I'm Just Visiting This Planet

My Aunt Mary died yesterday. This picture was taken at my cousin Jack's 50th birthday party two years ago-she's the one on the far left. The man on the far right is her younger brother, John-my cousin Jack's father. He's the last of the three Devine "children" - first my mother died of Alzheimer's in 1998 and now Mary died, of we think diverticulitis, the day after her 83rd birthday. I will miss her terribly; she was my aunt, my godmother, my role model, and in many ways, my hero. She taught me about faith, hard work, independence, generosity and love. She was always there, always forgiving, and even though she could be bossy and domineering (as I've been told I can be, too!) she always had the best of everything in her heart. Anne made some calls today to let folks that she worked with know of her passing, and one of the women said that people at The Royal Globe (the insurance company where she worked for 45 years) found her intimidating becaus...

We went to the New York Botanical Garden on Wednesday to see Darwin's Garden. What a wonderful exhibit! And here is a view of the garden that Charles Darwin saw from his window at his home in Kent, England. Not bad, right?

So this is what the peas look like now-this picture was taken on June 1. Pretty soon they will be climbing up the pea fence (we hope). Our local ground hog had five babies-we think that our neighbors destroyed two of them because yesterday we only saw three. That's fine with us because the Mama ground hog got into the garden (again!) and ate two rudbekia and all of the daisies. Anne was not pleased. I hung the terracotta "lady" planter-you can see it in the back of the center bed, which will be the cutting garden. Anne planted cosmos and marigolds in the center, and ivy and impatiens in the lady-the ivy will come down and look like hair (we hope!). I fixed the fence and sprayed red pepper spray all around the perimeter of the garden. I hope that works because the beans, radishes and lettuces are coming up and I really don't want the ground hogs to get them!