The Rose
Roses are one of the most popular garden shrubs and are also
among the most common flowers sold by florists. Roses are of great
economic importance both as a crop for florists' use and for use in
perfume.
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| The Dog Rose |
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Many thousands of rose hybrids and cultivars have been bred and
selected for garden use, mostly double-flowered with many or all of
the stamens mutated into additional petals. Twentieth-century rose
breeders generally emphasized size and color, producing large,
attractive blooms with little or no scent. Many wild and
"old-fashioned" roses, by contrast, have a strong sweet scent.
Roses are ancient symbols of love and beauty. The rose was
sacred to a number of goddesses, and is often used as a symbol of
the Virgin Mary. Roses are so important that the word means pink or
red in a variety of languages (such as the Romance languages,
Greek, and Polish).
A red rose (often held in a hand) is also a symbol of socialism
or social democracy; it is also used as a symbol by the United
Kingdom Labour Party, as well as by the French, Spanish (Spanish
Socialist Workers' Party), Portuguese, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish,
Finnish, Brazilian, Dutch (Partij van de Arbeid) and European
socialist parties. This originates from the red rose being used as
a badge by the marchers in the May 1968 street protests in
Paris.
The Dog Rose
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Rails to Trails |
The Dog Rose Rosa canina is a scrambling shrub-like rose species
native to Europe, northwest Africa and western Asia. It has also
been introduced to North America. The rose ranges in height from
1-5 m and its stems are covered with small sharp spines. The
flowers are pale pink, 4-6 cm diameter with five petals, and mature
into an oval 1.5-2 cm red-orange fruit, or hip. The fruit is noted
for its high vitamin C level and is used to make tea and marmalade.
During World War II in the United States Rosa canina was planted in
victory gardens, and can still be found growing in wet, sandy areas
up and down the eastern U.S. coastline.
Other common names are: Brier rose, dogberry, sweet brier, wild
brier, witches' brier, and Brier hip.
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| The Marsh |
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The Cache
The cache is located off the rails-to-trails path that travels
from Manchester to Portsmouth. If you want a longer walk you can
pick up the trail at the Massabesic Lake parking lot just south of
the Route 28/121 rotary on Route 28. If you want a shorter hike
just park at a trail head on Route 121 near the cache.
In either case, you'll follow a well-marked trail until you are
pretty close to the cache, then you'll have to bushwhack a short
distance, but if you are observant you can pick up a slightly
easier path through the brush.
The cache itself is located near a marsh that borders Massabesic
Lake. I figured that the Massabesic cachers should see something
other than the usual beautiful Massabesic views. Not that the view
is bad, quite the contrary. Outside of winter this area promises to
be wonderful and full of life. (Sadly, one can still see a bit of
the highway and one can certainly hear it, marring an otherwise
idyllic spot.)
Please do not enter the marsh, this is still part of the
protected water supply.
Return to Tradition
Thank you Bubba Riley for letting me add this to the
Return to Tradition series.
Note: Early logs will be deleted.