How to judge a Rose....Vivat! Vivat Regina!

 In Rome and on camera, I was asked.........

 "How do you judge a Rose?",

and in a brief soundbite in Italian, I found myself saying; "Beauty, Health, Shape, Perfume, Form, Colour, Leaf"...........

This is only the beginning, and it sounds rather like judging a woman.

Last week I judged in Glasgow in the wind and the rain and it was a very different experience to judging in Rome in April.

The City gave a most splendid dinner in their magnificent glasshouses, accompanied by pipes and fireworks, and The Lord Provost asked me if I would sing the next day. "I would love to, but cannot do both things at once" I said. "May I come back!"  ("I love your jewellery!")

Having been announced, I asked if I could say something about my rose, and that she is given to Help For Heroes. The Great Palm House erupted with applause and I hoped so much that it would result in some real effect for our men and women currently serving in Afghanistan.

I ran off to stay with a dear, but long lost cousin in Edinburgh, whose spouse is Lyon Clerk, Herald of Scotland, and who has edited the new book on the Thistle Chapel, home to the Ceremony of the Thistle and our equivalent, The Ceremony of The Garter.

Elizabeth Roads' work is very fascinating, and I spent many hours in the night reading about the origins of our coats of arms, how they distinguished men on the battlefield and of their relevance today. She is a descendant of Robert the Bruce, the first King of Scotland.

Vivat! Vivat Regina!