Eryngium x zabelli 'Big Blue' & Verbena bonariensis - 30 June 2021

Wearing my wrist watch on my right wrist has helped to remind me to appear positive when folks ask me how I am. I try to answer in a chipper way but 7 months after my Rosemary’s death to me it seems it was only yesterday.

Those who were raised as Roman Catholics or anybody who has researched the Virgin Mary may explain that while you pray to God when you “pray” to the Virgin Mary it amounts to this, “Because you are His mother, you have an understanding and good connection. You are a fountain of influence. Could you intercede for me and tell Him to help me with this problem?”

Thus she is someone you go to intercede for you when you are weighed by bureaucracy.

These days I see my Niño and Niña as a direct connection to Rosemary. They somehow intercede (they are living go-betweens) for me as they and I shared her. Niña, who really was exclusively Rosemary’s cat, does not leave me alone. If I sit down she wants to climb on my lap - ditto when I am in bed. She meows at me all the time for attention.

While one of my daughters visits me twice a week and the older daughter will eventually drive from Lillooet, now that traveling is allowed, my two cats are a constant reminder of our former connection with our mistress that was Rosemary.

The same happens when I work in the garden. Plants are not moving and living animals. That is true. But every plant in this Kits garden has Rosemary’s face on it. And many, just like the cats, have this intimate connection with her. She planted them; she fussed over them, she watered them and protected them.

I can think, that when this pandemic is over, that I may travel to Buenos Aires to see my family. But since I went with Rosemary at least four times, the city is no place that in my memory does not have her living presenc. It is a place we shared and enjoyed. How will I handle the trip?

The scan for this blog features two of Rosemary’s faves (and mine, too). We both loved the prickly blue eryngium.  We have had eryngiums in our garden since the late 80s. Our all-time favourite was Eryngium giganteum ‘Miss Wilmott’s Ghost’.

The other plant is an annual that seeds itself and can be invasive. It is Verbena bonariensis. This is the only plant in our garden that comes from Argentina and South America. Rosemary has always grown it knowing that I would understand her gesture.

Scanning these two plants today came with a large dose of melancholy.