A Farewell to a Good Friend
Friday, June 19, 2026
 | | Christopher Dafoe |
Send-offs to
old friends can be melancholic. Such is the case for a going away (to Winnipeg)
event at the Sylvia Hotel today from 5 to 8 for Christopher Dafoe.
Christopher
and I collaborated (me with photographs, he with interviews) of famous people
for the Globe and Mail in Vancouver. Of all the many writers I ever worked with
this man could sit in front of someone like film director Krzysztof Kieślowski and not say anything. The folks
facing him would look at his calm face and simply open up with all sorts of
intimate details.
Christopher
was gracious enough to allow me to be present at these interviews, usually in
Vancouver hotels so that I could get my large camera and lights ready and to
observe the mannerisms of the person who would face my camera.
I met
Christopher many years before when he worked for CITR Radio. I may be one of
the few persons that remembers that he was a DJ at the stripper heaven Drake
Hotel. He taught the ecdysiasts to appreciate local punk and pop bands. I saw
some of my favourites like Cheri dance to Maurice and the Clichés.
When
Christopher was asked by the Globe to move to Toronto he declined. He entered the
University of British Columbia and became a highfalutin lawyer.
I will always
be grateful to Chris as he has been the only person who appreciated my rose
scans and bought one (yes!) from me.
I wish
Christopher the best in his native city of Winnipeg.
An added
humorous note. The picture you see here I made into a place mat. I have no idea
if Christopher kept it.
Two Pinkies
Thursday, June 18, 2026
 | | Top - Rosa 'Princess Alexandra of Kent' & Rosa 'Fantin Latour' 18 June 2026 |
The few who
might read my blogs may be thinking, “When
is this idiot going to stop scanning his roses and show us some of his erotic
portraits of women?”
The fact is
that at this time of the year my roses are in bloom and whenever I look at them
I am almost sure they tell me, “Scan me now.”
I have
written a few times about Julian Barnes’s latest book Departures(s) in which he
does not explain why that s in in brackets. He writes about IAm or Invonluntary Autobiographical Memory. When
I looked at the smallish pink rose in the scan here, Rosa ‘Fantin Latour’ I was hit by the memory of where this rose was
planted (by the fence on 45thAve) in our Kerrisdale home. Yes, the rose in my
Kits garden may at least be 18 years old. Julian Barnes & the Lemon Table
I wrote
about the artist Latour in this blog (link below) and I connected him to a portrait I took
of a wonderful woman called Caitlin Legault. Henri Fantin Latour
The other
rose, a much larger one, was one of Rosemary’s favourites as its name, ‘Princess
Alexandra of Kent’ connects the rose to our older daughter (58) Alexandra.
Without me
being able to stop the memory (IAM) I am barraged by remembrances that connect
my roses to people or incidents of my past life.
More often
these roses barrage me with thoughts of my Rosemary who first gently forced me
to go to a meeting of the Vancouver Rose Society in 1991. Rosemary said I had too many pink roses, but she did love the Princess.
And yes
putting here scans of my roses is about as satisfying as my erotic photographs
of women.
A Forrest Rose in My Garden
Saturday, June 13, 2026
 | | Rosa 'Boscobel' 13 June 2026 |
Rosa 'Boscobel', bred by British breeder
David C.H. Austin, is named after the historic Boscobel House in Shropshire,
England. History of the Name: Boscobel House (built in 1632) is famous for its
role in the English Civil War. After his defeat at the Battle of Worcester in
1651, King Charles II fled and hid from Oliver Cromwell's soldiers on the
Boscobel estate—most famously in the "Royal Oak" tree.The etymology
of the place name "Boscobel" itself traces back to Italian roots:"Bosco": derived from the Late Latin
boscus, meaning "wood" or
"forest.""Bella":
from Latin, meaning "beautiful."Combined, it is believed to translate
roughly to "beautiful wood" or "fair wood" in Italian.Unlike many
perennials, roses are usually named after people or places. Because I take
seriously being a rosarian (a rose fanatic), when I find out the name of a rose, somehow I get a pleasant knowledge of history.
David Austin
started hybridizing roses in 1961 when
he introduced Rosa ‘Constance Spry’. He died on December 18, 2018, at the age
of 92. Born in 1926, he was affectionately known as the "Father of the English Rose" and spent his life breeding
famous varieties that combined the charm and fragrance of old roses with the
repeat-blooming trait of modern roses.
While my
wife Rosemary died on December 9, 2020, living in what used to be our house and
our garden I cannot escape my loss. I am stared at by her framed portraits and
that of our family throughout the house. When her cat Niña is in my bed I
relive my loss.
One of the
few situations when I fell a bit less
melancholic is when I scan my roses and plants. My vision is very good so I am
able to remove the dust specks with my Photoshop 8 which is 23 years old.
Today I was
struck by the lovely colour of this English Rose so I knew I had to scan it.
Thanks to my
search of the etymology of Boscobel I found out that boscus is Latin for wood
or forest. Now I know where the Spanish word for forrest “bosque” came from.
Anastasia - Garbo and a Gevabox
Friday, June 12, 2026
 | | Anastasia Milne |
I believe
that if you combine the technology of the 20th century with that of this one
the opportunities for personal creativity explode particularly in photography.
The chaps of A J Phone Repair sold me a 27 inch wide Acer monitor. I had the pleasure to
dumping my 22-year-old Dell CRT Monitor at Kent Street Recycling.
I was
unaware what I could do with this monitor that as a bonus is properly calibrated. When I
go to my files with my 22-year-old Photoshop 8 and click on Browse, I can then
see all the photographs in the files. Because of this feature I have discovered
photographs I had forgotten I had taken. In the photograph here (used my phone)
of my Acer screen you can see the first of the almost 4000 plant scans I have
taken since I began in 2001.
The photograph
of Anastasia Milne here is one of two that I took with an extremely slow (25 ISO)
and sharp Kodak Technical Pan in 120 format. It is the choice of camera that I
used that makes this photograph even more unusual. I used my 1951 6x9
inch-long negative Gevabox Camera. Both negatives are severely underexposed but
my Epson scanner can do wonders. I photographed Anastasia in the best room of the sleazy Marble Arch Hotel. She is the sister of a friend of mine called Carol. Anastasia did not say more that three or four words. She was an enigma.But a a wonderful one. Her name reminds me of the Mexican writer Elena Garro who was about to write a short story about the fact that Anastasia survived the murder of her family in Russia and changed her name to Greta Garbo. Garro died before she was able to write it.
A Mellow Yellow Darwin
Thursday, June 11, 2026
 | | Rosa 'Charles Darwin' 12 June 2026 |
This English Rose is one that I bought this year. I could not help it when I saw its lovely yellow colour. My Rosemary was not fond of yellow roses, with the exception of the single tea rose that I put in our granddaughter's hair while she was wearing her sailor dress.
Because I am Argentine I am aware that the last colour Jorge Luís Borges was able to discern was yellow before he went blind. One of the most interesting non-fiction books I have ever read was Charles Darwin's The Voyage of the Beagle. He relates how he went galloping in the Argentine Pampa with the soon -to-be strong man Juan Manuel de Rosas.
For Borges yellow was also the connection to his literary output as he often wrote about gold, tigres and twilight.
Because of my ever present IAM (involuntary autobiographical memory as written by Julian Barnes in his Departure9s) I must add here that right after I married Rosemary in Mexico in 1968 we were fans of Donovan's Mellow Yellow.
The Company of a Dead Child
Wednesday, June 10, 2026
My
relationship with my Abuelita (grandmother) was that plainly she educated me by
giving me the advice that Sancho Panza imparted to Don Quijote. To that she
added the refrains that she learned when she was educated as a little girl in
Valencia. She was most modern as she never told me “Alex no hagas eso,” but “Alex
if you do this these are going to be the consequences.”
Of boring
people she told me that they were “la compañia del niño muerto,” or “the company of a dead child.”
Now with the
death of my male cat Niño I find that I have to look at her advice under a
different light.
Somehow Niño’s
twin sister Niña knew something most human about what death is. Since Niño died
she is inseparable from me. She is most affectionate and leads a life of
routine even to staring at me around 8pm when she knows I will give her some
treats before we might get in bed to read. She gives me a needed stability to
my day.
And so my
Niña is now the company of “el Niño
muerto”.
 | | Niña |
I have a
feeling that my Abue would smile at my adapting her advice to the
circumstances.
A Paragon of Stability
Tuesday, June 09, 2026
 | | Captain John F. Schork US Navy - July 1999 |
John F.
Schork graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1972 and went on to spend 26
years in Naval Aviation, flying the iconic Grumman A-6 Intruder.
During his
career, he accumulated 4,000 flight hours and over 1,000 carrier arrested
landings. Operating primarily in the
Pacific theater, he took part in Operations Frequent Wind, Praying Mantis and
Southern Watch among others. As the last
Executive Officer of the USS Midway (CV-41), he took part in Desert Storm and
the evacuation of US personnel from the Philippines following the eruption of
Mt. Pinatubo. He commanded an A-6 Intruder Squadron, VA-95 and Naval Air
Station Whidbey Island.
His final
tour was as the Chief of Staff of the Kitty Hawk Battle Group.
He's the
author of eight novels and currently resides with his wife Carole in Sammamish,
Washington.
In these unsteady
times I long for stability. I look for it in people I know. Unfortunately three
of them who were paragons of it are dead. They are Sean Rossiter, Mark Budgen
and Abraham Rogatnick. Blog links to them below.
Mark Budgen Sean Rossiter Abraham Rogatnick Two Paragons of Stability
Another
stable person in my life was my wife Rosemary. We were married for 52 years and
she made all the important decisions. On May 12, my male cat Niño died. When he
looked at me I felt the comfort that nothing could go wrong with him around.
In my stint
as a conscript of the Argentine Navy between 1966 and 1967 I had a hard time adapting
to the military discipline. Because of my English I was seconded to the US
Naval Advisory Group. This meant that I had the privilege of having my own desk
and I was allowed to smoke my pipe with Edgeworth pipe tobacco. I even had an
Irish/Argentine secretary who typed up my handwritten output. I spent quite a
few days in the military clink for disobeying orders and for refusing to have a
haircut. My boss, Captain Onofrio Salvia USN one day told me, “Alex it is
obvious that you will never get along in the military. My advice is for you to
fit in now and when in later years you may have a position to change the
system, do so.”
Looking at
Salvia’s face in my memory is one of a trusted stability.
The portrait
of Captain USN John Schork which I took in July 1999 at the Whidbey Island US
Naval Air Station has always been special for me. Americans have the
expression, “I would buy a used-car from this man.” This is just another way of
expressing the trust one may have a just-met person. When I looked at Captain
Schork’s face I knew that with him in the military with his Grumman A-6 Intruders,
all was well with the world. Captain Onofrio Salvia would have agreed.
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