Posts tagged Bermuda

My mother loves to tell people the story of my early days of education. We moved to Bermuda when I was 2 but I didn’t go to kindergarten/pre-school for a year or so after. When I did, it was to a wee school called Small World (as in, “it’s a small world afterall,” which really has just set the theme for my entire life but that’s not the point of this story.)

Anyway, allegedly on the first day of school we were told a story about a snail. This story provided me with a wealth of artistic creativity apparently because every subsequent day after for months after I would bring home my artwork from school with my artist’s note written on it by my teacher: “Joan says this is a picture of a snail.”

As the years rolled by, the story of Joan and her snails was often retold to people as a source of endearing amusement - by all of us: myself, my sister and my mother. And I further the snail history with odd knick knack presents in the form of snails to this day. (The most recent one I can remember is about 4 years back when I was off on a pottery shop expedition with friends and had to choose something to paint and what-not. Having not enough artistic talent to decorate a tile, plate or mug, I spotted a snail that seemed to fit the bill both in price and skill level. Mum unwrapped it for mother’s day just a month later and it now sits on her dresser.)

Which is why it’s so fitting that my younger sister would send me a link this afternoon with the following:

JOAN! scroll almost all the way down here and see what Kate painted on her easel!!!!

(For your convenience - and my amusement - I’ve attached a few more photos (from Getty/WENN.) 

Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, and I have an identical skill level when it comes to art. And it would seem she and her husband are as much amused by it as my family and I are; which is why I’m sitting here staring at these photos and wondering what the story behind her snail is.