I had lunch with my daughter, the thespian. Since neither of us had been there in a long time, we went to Cafe Christine, in the upper section of the Apothecary Hall courtyard. It was fabulous! We started by sharing the chilled creamy asparagus soup, then decided to also share the Vegetarian platter and a shrimp and asparagus salad. The Veg platter consisted of a slice of spinach quiche, a lentil salad, some tabouli, greens and pasta salad. Everything was delicious. While we ate, my phone rang twice and hers once. Her call was from Gloria, her assistant manager, about a customer looking for the diamond earrings he was going to buy. She sort of had to go, so we couldn’t stay for dessert. Annabelle, however, talked us into taking a piece of apple cranberry pie with us. So we took it back to the store, got a couple of coffees from Ivy’s Ice Cream in the Kings Alley, and devoured the tantalizing triangle.

I left to do a couple more errands before heading home to get ready for my 4:00 appointment.
After work, there was plenty of time to get ready for the function at the St. George Village Botanical Gardens at 7, so we took our time, had a bit of rum and got dressed for the evening.

The courtyard at the new Bodine Pavillion was decorated elegantly with table cloths, chair coverings and candles. It was catered by Teddy’s and the food was superb. There were passed hors d’oeuvre of crab and shrimp in puff pastry, ham in an eggroll-type crust, and mini eggplant parmesan with eggplant relish. We had sangre del toro wine while we mingled and Michael took pictures of the food and the bright full moon rising over the arches.

Sue Ladwig, a member of the board of directors of the Gardens, invited us to sit at her table and we gladly accepted, as did a few

more of our favorite people, local artist, Sondra Catts, Emmy Thomas, artist and author, Lindsey from the Galleon and her Mom, Marlene, visiting from the states.

The buffet table was beautifully set up with fresh fruit platters, brie en croute, spinach pasta salad, escargot, and boeuf on bread. After we dined and listened to the Governor’s and Lt. Governor’s wives, John deJongh himself, spoke about the Gardens and their cultural and economic value to the territory. The birthday cake came out and we stood up to sing happy birthday to the Gardens, then the Governor visited each table and shook hands with everyone. We thanked him and his wife for their support and got our picture taken with him.

After wolfing down our carrot cake, we went on a tour of the night blooming plants and historical buildings with David Hamada, the horticultural director of the Gardens. He is a wealth of knowledge and we always enjoy listening to him speak about the history of the place and the fun plants that are pollinated by bats.

Rare shot of the light actually
being sucked out of the moon,
presumably by Wreggie

When we were a few minutes into the tour, the skies opened up. It poured. We made our way down the path, back to the pavillion and went into the gift shop only slightly damp. We bought a couple of things and escaped to the car for the trek back home, stopping at plaza west for some organic eggs for breakfast. Back home, we went out to check on the progress of the eclipse. The moon was about half gone during the breaks in the clouds, but then a huge dark one engulfed it and we returned to the warmth of the hearth ;). I mean, the warmth of Biggie and the bedsheets…