Annabelle the Sweet Pea Whimble

Annabelle is complicated. She can be at once unnerving and lovable, wise and silly, an adventurer and a homebody, determined and lackadaisical.

As the name suggests, this Whimble loves the sweet pea. Each year Annie B. plants its seeds in her cold frame and when the weather is warm enough, transfers the seedlings to her garden beds to climb willow arbors. When the sweet pea flowers, her working garden is delicately scented and her kitchen table is always graced with freshly cut colorful blooms.

Annabelle is busy as a bee. Early mornings during any season, she may be seen up in the air in her Thimballoon flying far and wide to see “what’s up” in the colony and beyond.

Annie is vigilant about working in and watching her garden. She may be out on a summer morning digging up weeds in her lettuce patch or observing which cucumbers or strawberries are ripe for the picking. By the time her basket is full, other Lumenesians arrive to help in the gardens. After ample and often bossy instruction, she climbs up to her cottage high above the trestles supporting her Thimballoon.

Annabelle is a quintessential baker, known far and wide as the “Sweet Pea Baker. ” Fresh bread and pastries are her delight. Shortbread is her specialty. But, alas! There are challenges. Annabelle has a tendency to forget time. With the purest of intentions, she might want to freshen her bed linens after sliding a tray of shortbread into the oven. But, oh dear! She only remembers what is in the oven when she smells the scorched pastry. Or, her cake might be perfection as it is taken from the oven, but, once it cools, this roundish Whimble might eat all of it in one sitting.

There is help though - her best friend, Gillian.