Some people can follow the instructions to make a pot of loose tea, or to fix a dozen Mexican corn tortillas. But many will fail. There is some magic involved.

Our former Mexican housekeeper in Burnaby in the late 70s (we brought her so that our daughters would not lose their Spanish) Clemencia made the best Earl Grey Tea. One day I spotted her re-boiling some of it and I was shocked! I never did notice the difference. She had the touch.

It is the same with roses. Some of us can grow this rose or that one. I could never grow the multi-petalled Bourbon Roses because the blooms would never open in Vancouver’s rainy weather.

Rosarian of note, Darlene Sanders told me she had a fine specimen of Rosa ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’. I told her this could not be true (I almost called her a fibber!). So some years ago I visited her West Vancouver garden and her Souvenir de la Malmaison was glorious.

Now, yesterday Saturday, Sanders visited our garden. She brought me a little gift. You can guess exactly what the gift was. Today Sunday I scanned it.

This blog is filling a an empty hole on another day, the day before yesterday. But the date of the scan is 31 May 2020.

Perhaps someday soon Sanders might invite us for tea. I am sure that it would be excellent. But in making Mexican corn tortillas I believe she would be as good at it as I am in growing Bourbon Roses.