Sempervivum tectorum 20 March 2026

Hen and chicks (also known as hen-and-chickens, or hen-widdies in the southern United States) is a common name for a group of small succulent plants. They belong to the flowering plant family Crassulaceae, native to southern Europe and northern Africa. The plants grow close to the ground with leaves formed around each other in a rosette, and propagating by offsets. The "hen" is the main, or mother, plant, and the "chicks" are a flock of offspring,[1] which start as tiny buds on the main plant and soon sprout their own roots, taking up residence close to the mother plant.

Plants commonly referred to as "Hens and chicks" include ground-hugging species of Sempervivum (houseleeks) such as Sempervivum 'Pekinese', S. arachnoideum (cobweb houseleek), and S. tectorum (common houseleek), as well as members of the related genus Jovibarba. The name is also used for some species of Echeveria, Sedum and Bergenia although these plants differ significantly from Sempervivum and Jovibarba, and may require different cultivation and care. Wikipedia

Today in spite of the weather prediction it is a sunny day. I am not going in my bike. I may have a big excuse. My male cat Niño had his teeth cleaned Tuesday morning. They put him to sleep for this. So he has been barely able to walk. He refuses to eat or drink. I am taking him to the vet tomorrow for check-up. So I am cat sitting Niño mostly on my bed.

I did notice my pot of hens and chicks so I decided to scan one of the florets. The colours are happy colours. I can almost smile. Rosemary would have noticed them days before. She would approve of my scan.

Often in these blogs I quote my grandmother who told me that the devil knows more not because he is the devil but because he is an old man.

Back in that century and until my abuelita died in 1970 she was my mentor and I worshipped her. But now in this century anything old except is seen as suspect. Except perhaps antique cars, antiques and pristine but very old cameras that gearheads spend loads of money on. The relationship I had with my grandmother I do not have with my two granddaughters.

Since 2001 I have been scanning the plants of my garden. I call these over 3000 of them scanographs and I tell people I am a scanographer. When they look at my large framed ones and tell me how they like the photograph they immediately lose interest when I tell them that they are scanographs.

About five years ago I discovered the astounding possibilities of scanning (my Epson V700) two b+w negs, colour negs and slides together. The results are especially good when the chosen sandwiches (that’s what I call them) are from the same session.

Katheryn was one of the finest women I ever photographed for a span of several years. I have thousands of her pictures from the 16 sessions we had in my studio, UBC forest, West Van Lighthouse Park, Marble Arch Hotel Room 615, Wreck Beach and my bathtub. Today I decided to look at her pictures and I did these three sandwiches.

Because I am an old man of 83 I realize I don’t have too much time left to pursue these sandwiches.

Am I full?

It was in Malcolm Parry’s Vancouver Magazine office that I remember telling him sometime in 1977 that I was fascinated in taking photographs of nude women on Wreck Beach. In his wisdom, Parry just smiled. I wonder now that he is almost 90 what his opinion would be of my journey with female body photography has taken me to. Is there anything beyond today?

One of my first subjects was a delightfully lovely ecdysiast called Shelina. She posed for me at the beach and I even took those photographs with sea spray. Are they clichés?

Some many years later at an ecdysiast reunion at the Number 5 Orange Club, Shelina told me, “Alex, just for you I am now going to dance.” This she did and I will never forget how special I felt.

Then even more years later I contacted Shelina and she invited me to her home. By now she was plainly not going to take any of her clothes off. I took these photographs of her behind a semi-transparent door with the then available Polaroid film.

I like that transition from beginning to end. Is this the end of my efforts to photograph the nude female form? What would Malcolm Parry say?

Camellia x williamsii 'Donation' - 15 March 2026 - shot with a Fuji X-E1 and a LensBaby

 George Bowering - Barefoot He Was

Rosemary's Flowers Galore 

Often in these blogs I have written how I met Rosemary in Mexico City on December 15th 1967 and that by the 20th I had taken her to meet my mother in Veracruz. I then add that we were married in the lovely neighbourhood of Coyoacán in Mexico City on 8 February 1968.

In some bit of tremendous luck I can bring many elements of that event here with pictures. 

20 December 1967 - Mocambo, Veracruz - Pentacon-F Camera

In 1959 while going to Catholic boarding school in Austin, Texas I met (did not know that then) my mentor, Brother Edwin Reggio, C.S.C.. The latter initials stand for Congregation of Holy Cross the same congregation of brothers, nuns and priests that to this day run The University of Notre Dame.

The short man forced me to learn to play the alto saxophone for the school band and gave me a salary for cleaning the band room and catching mice. A few months after I started that job I bought a Pentacon-F SLR for $100 in Adorama (still in existence).

It was because that camera had a self-timer and I had a tripod that I can put here the photograph (the first of us together) taken on Mocambo Beach in Veracruz sometime in the later part of December.

And just a couple of days ago I photographed Rosemary’s favourite Camellia x williamsii ‘Donation’ in full bloom. We brought it from our Kerrisdale garden 7 years ago and it is sight to behold. I melancholically smile when I look at it missing my Rosemary as she knew her plants well before I ever did.

So today Monday, March 16, 2026 I am able to join all those elements into this blog.

As for my blog, which I started in January 2006, I was not aware that Blogger was Google so that since then 6845 blogs later my Google presence is very large. Just last week I was unable to find any interest in the media (Vancouver Sun, CBC, Georgia Straight) that I was going to photograph the first Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate (2002-2004) George Bowering who is 90 and is publishing two books (one on poetry and the other a memoir of his living in Mexico). I told them that I would give them my portrait for free.

So my blog on Bowering (see link above) is sort of a secondary form of journalism.

Somebody has to do it. I do.

PS - because I can. Dresden (where my camera was made) was bombed by the allies in WWII even though it had no military value. The Ameicans bombed it in the morning with blockbusters and in the evening the British used fire bombs. A US serviceman was in captivity. His name was Kurt Vonnegut. In his novel Slaughterhouse Five he describes how lions escaped from the zoo to avoid the flames. In the mid 70s (1971) Vonnegut spoke at the Mexican American Institute of Cultural Relations. I went with Rosemary. I will never forget that in pointing out the famous photograph of  Margaret Trudeau taken in a back alley where she show.... Vonnegut told us he coined the expression - "Open Beaver".