Top left - Rhododendron 'Golfer' - right Rhododendron augustinii 'Marion McDonnell'  - bottom Camellia x wiliamsii 'Donation' - 22 April 2026

Rosa 'Winchester Cathedral ' & Aquilegia vulgaris 'Double Pleat Blue  & White' 22 April 2026

The two scans I did today have cheerful colours so they may compensate for what will probably be a melancholic blog that is based on the fact that because I speak two languages I think in both of them and I am constantly comparing and contrasting words.

It is interesting for me to look at the word fulfill which seems be a redundant term. Its equivalent in Spanish is realizar which can either mean to find out (realize) or it means to fulfill a task or idea.

In the middle of all that I feel this emptiness in my soul. In Spanish emptiness translates to un vacío. To vaciar, means to empty the contents of something. Is that what my Rosemary’s death has done to my soul?

There are three words in English that to me have a similar meaning to how I feel.  This emptiness is corroding me and Rosemary is a limb of mine that has been amputated.

We all know that amputees can sometimes feel the missing limb.

Because Rosemary was part of me, something of her is still on me.

The above might not make any sense. But it was many years ago that I figured out that my blog was a Dear Diary. I write for me.

Erskine McPherson

It was sometime in 1991 that my Rosemary told me that we were going that evening to a meeting of the Vancouver Rose Society. When there, I told Rosemary, “Why have you brought me here? I am sitting on an uncomfortably hard chair watching 100 bad slides of Roses.” Eventually I saw the light while avoiding almost always taking photographs of individual roses but scanning them. I became a rose fanatic (rosarian).

Furthermore I was charmed by a hilariously funny old man called Erskine McPherson, who behind his pleasant demeanour knew his roses.

I am now the oldest member of the organization and I fully lack McPherson’s charm. I am losing interest in going to the meetings like the one today at Van Dusen’s Floral Hall. But I cannot give up on the goodies and the tea and coffee.

My interest in roses, early on, branched out into their history and the significance of their names. Since 2001 when I first started scanning the plants in my garden I have accumulated thousands of rose scans.

Today I will take a scan of Rosa sericea ssp. omiensis var. pteracantha which has been in bloom now (ectremely rare as roses will bloom at the end of May) for five days. Since I am the only one in the society who has this rare species rose (the only one with four petals as the species roses have five), the presence of my scan (scanned today) and the cut rose I scanned in a little vase next to it will not generate any questions or comments.

We are living in a world where pictures and photographs are seen (scrolled)  in phones but actual photographs are never held in hands. Few print now.

I am sure that McPherson would at the very least make a small comment and smile.

 A Fiddling Surprise

I wrote about my current fiddling with my scanner and negatives in my oficina - link above. I want to add another element. Yes it is pleasant for me to sit down and print in a well-lit office with a strong cup of me next to me. I am not breathing caustic darkroom fumes. I should have died a long time ago because I often used the carcinogen Kodak Selenium Toner.

The additional pleasure is for me to print, sign it and slip it into a protective plastic sleeve and (most important give it to someone as a gift). Thanks to my Rosemary’s financial skills I no longer need the money. Some might say that if you don’t sell your work you cannot call yourself an artist. Of this I simply do not give a damn.

It is enough of a reward to see that smile when I place a photograph in a person's hands and (most important) not show them an image on my phone. In this century we are forgetting the beauty of a physical object you can hold.

What you see here is the print I made of Rosemary which I purposely scanned with the plastic sleeve. It made little difference.

Ipheion uniflorum is a species of flowering plant, related to the onions, placed in the allium subfamily (Allioideae) of the Amaryllidaceae. It is known by the common name springstar, or spring starflower. Along with all species of the genus Ipheion, some sources place it in the genus Tristagma, but research published in 2010 suggested that this is incorrect. It is native to Argentina and Uruguay, but is widely cultivated as an ornamental and reportedly naturalized in Great Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand  and the United States. Wikipedia

Every day that I walk through my garden that used to be our garden, I cannot escape the presence of my Rosemary. She first planted Ipheion uniflorum around our round rose bed in our former garden in Kerrisdale. She certainl must have brought some them as they are happily growing in my lane garden. This flower and Verbena bonariensis were plants she knew grew in my Argentina. This was the kind of woman that Rosemary was.

I was going to scan ipheions  yesterday in the afternoon but I had forgotten that they are light sensitive and are only open full at about noon.

And because I can, since today was Rosemary’s birthday I could not resist including in my scan a favourite portrait (taken with my Pentacon-F that had a self-timer) of us in our home in Mexico City in the early 70s.

And of course Rosemary would have known as I only now just found out that the underside of the Ipheion is as lovely as its top side.

Rosa sericea ssp omiensis var pteracantha 18 April 2026

 

Back Lane Garden - Rosa sericea, etc on far right 18 April 2026

Rosa sericea ssp omiensis var pteracantha April 24 2025 

It may be an old fashioned expression of mine that is sexist when I say that roses like women are full of surprises.

Today 18 April 2026 my Rosa sericea ssp omiensis f. pteracantha is in bloom. Like clockwork, this species rose which is the only one that has only four petals, always bloomed on May 1^st then it all began to change.

Could it be global warming?