Rosa 'Abraham Darby'& Hosta 'Autumn Frost' 12 June 2023

Yesterday 11 May, 2023, my daughter Alexandra and I returned from Ames, Iowa. We went there last Wednesday for the National Convention of the American Hosta Society.

While there I took portraits (with my studio light) of all the winners of awards and of old hosta personalities that might not be around in a few years.

In what is rare for me these days was the fact that I felt useful. I am providing the AHS (American Hosta Society) with well taken portraits.

Feeling useful is important when one is a widower living alone with two cats in a little house where the phone seldom rings. For a couple of years I have been saying of myself (tongue not completely in cheek) that I am:

Obsolete, redundant, retired & inconsequential.

My daily routine is to have breakfast, feed Niña and Niña, and take Niño for a walk in the afternoon. That’s it. When I die there will be enough money in the bank that my two daughters, Hilary (50) and Alexandra (55) will not have to worry about paying their rent. But I am not really a necessary Item (nice word) for them.

Niña in my oficina today 12 June 2023

My cats need me so I am useful in that.

Top left - Carpenteria californica, right Rosa 'Winchester Cathedral' bottom Rosa 'Sombreul' - 12 June 2023

 What is left for me to do from day to day? The garden is glorious now so I have to deadhead spent roses and water. In short I am garden fidgeting. I feel sad doing this as Rosemary and I did this together with the two cats following us.

Most important in my life is writing my blog (there are 5826 of them) and to scan the roses and other plants from my garden. I have over 3000 of them as I started in the summer of 2001.

I believe that my printed scans (I call them scanographs and I am therefore a scanographer) are works of art. In this century, and in this year, few, if any people I know show any interest in this “art form”.

It is important in Vancouver to never feel bitter. What is important, is that I enjoy the process. I can see very well so I can go into great magnification of the scans to remove dust and other annoyances.

While I scan I am distracted and I think less of the death of my Rosemary. Especially satisfying is that my cats like to accompany me, so do not feel alone.

Satisfying my own personal approach to involve myself in art ( I hate the modern expression “to make art”) is enough as is finding out all about my inner self by writing my blog.

Whoever is gotten this far, might note that my initial approach to scanning the plants of my garden (100% size, accurate  colour and date) has been superseded (a nice word I learned from working with the US Naval Advisory Group  in Buenos Aires while I was doing my conscription in the Argentine Navy) by my spending more time arranging the leaves and doing more than one “accurate” version.

I am getting artsy fartsy. It is fun.