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| Camellia x williamsii 'Donation' - 15 March 2026 - shot with a Fuji X-E1 and a LensBaby |
George Bowering - Barefoot He Was
Often in these blogs I have written how I met Rosemary in Mexico City on December 15th 1967 and that by the 20th I had taken her to meet my mother in Veracruz. I then add that we were married in the lovely neighbourhood of Coyoacán in Mexico City on 8 February 1968.
In some bit of tremendous luck I can bring many elements of that event here with pictures.
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| 20 December 1967 - Mocambo, Veracruz - Pentacon-F Camera |
In 1959 while going to Catholic boarding school in Austin, Texas I met (did not know that then) my mentor, Brother Edwin Reggio, C.S.C.. The latter initials stand for Congregation of Holy Cross the same congregation of brothers, nuns and priests that to this day run The University of Notre Dame.
The short man forced me to learn to play the alto saxophone for the school band and gave me a salary for cleaning the band room and catching mice. A few months after I started that job I bought a Pentacon-F SLR for $100 in Adorama (still in existence).
It was because that camera had a self-timer and I had a tripod that I can put here the photograph (the first of us together) taken on Mocambo Beach in Veracruz sometime in the later part of December.
And just a couple of days ago I photographed Rosemary’s favourite Camellia x williamsii ‘Donation’ in full bloom. We brought it from our Kerrisdale garden 7 years ago and it is sight to behold. I melancholically smile when I look at it missing my Rosemary as she knew her plants well before I ever did.
So today Monday, March 16, 2026 I am able to join all those elements into this blog.
As for my blog, which I started in January 2006, I was not aware that Blogger was Google so that since then 6845 blogs later my Google presence is very large. Just last week I was unable to find any interest in the media (Vancouver Sun, CBC, Georgia Straight) that I was going to photograph the first Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate (2002-2004) George Bowering who is 90 and is publishing two books (one on poetry and the other a memoir of his living in Mexico). I told them that I would give them my portrait for free.
So my blog on Bowering (see link above) is sort of a secondary form of journalism.
Somebody has to do it. I do.
PS - because I can. Dresden (where my camera was made) was bombed by the allies in WWII even though it had no military value. The Ameicans bombed it in the morning with blockbusters and in the evening the British used fire bombs. A US serviceman was in captivity. His name was Kurt Vonnegut. In his novel Slaughterhouse Five he describes how lions escaped from the zoo to avoid the flames. In the mid 70s (1971) Vonnegut spoke at the Mexican American Institute of Cultural Relations. I went with Rosemary. I will never forget that in pointing out the famous photograph of Margaret Trudeau taken in a back alley where she show.... Vonnegut told us he coined the expression - "Open Beaver".
