Rosa 'Bathsheba' 27 October 2024

While it really is a private matter since this blog is really a “Dear Diary”-kind of writing, It would be disingenuous of me to not admit to missing all those things Rosemary and I did in bed. Yes we did watch some TV, read the papers, pet our cats, discuss finances and plan trips. Yes. But I also miss all those gentle escapades that as we got older became ever more gentle.

I was thinking about all that last night in my bed with Niño and Niña right next to me. This happens every night as I sense that empty spot on my right on the bed. She was always there for 52 years.

Because of my Bunny Watson type of association the idea of chopped onion came into my head.

I make fabulous mashed potatoes. I use cream, lots of butter and I whip up the mixture with an electric beater. I like to add freshly ground pepper and grated Parmeggiano-Reggiano cheese. There is an additional ingredient that is most special. When I first met Rosemary she told me that her mother would chop up raw onion and put it into the mashed potatoes towards the end so that they would not cook too much. The final recipe for mashed potatoes involved both our families.

I make fabulous mashed potatoes. Rosemary called them comfort food. Last night the idea that sex with Rosemary was a frequent comfort that always had a bit of edge led me to thinking up the scan you see here. Why do I have Rosa ‘Bathsheba’ in it?

Our sometimes edgy sex did also have a gentleness. This rose, about to open, somehow reminds me of Rosemary when we closed the lights or in those mornings when we shared lazy, slow and gentle sex. This is something we did until a couple of months before she died.

Yes, mashed potatoes.