"Where are you from?"
"Finland."
"Oh, Finland - do you know Armi Kuusela?"
"Umm… I don't know her but I do know who she is."
"You know she married a Filipino and lived there?"
"Oh yes, that's true!"

We moved here in September but it took me till next summer to meet our back yard neighbor and that was pretty much how our first conversation started. There's a solid high fence between us so we can only talk by peeking through the fence. My neighbors, originally from Philippines, are avid gardeners with a lovely well looked after garden. Since that first encounter we've shared friendly greetings through the fence. Today he handed me - over the fence - some hostas and other plants he had digged up and split to make more space. I have no idea what these will be but I was overly happy to receive them all.

And if you have no clue who is Armi Kuusela, she was a 1952 Finnish beauty queen who gave up her Miss Universe crown when she fell in love with a Filipino business man and they got married right away. She's now turned 80, widowed and remarried and has lived in the States for decades but I think I still owe her some gratitude for my new plants.