Saturday, May 24, 2025

Rosa 'In Your Eyes' 7 Viola x wittrochiana - 24 May 2025

 

 In Your Eyes & Rosemary

Such is the surprise of roses appearing for the first time (since last year), that the concept of “the first time” becomes exciting. It is almost as if these many first times are all a first time.

This particular rose, Rosa ‘In Your Eyes’ emerges yellow but by the evening it is a white/magenta. What is also special for me is that this is one of the last roses that Rosemary and I purchased before she died.

The name might not be a spectacular one but for me it is appropriate. Because I have taken portraits for so many years I always look for that glimpse of the soul of my subjects through their eyes. I rarely take profiles or make my subjects smile or laugh. The closest I ever get is, “Think about smiling, but don’t." Smiles seem to shut off that glimpse of their inner spirit.

The blue pansy is a companion to ‘In Your Eyes’. I don’t like to have my potted roses with just dirt. I use all kinds of lovely annuals and non-aggressive clematis. One of my fave companion plants (and of Rosemary as the leaves are her preferred grey) is Lychnis coronaria.

Rosemary's Lychnis coronaria

The word pansy which was so used in that past 20^th century to denote a feminine gentleman is now rarely used. In Spanish the viola is called pensamiento. I love the word as it translates to “a thought”.

Friday, May 23, 2025

Jericho Beach Roses

 

Rosa rugosa is a species of rose native to eastern Asia, in northeastern China, Japan, Korea and southeastern Siberia, where it grows on beach coasts. Wikipedia

 While I am definitely a product of that last century I am aware and enjoy some of the advances of this century that I could have never imagined that would enrich my life and that of my friends and relatives.

Every day, weather permitting, I ride my bike for about an hour beginning at Point Grey Road and MacDonald. I bike (it is a steady uphill tough to manage with my 3 speed gear bicycle) all the way to the end of Jericho Beach and then work my way back home.

It occurred to me a few days ago to connect with a friend in Buenos Aires via WhatsApp video and I walked him through the view of the water, of the mountains and the beach. Then when I got home I gave him a tour of my garden, my kitchen, living room, etc.

But there is something more that I noticed (do others notice this?) as I biked on Jericho Beach. There are very large bushes of roses. There are three colours, pink white and purple. I identified two of them (the white and deep purple) as Rosa rugosas. These are called that because of their rough looking leaves. The other rose, a pink one is a BC species rose. That makes it an ancient rose that grew before humans started monkeying around and hybridizing them.

The startling and wonderful situation here is that the Vancouver Parks Board or some other local institution went to the trouble of planting these roses so as to make our walks and bike rides that much more pleasant.

Imagine that! 

And near the end of the beach, returning home, I found this lovely tree. I photographed it with my Fuji X-E1 digital camera equipped with the curiously called Lensbaby.

 

 

Thursday, May 22, 2025

22 May 2025

I often comment that babies, cats and gardens do not perform on demand.

Since the mid-90s my Rosemary and I opened our garden to garden societies including the Vancouver Rose Society. We would work very hard and in our large Kerrisdale garden, Rosemary would cut the lawn that was close to our borders with scissors. And even though the garden visit protocol states that you cannot use the house facilities I was commanded to clean the house thoroughly.

When everybody left we would sit down exhausted. Vancouver Rose Society visits can be a tad more exhausting as I open my garden on a weekend for 2 days. The weather forecast as of today says it will be cloudy on May 31. I will check tomorrow for that 10-day forecast to see what Sunday, June 1 will be like.

When possible I like to photograph my garden either early in the morning or in late afternoon. What follow are the photographs I took today.

Let’s see if my garden is the exception to the rule and it will perform on that coming weekend. 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Aquilegia vulgaris 'Alba' 21 May 2025

 Asymmetry & Slight Anachronisms 

The Beauty of Asymmetry

 A Vision Impure Asymmetry

I have a friend who often tells me, “Alex you keep reiterating yourself.” He is right and particularly when I write my blogs. Because I have 6475 of them I forget that I may have forgotten of previous blogs as I did today when I was walking on the back lane with my male cat Niño.

On the lane there was a large clump of Aquilegia vulgaris ‘Alba’. These plants are commonly called Columbines. I was startled by its obvious symmetry. I decided to cut one of the stems and scan it and write a blog as I am right now.

About all I can bring that is different is that with all my years of scanning (began I 2001) I may have gotten a bit more sophisticated.

But there is one topic here that I can raise that I have not raised before. In that past century we used to understand what Rembrandt lighting was. Rembrandt and many of his contemporaries would pose their subjects by a window. The window side would make half the face light and the other dark or darker if no reflectors were used.

In my years as a magazine and portrait photographer I have always used that method.

I have a friend, en excellent photographer, who recently told me (almost apologetically) that he was shooting head-shots. I immediately told him that since he was getting paid, to actually work as a photographer in this 21^st century is not bad. He added, sadly, that his subjects wanted both the sides of their face evenly lit (like a phone selfie?). I had no more words.