Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney has a magical cadence that, just maybe, inspired our daughter to travel widely and to plant flowers – including  lupines. The story begins, “The Lupine Lady lives in a small house overlooking the sea. In between the rocks around her house grow blue and purple and rose-colored flowers.” As a little girl, Alice lived by the sea, where she watched sailing ships. In fact, her grandfather had come to America on one of these ships. He was an artist, making figureheads for the prows of ships and painting pictures. Sometimes, Alice helped him paint in the … [Read more...]