[Rosemary]

When we were developing the website for Rosedean Ryelands, we chose a five petalled rose as the logo. It was simply something that popped into my head.

While on holiday last week, we visited the island of Rum and in the visitor centre, saw a board about Rosa alba, the five petalled "White Rose of Scotland" that was the Jacobite emblem - plucked by Bonnie Prince Charlie and tucked into his bonnet and the precursor of the "White Cockade". Now it is seen as a symbol of all Scotland.

Then I found this in a book of poetry:

 

The Little White Rose

By Hugh MacDiarmid (1892 – 1978)

1934

The rose of all the world is not for me.
I want for my part
Only the little white rose of Scotland
That smells sharp and sweet – and breaks the heart.

In his first line, MacDiarmid refers directly to the opening lines of Yeats’s poem “The Rose of Battle” – “Rose of all Roses, Rose of all the World”. For Yeats, the rose was a potent and complex symbol representing the feminine idea; Ireland; the transcendent state of peace and beauty; ineffable perfection. But MacDiarmid rejects the universal for the particular. He wants something more specific and singular – the little white rose of Scotland, the Jacobite emblem, vulnerable yet tough. Rosa x alba is its correct name – “vigorous, resistant to disease and capable of thriving on poorer soils”. For MacDiarmid, it symbolises the country he loves; for Alex Salmond, leader of the Scottish National Party too: upbraided for wearing a Jacobite rose in his buttonhole, Salmond’s retort was that it’s MacDiarmid’s rose and it stands for the whole of Scotland.
Not intended as any sort of political statement, but it made me wonder...

[Fowgill Farm]

The emblem for Yorkshire is also the white rose and the red rose for Lancashire hence the war of the roses and the banter that still continure to this day between the two counties!
Mandy

[tobytoby]

Rosemary a simple analogy;
 
A Rose needs shite as a fertiliser
 
Salmond talks shite !!
 
 

[deepinthewoods]

ouch.

[Ina]

But where there's muck, there's money...

[Rosemary]

Rosemary a simple analogy;
 
A Rose needs shite as a fertiliser
 
Salmond talks shite !!

I can't hear you - la, la, la 

[Womble]

Rosemary a simple analogy;
 
A Rose needs shite as a fertiliser
 
Salmond talks shite !!

And I thought you were going to start on about Prickles Toby 

[Moleskins]

You're right he does talk shite, unfortunately he does it eloquently so a lot of people are going to fall for it.

[deepinthewoods]

aye , bullsh.t baffles brains.

[Rosemary]

You're right he does talk shite, unfortunately he does it eloquently so a lot of people are going to fall for it.

I disagree but Dan has forbidden me to enter into any discussion re independence.

[Small Farmer]

I disagree but Dan has forbidden me to enter into any discussion re independence.

Of course.  I always do what my BH tells me to do.


There are many paths to Scottish independence, and many varieties of independence.  I personally doubt that the current path will serve Scotland well, but given that all those at the top table are politicians I also expect some startling twists and turns.

[doganjo]

You're right he does talk shite, unfortunately he does it eloquently so a lot of people are going to fall for it.

I disagree but Dan has forbidden me to enter into any discussion re independence.

That's Ok Rosie - we'll just talk amongst ourselves    I must try to find a Rosa x Alba for my garden 

[Rosemary]

Weve decided to put in a Rosa alba hedge where the new picket fence is going 

[bloomer]

they are quite a pretty rose...

[doganjo]

http://www.classicroses.co.uk/gfx/filestore/roser/rosaalba300.jpg

Hmm, if this is it I think I have three of them already