tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8011557877105021955.post3360488993935987597..comments2024-03-25T22:59:30.053+00:00Comments on Desperate Reader: Rock Rose with Hugh MacDiarmid's 'Scotland Small?' Desperate Readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15708411387912078122noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8011557877105021955.post-30400144957324736882016-09-10T12:38:45.217+01:002016-09-10T12:38:45.217+01:00Thanks for allowing me to read MacDiarmid again in...Thanks for allowing me to read MacDiarmid again in a refreshingly different context. He perversely rejoined the British Communist Party after the Soviet Union butchered the Hungarian democrats. He was a great poet for all his silly attention-seeking and his Stalinist posturing. I doubt if as a Borders man he visited Caithness more than once in his life. There's a new paperback biography of Josephine Tey, and someone has written a detective novel in which she features as the main character. I remember seeing a first edition of The Daughter of Time in John Braine's office library; see John Braine on the Woking Matters blog. Your comment on Rock Rose (I had never heard of it) and the undetected iris scent in the gin is fascinating. Please return to this in another blog. I had no idea the English are distilling single malt whiskies; good on them, I say. Maybe this will bring down the price of malts a wee bit. The present cost of single malts is outrageous. I like to sip a malt with a drop of sparkling water, now that the nights are drawing in, but who can afford it apart from the plutocrats who don't pay Income Tax? The distillers don't seem to give a damn because they are doing well in the international market.<br />Jack (John) Haggerty, Glasgow.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8011557877105021955.post-35575009846338826872016-09-04T16:26:49.618+01:002016-09-04T16:26:49.618+01:00I believe it's the root that's used, I hav...I believe it's the root that's used, I haven't actually managed to get within nosing distance of rock rose roots (yet) but am assuming it works a bit like orris, where it's the iris root that provides the scent - though I've never knowingly detected the iris smell familiar from perfume in gin despite orris being a botanical. That's something I'm going to think about now. Desperate Readerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15708411387912078122noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8011557877105021955.post-81407498526244447962016-09-04T16:22:16.425+01:002016-09-04T16:22:16.425+01:00I will try it with rosemary, and I like the look o...I will try it with rosemary, and I like the look of the spring one too. Gorgeous bottles. Desperate Readerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15708411387912078122noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8011557877105021955.post-8109023015493748662016-08-30T20:06:34.992+01:002016-08-30T20:06:34.992+01:00I was unaware that rock rose had any perfume at al...I was unaware that rock rose had any perfume at all! The label does look like a MacKintosh design.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8011557877105021955.post-28218208098114622702016-08-29T08:01:59.685+01:002016-08-29T08:01:59.685+01:00My current favourite and they gave a spring one I ...My current favourite and they gave a spring one I would like to try.<br /><br />Try it with rosemary it works! Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com