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| Top - Rosa 'Princess Alexandra of Kent' & Rosa 'Fantin Latour' 18 June 2026 |
The few who
might read my blogs may be thinking, “When
is this idiot going to stop scanning his roses and show us some of his erotic
portraits of women?”
The fact is
that at this time of the year my roses are in bloom and whenever I look at them
I am almost sure they tell me, “Scan me now.”
I have
written a few times about Julian Barnes’s latest book Departures(s) in which he
does not explain why that s in in brackets. He writes about IAm or Invonluntary Autobiographical Memory. When
I looked at the smallish pink rose in the scan here, Rosa ‘Fantin Latour’ I was hit by the memory of where this rose was
planted (by the fence on 45thAve) in our Kerrisdale home. Yes, the rose in my
Kits garden may at least be 18 years old.
Julian Barnes & the Lemon Table
I wrote
about the artist Latour in this blog (link below) and I connected him to a portrait I took
of a wonderful woman called Caitlin Legault.
The other
rose, a much larger one, was one of Rosemary’s favourites as its name, ‘Princess
Alexandra of Kent’ connects the rose to our older daughter (58) Alexandra.
Without me
being able to stop the memory (IAM) I am barraged by remembrances that connect
my roses to people or incidents of my past life.
More often
these roses barrage me with thoughts of my Rosemary who first gently forced me
to go to a meeting of the Vancouver Rose Society in 1991.
Rosemary said I had too many pink roses, but she did love the Princess.
And yes
putting here scans of my roses is about as satisfying as my erotic photographs
of women.