Before She Flies Away Home

Dear O'H dear,

By complete coincidence, before I even knew that Abigail existed, Jenny and I were in the Marchmont Gallery and she fell in love with Moses the squirrel* (see extra).

Jenny contacted the artist - Catherine Rayner and reserved a picture of Moses which we went to collect today from Catherine’s home.

This (very talented) lady was sunshine personified. She showed us Moses and some of her other pictures. Alan the rabbit is on the wall in her studio because he kept getting left behind - he didn’t get delivered to an exhibition and when he did, they forgot to display him, so her husband said that he should just stay with them. She has written and illustrated children’s books, including working with Julia Donaldson who wrote some of The Mini Princesses favourite childhood stories.

I told her that I have Abigail and (after a bit of confusion because Abigail is also one her books), she excitedly told me that I am currently the only person who has an Abigail picture and that she is named after her sister who lives in Germany. She also said she had a very lovely email conversation with Auslaender.

Jenny and I left absolutely beaming. Catherine just radiates happiness and it’s completely infectious. We then took Abigail to get framed and went for coffee feeling high as kites.

It was a beautiful day so Jenny, The Mini Princesses, Murphy and I went for a walk round Arthur’s seat in the afternoon. It was clear and sunny so we could see for miles across the city and then 5 minutes later, we were surrounded by hillside and it felt like we were in the middle of the country.

The five of us went to The Three Birds for our last night together. The food there is lovely and it’s easy because the menu caters for meat eaters, pescatarians, vegetarians and vegans so everyone had choices. The Prince made the mistake of ordering chips as a side dish which the rest us chose to share. Like locusts!

Such a good day. Really, so good.

C

*I had no idea that there are NO squirrels in New Zealand!