Mr. McGregor's garden, Peter Rabbit, and SWAC Husband's garden

I grew up on Beatrix Potter tales and especially loved Peter Rabbit. As a small child, I sat wide-eyed listening to my mother read about all the characters that Miss Potter brought to life in the miniature children's books full of colorful illustrations. My imagination worked overtime as I heard the opening lines of the Peter Rabbit story:

ONCE upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, and Peter.

I would get lost in all things Beatrix Potter. While Peter's sisters were good and went hunting blackberries, Peter went straight to Mr. McGregor's garden where he had been warned to stay away from, and got into all kinds of mischief. The illustration that stands out to me the most of Miss Potter's drawings is the one of Peter slipping under the fence (above).

Yesterday, the story of Peter Rabbit's trials and tribulations in Mr. McGregor's garden came back to me.

SWAC Husband had put up a wire fence around the garden, as he does each year, to prevent as many critters as possible from partaking of the goodies growing there. It is impossible to keep everything out ... but it helps to limit some of the wildlife we have here in western Augusta County.

When SWAC Husband went out to look over the garden yesterday, a baby rabbit was sitting squarely in the middle of the squash plants. Well ... he used to be a baby and was able to easily slip in and out of the wire fence ... but he is about half grown now. When SWAC Husband gave chase, the bunny took off for the fence and got stuck, squirming to make his hind quarters squeeze through before making his escape.

And that was where the tale of Peter Rabbit popped into my brain. I laughed and called SWAC Husband "Mr. McGregor" all afternoon because he had chased Peter out of the garden and, if that bunny had been wearing a blue jacket, as Peter did in the fairy tale, its buttons would have been caught on the wire fence and the jacket surely would have been left behind.

Perhaps that is why I so enjoyed the charming movie, "Miss Potter," the story of Beatrix Potter's life that intertwined the creatures around her as animated figments of her imagination. Miss Potter's world was brought to life in the biographical film.

Peter, that naughty rabbit, in my garden helping himself to the squash ... I smile even as I think of it....