Alex, Niño & Niña

 

The only way I can cope with living alone is to have the stability of cats that accompany me in the routines of the day. I was deeply affected when my male cat Niño died on May 12. Luckily his twin sister Niña is inseparable from her so-called master and gives me some of the warmth that I had in spades when Rosemary was alive.

Now I am beginning to understand to have a few planned activities that will bring friends or family to my house or an activity that has me going somewhere. In short a steady routine keeps me sane in my never-going-away melancholy for the loss of Rosemary aftera 52 years of being together.

Getting the garden ready for my opening to the Vancouver Rose Society for today and tomorrow has been an excellent distraction.

Best of all is to retire to my bed, now only with Niña who at 8pm stares at me as she has her routine of being fed her treats. By 11:30 when I turn off the light she gets on top of me and we sleep most of the night except to my almost pleasant 3 trips to sit on my heated toilet seat. 

My Kitsilano Garden 29 May 2026

 

Today 29 May 2026, by this eveningm I can say that my garden (formerly our) is as good as it can be for tomorrow and Sundays opening to the Vancouver Rose Society. I have been working at it for weeks and today I believe I put the finishing touches. At all moments and when I was a tad lazy, my Rosemary was there in my head telling me to keep at it. In fact I prepared my garden as if I would only have one visitor, my Rosemary, tomorrow. She would be the judge. I believe I might just get a “Well done.” in my head from her.

In evening light I find that my Galaxy 5 phone renders my garden with a tad less contrast than with my Fuji X-E3.

24 May 2026 - C-41 Café

 

I am a portrait photographer. Except when I go abroad, I never take street photographs which seems to be one of the final remnants of photography in this century.

Because I am behind my camera I am rarely photographed. I don’t mind being photographed as my attitude is that I don’t have to worry how to take the photograph so I am then receptive to the portrait. My fave ever portrait of me was taken by Johnny Thunders. I wrote about it in this blog. Link below.

Shaving the Barber 

The picture here was taken at a coffee meets film get together at the C-41 Café this past May 24. I should have asked the photographer to give me his name. He used a Hasselblad with and Instax back (a sort of modern Polaroid).

I like it lots but I must add that I forgot to remove it from my shirt pocket. I put the shirt in the wash.

Obviously the Instax is intact!

Rosa 'Emily Carr' & Hosta 'Joseph' - 27 May 2026

Emily Carr  Red Cedar

This Saturday and Sunday I am opening my garden to the Vancouver Rose Society. Rosemary and I started opening our Kerrisdale garden by the early 90s. Before we moved to our Kits home Americans would come in buses to see our garden which made it into Better Homes and Gardens.

Such was Rosemary’s precision in getting the garden ready she would cut the grass at the edge of our beds with scissors. I had to remove all the black spot leaves from the roses and the hosta leaves that that had slug holes. I mowed the lawn with a special lawnmower that made our lawn perfect.

Back Lane Garden - 27 May 2026

Now today 27 May 2026 I have almost finalized getting my (formerly our) garden into shape and Rosemary is there behind my imagination’s shoulder. I have been at it for weeks.

Tomorrow I will order the special thin cut white bread as I will make my signature English style cucumber sandwiches. My secret is that I prepare home-made mayonnaise for them.

I am illustrating this blog with a photograph I took today with my Fuji X-E3 of the lane garden. The fabulous rose on the left  of the back lane photograph is the English Rose Rosa ‘A Shropshire Lad’. 

Rosa 'Complicata' - 27 May 2026

Rosemary never got to see one of my favourite roses, Rosa ‘Emily Carr’. I bought it at the shop in the garden a few months after Rosemary died. It was hybridized in Morden, Manitoba and it will survive Zone 3 cold.

I see in my memory that Emily Carr’s paintings have a lot of red and green. The red is in the warm tone of her tree trunks. This is why I decided to scan the rose with the nice green Hosta ‘Joseph’.

My youngest daughter Hilary will be the hostess and she will bring sweet goodies. I will make Mexican agua de Jamaica with fresh orange juice. Agua de Jamaica is made by steeping the dried leaves of a  Mexican hibiscus.

Rosemary would be working in the garden at least two hours before our Saturday opening. And yes the back lane garden has some grass so scissors would be in her hands.

My male cat Niño died on May 12th. In one of my rose pots have the ashes in a nice urn of Rosemary’s beloved cat Casi-Casi. I opted to do the same with Niño. I was charged $550. My Argentine family would tell me, “Es sólo un gato” or it’s only a cat. They would further point out that for that sum money one could have an average human funeral.

The urn came with a card with the condolences of all the women in the vet hospital who knew Niño and understood how special he was.

My neighbours after Niño died asked me, “Why aren’t you calling Niño in the evening to come home?

My Rosemary also had an urn with her ashes and my daughter spread (some of them?) in her Lillooet garden.

It was years ago that when Rosemary and I went to London at Westminster Abbey I made sure I stepped over H.G.Wells  tile and said , “Hi.”

Somehow I grieve that my Rosemary is only in my memory and in her absent presence in our house and garden.

And that is why I spent all that money to have Niño’s ashes. Nobody will care when I meet my oblivion. I will be ashes, too.