The Princess and the Primroses

9×12″ watercolor on paper
September 26, 2012

Inspired by the following passage from George MacDonald’s Princess and the Goblin:

And now, in the lovely spring weather, Irene was out on the mountain the greater part of the day.

In the warmer hollows there were lovely primroses, and not so many that she ever got tired of them. As often as she saw a new one opening an eye of light in the blind earth, she would clap her hands with gladness, and unlike some children I know, instead of pulling it, would touch it as tenderly as if it had been a new baby, and, having made its acquaintance, would leave it as happy as she found it.

She treated the plants on which they grew like birds’ nests; every fresh flower was like a new little bird to her.

She would pay visits to all the flower-nests she knew, remembering each by itself. She would go down on her hands and knees beside one and say: ‘Good morning! Are you all smelling very sweet this morning? Good-bye!’ and then she would go to another nest, and say the same. It was a favourite amusement with her.

There were many flowers up and down, and she loved them all, but the primroses were her favourites.

‘They’re not too shy, and they’re not a bit forward,’ she would say to Lootie.