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| Hydranges macrophylla 'Ayesha, Hydrangea macrophylla 'Fuji Waterfall' & Hydrangea quercifolia 'Snowflake' - 22 July 2023 |
In 1959, in my grade 10 English class at St. Edward’s High School in Austin, Texas, Brother Dunstan Bowles, C.S.C. put on a record that featured James Mason reciting Edgar Allan Poe’s Annabel Lee. This was my first exposure to Poe. It has been a lasting one.
Today I scanned the three hydrangeas in my garden and I remembered (as I do often) that in our Kerrisdale garden, Rosemary and I had 37 of them and that they were a mixture of species and cultivars. When we moved to Kits I had to play Noah with our plants.
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| 5 August 2022 |
The word that is constantly in my mind is that absolutely cold and exact nevermore so important to Poe’s The Raven.
My favourite Argentine poet, short story writer and essayist, Jorge Luís Borges wrote often of actions in his life that he thought he was doing for the last time. He wrote about a book in a bookcase that he would perhaps never open, of doors that he was closing for the last time and in his obsession with mirrors he wondered if his reflection on a mirror would be his last one.
At my age of 80 (to be 81 at the end of August) I am in a constant Borgesian (lovely word, isn’t it?) mood of preparing for my statistically soon meeting with oblivion.
After the great flood I my house almost two months ago, all my belongings were brought back. Nothing went missing except (!) the winding key and the fast slow adjusting key for my black, slate 19th century French mantel clock.
When Rosemary and I were looking at the house in Kerrisdale that we eventually bought, She told me, “Alex, if we buy this house, this den (a lovely one) will be yours to enjoy.” I can report that the first item I purchased before we moved in was the mantel clock.
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| Fritz Irrgang & my mantel clock - 22 July 2023 |
To find new keys for the clock I went to Fritz Irrgang’s Western Watch and Clock Repairs with my clock. Irrgang immediately presented me with two keys but I told him, “Even though you overhauled this clock, perhaps three years ago, I want you to do it again. You will be 80 this year and I will be 81. I have no idea who will go first. I just want my two daughters to inherit a well working unit.” Irrgang understood. I mentioned my 84 year-old friend and camera repairman Horst Wenzel (83) and we discussed who would repair clocks and cameras in a near future when they (the two of them) were gone.
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| Horst Wenzel |
Wenzel three weeks ago repaired my Asahi Pentax S-3 which I purchased used at Foto Rudiger on Avenida Venustiano Carranza in Mexico City in 1962. The shutter button fell out so Wenzel had to remove the camera top (not an easy operation). I can report that all the cameras I own are in perfect working order. Below is a photograph I took some years ago of my granddaughter Lauren and the Pentax. Those who notice will know that she is not looking through the viewfinder. The item on top of the camera was clip-on exposure meter.
