Wimbledon , and roses ...it's flaming June....

Yes, it's tennis time again, and Roger Federer, the brilliant Swiss player, will endeavour to make history by claiming the championship for the sixth year running - very apt description as he will have to "run his legs off" to achieve it...good luck Roger...! With Wimbledon comes the strawberry season - an inordinate quantity of these delicious berries are munched annually, helped down by lashings of cream, - ooooh, makes the mouth water just imagining them...I have two patches of self seeded wild Alpine strawberries invading the patio outside the back door, and I harvest a cereal bowl full daily - delicious. My one and only visit to the championships was the the first time Bjorn Borg competed, accompanying my dear Swedish friend Birgitta Raby - Ferron. It was a most memorable day as he won, and with hindsight, I can say I had no idea of the career which would unfold for him, only that day he was phenomenol from the moment he hit the first ball - talk about breathtaking .....The other June delight is the profusion of roses everywhere, and particularly in my garden. The fragrances mingle and make one quite light headed, intoxicated with a variety of scents to compete with any department store perfumery...How are these bouquets re-created to waft out of tiny flasks and sweeten the air so that we can gently breathe them in and be "carried away " by their magic sensations....? (Ambergris, a substance produced by whales, is involved somewhere along the way - don't even go there...) Some persons cannot tolerate any kind of perfume, poor they ... The spectrum of colours displayed by roses is immense - a great display of yellow blooms outside the front window here almost blind with their brilliance when the sunlight catches them, and the lounge is aglow - wonderful. Have you ever had a good look at rose thorns, other than when one pierces your finger ? No, I thought not. Neither had I , until I was making stage props. for Erte, the designer of "Der Rosenkavalier" at Glyndebourne. A slendid rose had been hand made by a silversmith, and when it arrived for rehearsal, it seemed that there was something not quite right about it, magnificent as it was. After a few days it dawned on someone that the thorns were "points UP" on the stem ! Yes, rose thorns have sharp points DOWN - well, there's a thing ! That useless item of knowledge might win you a prize in a competition someday...'bye for now, enjoy the summer...and k..p b.......g