Rosa 'Zéphirine Drouhin'8 May 2025

One of the wonders of this 21^st century for me is that I can place the word “etymology” in Google and in most cases I can find a satisfactory answer to my question as to where a word or expression came from. Today in trying to find ways of writing something to accompany my rose scans I enquired as to why roses are associated with the Virgin Mary.

The "Rose Without Thorns": In the 5th century, church fathers like St. Ambrose and Coelius Sedulius noted that, according to legend, roses in the Garden of Eden were thornless before the fall of man. Because Mary was believed to be free from Original Sin (the Immaculate Conception), she became known as the "rose without thorns".

The Rosary: The Catholic prayer devotion known as the Rosary derives its name from the Latin word rosarium, which means "rose garden" or "garland of roses". Historically, the 150 Hail Marys were compared to a spiritual bouquet of roses offered to Mary.

Apparitions: The rose is closely linked to Marian appearances, most famously the 1531 apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico, where roses bloomed out of season in the winter as a miraculous sign of her presence. Wikipedia

I will not reveal my belief related to the above Wikipedia explanations as to why roses are closely connected with the Virgin Mary. My political and religious beliefs I keep to myself.

But I will point out that one of the best known Latin-American saints (and the first saint of the Americas Santa Rosa de Lima is associated with my birthday on August 31s.

My parents always planned my birthday part in our Buenos Aires garden in Coghlan, in late 40s and early 50s. Unfortunately a few were rained out.  Why? In Buenos Aires there is a usual storm on the 30^th called “La Tormenta de Santa Rosa” as that is the saint’s date of celebration.

My Rosemary heard from me that story many times and she would even point out when it would rain in some of my 52 birthdays with her.

And to this day I find it musically pleasant to say out loud, “Rosamaría,”her name in Spanish.

And yes I have a scan of a rose without thorns (the correct botanical name is prickles!). That is Rosa ‘Zépherin Drouhin’.

Christopher Dafoe

Send-offs to old friends can be melancholic. Such is the case for a going away (to Winnipeg) event at the Sylvia Hotel today from 5 to 8 for Christopher Dafoe.

Christopher and I collaborated (me with photographs, he with interviews) of famous people for the Globe and Mail in Vancouver. Of all the many writers I ever worked with this man could sit in front of someone like film director Krzysztof Kieślowski and not say anything. The folks facing him would look at his calm face and simply open up with all sorts of intimate details.

Christopher was gracious enough to allow me to be present at these interviews, usually in Vancouver hotels so that I could get my large camera and lights ready and to observe the mannerisms of the person who would face my camera.

I met Christopher many years before when he worked for CITR Radio. I may be one of the few persons that remembers that he was a DJ at the stripper heaven Drake Hotel. He taught the ecdysiasts to appreciate local punk and pop bands. I saw some of my favourites like Cheri dance to Maurice and the Clichés.

When Christopher was asked by the Globe to move to Toronto he declined. He entered the University of British Columbia and became a highfalutin lawyer.

I will always be grateful to Chris as he has been the only person who appreciated my rose scans and bought one (yes!) from me.

I wish Christopher the best in his native city of Winnipeg.

An added humorous note. The picture you see here I made into a place mat. I have no idea if Christopher kept it.

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.

Henri Fantin Latour

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.

Rosa 'Leander' 25 June 2026

 I am placing scans of my roses back to holes in my blog posts.

Leander falls in love with Hero and swims every night across the Hellespont to spend time with her. Hero lights a lamp at the top of her tower to guide his way. Leander's soft words and charms—and his argument that Aphrodite, as the goddess of love and sex, would scorn the worship of a virgin—convince Hero, and they make love. Their secret love affair lasts through a warm summer, but when winter and its rougher weather looms, they agree to part for the season and resume in the spring. One stormy winter night, however, Leander sees the torch at the top of Hero's tower. He attempts to go to her, but halfway through his swim, a strong winter wind blows out Hero's light, and Leander loses his way and drowns. When Hero sees his dead body, she throws herself off the tower to join him in death. Their bodies wash up on shore together, locked in embrace, and are then subsequently buried in a lovers’ tomb. Wikipedia

Few plants in botany, roses might be a pleasant exception, have names associated to the arts, Greek Myths and music like Rosa ‘Benjamin Britten’.

To be a rosarian, a person like me, who became that, thanks to gentle pushing by my Rosemary, by osmosis I gained a cultural background without much effort.

This pink rose, a very favourite of Rosemary’s, had us discussing the tragic Greek myth behind the name.

But we never did talk about the clitoria.

The German Botanist Johann Philipp Breyne discovered and named the plant while on expeditions to Ternate Island in Indonesia in the 1800s.  He was a contemporary of Charles Darwin and both were working on the ideas of natural selection and evolution of the species.  The Portuguese name for the plant is Fula Criqua meaning flower of creation.  Filipino’s call it Pukingan and the small green pods are cooked and prepared into a traditional dish.   Malaysian’s call it Bunga Telang.   Other names are Asian Pigeonwings, Blue bell Vine, and Darwin Pea.

Top left - Rosa 'Princess Alexandra of Kent' - Rosa Darcey Bussell' - Rosa 'Bathsheba' & Rosa 'Meikaguinz' - 25 May 2026

Voluptuous is an adjective that describes something characterized by fullness, curves, and the ability to give great pleasure to the senses. While it is most commonly used to describe a woman who is full-figured and shapely, it can also refer to anything that provides a rich, indulgent, or luxurious sensory experience – Merriam-Webster

I can remember the first time Rosemary and I indulged in that act in bed. After 52 years of marriage, what I remember best, now that she died six years ago, are the more gentle couplings.

Yes those first years I would define our act as a voluptuous one. Now I remember fondly walking with her while holding her hand.

I am no longer interested in women. My interest holds for my dear dead one.

In these hot days we got into bed with nothing on. Because the sheets were not on us our cats had a difficult time figuring out where to lie down as they could not on us.

With my silent fan and Niña by my side I now indulge in the thought of being close to my Rosemary’s body. She wasn’t voluptuous. She was just right with the curves in the right places.

And those legs!

Many of my peer photographers go to the Gulf Islands and retire. In Spanish to retire it to jubilar. The root is júbilo which translates to an enthusiastic  jubilation.

In that other century I hated going to photograph Canadian Pacific Limited retirements. I would complain to Rosemary who would look at me with “we need the money” eyes. These men would be American-style roasted. One was given a rocking chair, another a job jar to put in the kitchen so his wife would write little notes on tasks he was obliged to do.

At my age of 83 the concept of retirement from my photography, scanning and writing these blogs is anathema.

Ever since my Argentine mentor artist  Juan Manuel Sácnchez pointed out and convinced me that there was an artist in me, the idea of quitting and watching TV, is something I will not consider.

I may be lucky in that my vision is very good so I can sit in front of monitor and fix the dust spots of my plant scans.

Here are three that I believe are out of the ordinary (cutting edge perhaps?).

In one of them, I pointed my Mamiya RB-67 at Courtenay who was on the opposite wall of my studio. In front of the Mamiya, I had my iPhone3G in a bracket on a tripod. I then focused and took a picture with my Fuji X-E1 of  what I could see looking down on the Mamiya viewfinder.

I define this century as the photographer that I am – Access Denied.

In that long gone20th I had access to important and famous people. Les Wiseman who wrote a column In One Ear for Vancouver Magazine soon found out that my photographs of rock stars with microphones in front of their mouths looked like everybody else. We had pull so we did interviews and photographs back stage or in hotels.

The two pictures I am using today to illustrate this blog I took at our Vancouver City Morgue in March 1994. Not only was I given access but I asked the caretakers to hose the floor as I wanted it to shine. I took my pictures with two cameras. For the panoramic with my swivel lens Widelux I used extremely fast Kodak 3200 ISO T-Max Film. For the other I loaded my Mamiya RB-67 with the sharpest film ever made, Kodak Technical Pan that had a small ISO of 25.

I doubt that I would obtain access now as I would not be able to represent any magazine or newspaper.