Rosa 'Mary Magdalene' 18 May 2025

 

I began my webpage in January 2006 and I attached to it a Blogger blog with what was then called an RSS Feed. Quite a few years later I subscribed to Twitter, Facebook and Medium. I would either place links to my blog (with an accompanying photograph) or in the case of Medium I would re-write it.

The social media folks of this century do not understand that when I place a link to my blog in social media it is not my blog. It is a link to it.

It is for that reason that I never parade my political or religious views. They are private and not writing about them means I don’t get nasty stuff.

But without revealing what indeed are my religious views, I can state that I believe that the Old and New Testament are great literature with interesting and elaborate lore.

I know it very well because I went to a Roman Catholic boarding school, St. Edward’s High School in Austin, Texas. My teachers were excellent and literate Brothers of Holy Cross (founded in the 19^th century in Le Mans, France.

My theology teacher (and friend) Brother Edwin Reggio, C.S.C. taught me Catholic doctrine well with many details.

As an example (and the reason for why I have placed here the English Rose, Rosa ‘Mary Magdalene’) is when he explained to us starting with this question, “What is the only incident in the bible where Christ writes?”

It seems that it happened when a group of men were about to stone a prostitute. Christ intervened by kneeling on the ground and scribbling something. The men turned around and left. Then Christ told the woman, “Go home and sin no more.”

We of course all know that the woman was Mary of Magdala. Perhaps the most interesting but troubling novel for the devout folks is Saramago’s The Gospel According to Jesus Christ.

But for me, without offending anybody, I wonder if when David Austin hybridized this lovely rose that smells of myrrh, he named it because of its colour shift. It emerges pink and slowly changes to white. The prostitute turned saint, perhaps?

Nobody would disagree when I say that one of the most beautiful expressions (in any language but best in the King James Bible) comes from the St. Luke’s Gospel when he recounts that Christ, when He was about to share bread with the disciples, he said, “Do this in remembrance of me.”

Every action of mine from day to day I do it in remembrance of my Rosemary.

 

Rosa 'Benjamin Britten' & Hosta 'Halcyon' 18 May 2025

 Destiny - Who I Am

The English Boy From Coghlan

In my late 40s and early 50s Buenos Aires its inhabitants were from somewhere else. The indigenous population was not seen in the city. It was a city of immigrants. I had two friends. One Miguelito was the tano (Italian) and Mario el alemán. I was el inglesito (in Spanish nationalities are never capitalized).

My father had been born in Buenos Aires from Manchester parents. Everything about him from his accent, how he dressed and he smoked Player’s Navy Cut Cigarettes.

My mother having been born in the Philippines was a country and situation few of us could understand. In my elementary American School there were these exotic Chinese girls who all seemed to be whizzes at math. I knew of one Japanese, Matsumoto who was a gardener.

Our city was white. I felt very English. It was on 2 June1953 that my mother called me for lunch. She said, “Alex wash your hands and knees. It’s lunchtime.” I immediately answered, “I can’t. I am listening to the coronation of my queen."

It was when we moved to Mexico City in 1953 that I was at odds as to who I was. Mexicans made fun of my Argentine accent.

And so, depending on the day, I feel English, Argentine, Mexican, Texan or Canadian.

Today I saw the lovely English Rose, Rosa ‘Benjamin Britten’ in bloom. I decided that I would then write this blog. Instead of just scanning the rose I paired it with the ultimate English hosta, Hosta ‘Halcyon”. It was hybridized by English plantsman in the 60s when he combined Hosta sieboldiana ‘Elegans’ with Hosta tardiflora.

The shape is elegant and its blue colour somehow both combine for what I think is most English.

Halcyon - The Essence of Blueness