Dear Reader:

I could hardly contain my excitement Saturday when I strolled through the garden early in the morning and saw my beloved “Black Beauty” had returned. This day lily is my favorite of all! The burgundy is so dark…that in the early morning hours…it looks like black velvet. Breath-taking!

As you know by now my brain is a “connecting” machine…always searching for the link between a visual life form and a memory from the past. I had it…one of my all-time favorite novels…”Black Beauty.”

When I began my research on the book the first quote from it reminded me why I loved it so.

“…. there is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to man and beast, it is all a sham….”

I was definitely old enough (I was about 12 when I first read this story) by the time I read this beautiful story…old enough to understand the meaning of the word hypocrisy…even if I didn’t recognize the word spelling. It was just starting to dawn on me that what adults said and what they did were often polar opposites. Sadly religion is an area where hypocrisy raises its ugly head way too often…most likely I think because there is so much trust involved …it hurts more.

As an adult I realize that it always goes back to that nasty old word greed. Kindness, generosity, helpfulness are all fine virtues unless money enters the equation, Then suddenly people change their stances on morality (with flimsy excuses and justifications) in order to make money doing something that is just the opposite of what they say or teach.

In a nutshell that is what the horse, Black Beauty, shows us from the unusual perspective of being the narrator of the novel. We see animal and mankind kindness and cruelty through the horse’s eyes.

Anna Sewell, the author, injured both her ankles while walking home from school in the rain when she was 14. She was never able to walk again due to poor medical treatment of her injuries. This lead her to use a pony and trap to get around in.

It was her familiarity with this form of transport that fostered her interest in and love of horses. She developed a growing concern for how such creatures could so easily be mistreated. She never married or had children. In visits to European spas, she met many writers, artists, and philanthropists. Her only book was Black Beauty, written between 1871 and 1877 in her house at Old Catton.

During this time, her health was declining, and she could barely get out of bed. Her dearly-loved mother was there for her constantly as she became a complete invalid.

She sold the book to the local publishers, Jarrold & Sons. The book broke records for sales and today is the “sixth best seller in the English language.” By telling the story of a horse’s life in the form of an autobiography and describing the world through the eyes of the horse, Anna Sewell broke new literary ground.

The first published book was dedicated to her mother for all her years of care-giving. Anna died five months after her only novel was published.

This copy of the first edition of the book was dedicated by the author to her mother. It was auctioned off at Christie’s in London in June 2006 for £33,000.

I can only hope my “Black Beauty” brings joy and delight to all who see it. I know it brings happiness to me.

Here are two more of my favorite garden delights…the very first bloom from my Mister Lincoln’s rose…an historical moment for the garden…June 2 2018!

Finally my Gerber daisy got enough to drink and look what it did!

The other day, when I was picking up prescriptions at CVS I saw it…two pineapple design (battery operated) lights. I thought of my two sconces in my happy room and I grabbed them. For the last two nights I have turned them on…so beautiful and hospitable!

So until tomorrow…Being true to our values is always challenging…but also worth its own rewards.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*I was just finishing up this blog when a summer thunderstorm (actually spring) blew in and the temperature dropped unbelievably fast… bringing in cool breezes through the window by which I sit to write the blog entries.

And oh that smell we have talked about…that wonderful sweet, earthy, fresh scent of rain is so powerfully evocative. Scientists say it is a mixture of two chemicals, one being ozone…but I won’t go there. Too scientific. For me it is God raining down perfume on His children.