Turimel writes: I took these very cool pics of Alan Lee in Beaverton, OR. He’s drawing a picture of Sam on a concrete stepping stone. That stone will be placed in the Elanor Garden, which is just up the street from the bookstore where Alan appeared.
The garden was built to be an homage to JRR Tolkien and his beloved character, Sam Gamgee. We wanted to make a special stone as a tribute to Sam for the garden path, and Mr. Lee was gracious enough to brave the difficult media of rough concrete and a very messy bottle of paint to produce a lovely sketch of Sam on this stone. It bears an imprint of nasturtium leaves and a flower, and will eventually say, “Well, I’m back!” This will surely be the crown jewel of the Elanor garden and I’m thrilled that Mr. Lee was willing to do this–particularly after a long evening of presentations, questions, and booksignings.