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| Hydrangea paniculata 'Unique' Dec 27, 2010 |
Yesterday Rosemary and I met up with Ian and Jean Bateson at Nando’s on Lonsdale in North Vancouver. I had last been at that particular Nando’s at least 11 years ago and Jean and Rosemary had not seen each other for perhaps an equivalent time. I am sure they must have looked at each other and observed the passage and ravages of time on their faces and body. Lonsdale was different. It had changed even though a nearby Kerrisdale Cameras still had used film cameras on its window and the always nondescript Safeway was accross the street. The patrons of Nando’s seemed to be of Persian heritage. I am not quite sure I accept the term as the Persians were contemporary to the ancient Greeks and the Israelites. There are no more Israelites and I would call Persians Iranians. I would never categorize the inhabitants of Mexico City Aztecs.
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| Hydrangea paniculata 'Unique' October 11, 2010 |
As Rosemary and Jean scrutinized each other I thought of how Ian, himself had nice gray hair but since I see him at least once a week I would have to look at pictures of him when I met him back in 1977 to feel the shock on how time has changed him.
One of my favourite models ever has been Katheryn Peterson whose face and body floating in a bathtub you see here. This image is from 1990. When she would walk in our direction to our Thursday lunch meetings at the Railway Club in those 90s, my fellow lunch companions would gasp. Such was her beauty.
I last photographed her some five years ago and by then (why do women do this?) she had cut most of her beautiful hair and had (on impulse?) gone for an extremely large tattoo of Betti Page on her upper arm.
There was an incident during the beginning of that shoot tha I will never forget. She happened to look at the back of my hands and she gasped but said nothing. The toll of age was to her most evident in the little liver spots and dry skin. To me she was as beautiful then (in spite of her short hair) as she had always been. I have learned to understand and appreciate the aging of people. What has helped me in this is my constant observation of the plants in my garden.
Gallica roses at their peak are beautiful, yet, as they age, the crimson and red Gallicas (most Gallicas are of this colour) change to metallic silver/gray and sometimes to purple. They are almost more beautiful.
Another example is the often ignored and lowly hydrangea. At their peak the flowers are stupendous and some of them when they are at the pollen stage (the paniculatas and the quercifolias) have an intense fragrance of honey. As they age gardeners who know follow the directions of not pruning the flowers. The large fading flowers protect the spring buds in those terrible spring frosts that we sometimes get in Vancouver. On the other hand some of these hydrangeas might fade from white to blue or from blue to pink. They are the surprising chameleons of my winter garden.
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| Dec 29, 2010 |
If you click on my hand picture you will note vertical ridges on my fingernails. While it is not always the case (malnutrition and iron deficiency can be one of the causes) in my case my orthopedic doctor says it proves I have psoriatic arthritis. You will further note that my pinky is inflamed. I am currently taking some heavy duty pills to control this further encroachement of age.