Rosa 'The Alexandra Rose' 19 August 2022

My Rosemary had a distinct interest in names. Before I learned to appreciate a garden I eschewed her insistence in properly calling plants by their botanical names. So I soon learned to appreciate my Rosa sericea omeiensis var. pteracantha and blurt out the name when people would notice the rose and ask me what it was. 

 Unfortunately for our youngest daughter Hilary we never found plants or anything related to her name. Hilary often tells people when they ask that there is only one l in her name. An punctilious Martin Dunfy at the Georgia Straight tried to tell me in an essay I had written where I mentioned Hilary that her name should have two ls. 

 Rosemary, a proto feminist told me she wanted to name our second daughter with an epicene name. By this she meant that it would be up to her to invest her name in the sex of her choice. 

With Alexandra (immediately called Ale, pronounced Aleh by her friends in Mexico City in 1971) it has been a bit easier for Rosemary to relate her to plants. One such plant is the English Rose, Rosa ‘The Alexandra Rose’. 

Today 19 August 2022 I noticed this bloom that is a few day s old and so it has lost its subtle shade of yellow/pink. I was struck by the purity of its colour and the first word that came to mind was pristine. 

 My on-line dictionary of the Spanish Language (RAE) defines pristina rather nicely: prístino, na Del lat. pristĭnus. 1. adj. Antiguo, primero, primitivo, original. 

That translates to ancient, first, primitive, original. I would state here that my daughter Ale is definitely defined as an original. 

Every once in a while with my negative electricity Blogger acts up. I am unable to separate paragraphs or note that the scanned rose should have today's date. As my friend Abraham Rogatnick told me a year before he died, "I am not long for this world and I am glad for it." I would concur. 

Mysteriously the Blogger problem disappeared but I will let what Rogatnick told mes stand.