Rose watercolour

I painted this Rose using watercolours a couple of years ago. It came from a bouquet of Roses that my best friend P had bought me.

Needlefelted Rose Brooch

This has just been an experiment, so the next one might be a bit better.

First of all I made the felt by needle felting dyed fleece. Then I cut out the shapes and did my best to sew them into a Rose bud effect. I would have liked the petals to have been thinner - but they need to be a certain thickness for stability.

Rose Hip Syrup

Filled with vitamin C, Rose Hip Syrup was of particular importance during the war/ and afterwards, when food rationing meant that fruit was in short supply.

People made it for themselves - but the company Delrosa in Wallsend paid children 3d a pound to collect the hips for commercial use. The WVS was also instrumental in encouraging people to make use of both the hips and other 'wild' foods during a time of such austerity.

I have made this recipe successfully in the past, but of course - as with all preserving - special care must be taken with the sterilisation of all equipment used.

An alternative recipe can be found HERE

Mmmh... Pink

Unlike my best friend who could probably tell me both the common and Latin name of any Rose, I can only admire their beauty...

This is one of the climbers we have against the front wall of our house - and yes, the Roses really are still in full bloom!

Just love Roses..

I have always loved roses... in the garden at the house where I lived before my mother died we had about 5 different varieties of the old fashioned rambling roses.

Like other children both before and after me, I recall drying their petals and even trying to make 'perfume' by infusing fresh petals in water - rather unsuccessfully I have to add.

Although I didn't know the name of most of the varieties we had, I DID know the one which grew under our our front window.

My Dad told me - and anyone else who wanted to hear - that it was a Princess Alexandra Rose. (Ours was more of a pink clour than the one above)

It actually looked very plain to me as it had so few petals - and later in my life I realised it just looked like a Dog Rose. However, Dad obviously thought it was special and so I suppose some of his enthusiasm must have rubbed on to me.

As I tried to find some photos of this rose I was rather puzzled to find the variety so named had only been bred in 1992?

Further searching led me to find that the Dog Rose was actually used as the symbol for
Princess Alexandra's Rose Day which was started by Queen Alexandra in 1912

So... perhaps our rose wasn't so special after all - but it was to us...