One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon-instead of enjoying the roses blooming outside our windows today. — Dale Carnegie

November is perhaps the best time to enjoy the heritage roses in the Bolton Cemetery. This rose – Mlle. Cecile Brunner – was bred in 1881 by Joseph Pernet-Ducher of Lyon, France. In the howling winds today it was difficult to get more than a fleeting whiff of their light citrus-y rose-y fragrance. It is one of the ‘tea cup’ roses that were brought to New Zealand as a cutting, carefully packed in damp moss, in a tea cup for protection. The Harris rose was brought over from England in a hollowed out potato.

It’s a little corner of England – of home – roses carefully carried in tea cups. Ivy, lavender, rosemary, and numerous other European natives. Sparrows, pigeons, starlings, blackbirds… clipped lawns and brick paving accents. All brought by the settlers – perhaps for aesthetic reasons, or perhaps for nostalgia – a link to home. There are few things more effective for reminding us of a time or a place than a sudden familiar fragrance.

I wondered what I would take if I had the opportunity to load up for what was most likely to be a one way trip to the other side of the world. Today with speedy international travel and the almost universal distribution of the common species it’s hard to imagine the desire, let alone the need, to bring along a cage full of sparrows for company.

So, what would you take? Desert Island Disks and all that. From memory I think Prince Charles was going to take along his Shirley Bassey LPs. For me, I guess after I’d loaded up with all my essential pioneer gear – laptop, high speed internet access, digital camera, back up storage devices, credit card, business cards, and drawing gear – my next grab would be for what we now call heritage seeds – plants that grow true from seeds. And if the essentials were mostly taken care of – and things would have been reasonably well sorted by the 1880s – I guess finding a corner in my heart, and in a tea cup, for a rose cutting or two would have been very likely too. The fragrances would help allay homesickness – reducing the miles between dots on the empire map. Anything for a civilizing influence in those scary, foreign, far-off lands. Anything to remind me of home.

Manifesto
03. Every day is an opportunity to reflect on the past.
04. Every day is an opportunity to cultivate the promise of the future.
30. Every day use all your senses. Touch. Smell. Taste. Hear. See.