodbye, goodbye, he swepped his wings out to catch the air, and ascended to the sky.

The garden wiped its rainy tears and the grass began to sway as though singing. It knew a secret. As though the earth had whispered in the ear of corn growing by the fence leading into the field, it knew that the creature who had lived in the house would go on to write about them. Peter the rabbit, squirrel nutkin, and the small mouse that lived in the hedge would all be known by millions of children for years to come. Because Beatrix, that was her name, loved her garden and all the animals. And even though she had gone from this earth, she would be there in all the thoughts and minds of children.

The garden stretched and sang, the sweetest sound that to any human ears would be just the wind in the trees, and the flowers tipping and swaying,. Maybe a passer by would wonder at the sound that seemed to be saying Beatrix Potter, we love you.

Copyright Nell Rose

This was inspired by my Beatrix Potter Hub. It seemed to flow out of me onto the page, and I couldn't quite catch up with it! So I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks

THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF BEATRIX POTTER

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