Miss Rumphius

Last week a patron in the library asked me for a children's book about flowers, and I was so excited to realize that it was an old favorite of mine, Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney. It is a book that brings back so many memories for me, as it was a favorite book of Julia's when she was little and for awhile there we were kind of obsessed with all things lupine. I wish I could tell you how many lupine plants I have planted. They are a biennial, and not really suited to the hot and humid weather here in Virginia, but I have certainly given them my best shot. Even when Julia was in high school and college, I would buy lupine plants when she came home in the spring and put them in the garden. My friend JoAnn still calls Julia "Little Lupine" to this day.

Miss Rumphius is the story of an old woman, Alice Rumphius, who lives by the sea and is called the Lupine Lady. At the beginning of the book we see Alice as a little girl sitting with her grandfather, talking to him about how she wants to travel the world when she grows up, and then go live by the sea. Her grandfather tells her that she must do one more thing--do something to make the world more beautiful. And so in the book we see Alice grow up, become a librarian, travel through jungles and across deserts, to tropical islands, and to the tops of mountains. And when she is older, she finds a place to live by the sea. And then she realizes that she has one more thing that she must do: she must do something to make the world more beautiful. "Lupines," said Miss Rumphius with satisfaction, "I have always loved lupines the best." And so she decides to scatter lupine seeds "along the highways and down the country lanes. She flung handfuls of them around the school house and back of the church. The next spring there were lupines everywhere. Fields and hillsides were covered with blue and purple and rose-colored flowers." It is a sweet little book with a nice message, and the illustrations (also by Barbara Cooney) are wonderful.

Maine lupines,  by Eileen

Now I plant larkspur, which while not quite the same as lupines,  have the same blues, purples, and rose colors and they self sow throughout the garden so you get that mass effect of color every year. Eileen has been to Maine in the spring when the lupines are blooming and she took these pictures. They are straight out of Miss Rumphius.  Now I just have to get to Maine in the spring someday...And in the meantime, maybe I'll plant some lupines this spring!

Maine lupines, by Eileen