A Bagful of Memories
Saturday, May 02, 2026
 |
| Rosa 'Sir Thomas Lipton' 4 May 2026 |
The Rosa
'Sir Thomas Lipton' is a hybrid rugosa rose named to honour Sir Thomas Lipton
(1848–1931), the famous Scottish tea merchant, philanthropist, and America's
Cup yachtsman. The cultivar was introduced in 1900 by Dr. Walter Van Fleet, a
prominent American breeder. It is a hybrid of Rosa rugosa alba (a white Japanese rose) and the polyantha rose
'Clotilde Soupert'.
I found
these two blooms today. I overlooked them yesterday when they would have had a
tidier look. This rose always brings back memories of living with Rosemary in
Mexico City from 1967 to 1975 when we moved to Vancouver.
In our
Mexico City, good English tea was not to be found anywhere. Whenever we had
friends or relatives coming from the US and Canada we would ask them to bring
us Lipton Tea. Often what we got were teabags. I must confess here that we
re-used them. I swore that once in Canada we would never do that and we would
have the best tea available. For years I have had at least 10 tins of the best
varieties of loose tea. Now unfortunately I have been losing my sense of taste
and while I have a huge tea ball I have to imagine what my tea tastes.
This blog fills one of my last holes so that is why the scan done today Monday is in the blog for May 2.
A Lovely Kamel
Friday, May 01, 2026
 |
| Camellia japonica 'Silver Wings' - 1 May 2026 |
One of the
advantages of living in this century is our ability to instantly find the
etymology of words. Some might say that knowing facts is not
having knowledge. I would differ by saying that the association of a fact with
personal experience becomes some sort of knowledge.
My mother and grandmother were born in the
Philippines. Today I scanned this recently purchased Camellia japonica ‘Silver
Wings’ for big coin. The flowers are 5 inches wide. I decided to look up
the origin of the word camellia.
The word camellia originates from the Latinized
surname of Georg Joseph Kamel (latinized as Camellus), a 17th-century Moravian
Jesuit botanist and missionary. Botanist Carl Linnaeus named the genus in 1753
to honor Kamel’s work documenting plants in the Philippines, though the plant
is native to East Asia. Wikipedia
So now I have this interesting association between the
camellias that my Rosemary loved and my Filipino mother and grandmother whom
Rosemary met in the late 60s and early 70s.
A fact that I happen to know about Linnaeus is that he
named the sexual parts of clams for those of human women. I won’t explain further.
A further etymology of the Spanish word camellón which is the centre part that divides a two-way highway is that it indeed comes from the camel. Since the highway ridge is higher it mimics the camel's hump. Spanish for camel is camello.
A Moss Rose - Rosa 'William Lobb
Thursday, April 30, 2026
 |
| Rosa 'William Lobb' 3 May 2026 |
William Lobb
was a 19th century English plantsman who actually made it to British Columbia
but is famous for having introduced South America's Araucaria araucana. In my books he is the man who discovered a plant that looked like something women have that men do not. This is the link - Lobb's Clitoria
In my back lane
garden I have an old rose called William Lobb. It is a moss rose that is an old
rose as it was introduced in 1855. The first modern rose, a hybrid tea called
Rosa ‘La France’ appeared in1867.
Moss roses
have particular texture that is unique. Here you will see the underside to
understand why it is called a moss rose.
While I scanned this rose on 3 May I am placing this blog a few days back fill some holes.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
Wednesday, April 29, 2026
 |
| Rosemary & Niño - 22 March 2020 |
One of the
strangest New Years Rosemary and I ever had was around 1987 at Gary Taylor's
Rock Room on Hornby Street.The entertainer that evening was Roy Forbes (then
known simply as Bim). I was astonished that at midnight he took out a paper
from his shirt pocket which had the lyrics of Auld Lang Syne which he obviously
did not know. After finishing he sprayed Rosemary and I (we were, unluckily, in
the front) with an entire bottle of Möet & Chandon. But the strangest part
of the evening were three very young Polish sailors who kept smiling at me. I
told Rosemary that I felt uncomfortable and that we should go home. As we were
leaving the sailors caught us on our way out and told us in a terrible broken
English that I was the spitting image of Roman Polanski. They asked for my
address. For years we received Christmas cards from them.
Should auld
acquaintance be forgot,
and never
brought to mind?
Should auld
acquaintance be forgot,
and auld
lang syne? – Robert Burns
These lyrics
have been in my mind as they contain that troublesome word acquaintance.
In Spanish
the word is conocido (a person
known). For me I have friends and then people I know who I call acquaintances.
In this 21st
century and in this year I can write here that most of the people I ever knew
are dead or have disappeared. In my mind most of the time now is what Harold
Bloom wrote in his book How to Read and Why (2000):
"We
read not only because we cannot know enough people, but because friendship is so
vulnerable, so likely to diminish or disappear, overcome by space,time,
imperfect sympathies, and all the sorrows of familial and passional life."
Since my
Rosemary died on December 9, 2020 I have not found anybody I can confide my
inquietudes (a fine Spanish word for existential concerns). I would tell her
that many of the people I call on the phone have a synthetic woman asking, “What
is your name and the purpose of your call”. I answer, “I am Alex and I am his
friend.” I am then told to hold while she(it) will see if the person is
available. She(it) will invariably return to tell me that the person is not available.
To add
further to what happened after my Rosemary died I can say that to my
granddaughters I am not a grandfather but a useless old man.
My family, a
family that showers me with warmth and cuddling attention are my cats Niño and
Niña. Both are 15 years old and I suspect that Niño may die in the next two
months.
Because of
my advanced age I am not interested in meeting up with a woman. The only one I
want is dead.
Is it too
late for me to make new friends? In the atmosphere of the times I believe that
is not possible. I will have to persist with my past memories of the friends
and family I had.