A fanfiction author on this site has the name 'scarlet carsons'.
Whilst searching for her page on google, I quickly realized that it was a V for Vendetta reference.
Apparently the name of the rose mentioned in the film.
As an avid gardener and keen rose keeper, I thought I'd track the rose down out of curiosity.

Coronation Street is a pretty traditional soap opera in England, which has been going on for God alone knows how long. I can remember watching the soap as a child because I was allowed to stop up for an extra half-hour if I watched it quietly.

Back in the 60's, a character called Ena Sharples was part of the cast, played by a Violet Carsons. She was awarded the title of OBE, being an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, and had a rose named after her, the Violet Carsons rose.

In the graphic novel version of V for Vendetta, the Violet Carsons rose is referred to. Obviously a reference to British cultural history.

Typically, Hollywood didn't like this real-life business. Perhaps the rose wasn't showy enough. The Violet Carson was axed and a fictitious 'Scarlet Carson' was made up and inserted into the film. The rose they used in the film was actually 'Grand Prix', the nastiest, most meaningless rose in existence.

I used to be a florist (until I grew tired of people's pomp and arrogance over trussed up bunches of severed plant reproductive organs), and around Valentines day we would sell hundreds of these pieces of unoriginal crap. It was the worst time of year to be a florist; roses, roses and more roses with thorns, thorns and more thorns. The worst part was thinking about how the repetitive 12 or 24 red-rose bouquets I'd spent the day getting cut to ribbons to make, were going to be used as sexual tokens.

The shittiest Valentines day gift I can think of is 12 of those dime-a-dozen (only not, because people are willing to pay stupid prices) nasty Grand Prix pieces of crap.

"It's always in the last place you look" No shit Sherlock, I thought I'd just keep looking for it after I've found it, because I never have anything better to do.

"Be kind to pigeons; one day there will be a statue made of you."

I like that fortune!

Since february, I have been tenderly nurturing a number of tomato, aubergine and chilli-pepper seedlings. keeping them lovingly watered, safe from temperatures below 10C by laboriously bringing them in for the night until summer came. Potting them up into lovely spacious pots, with high-quality, enriched, peat-free compost and anxiously watching for the first fruits to set, then dilligently feeding them little and often.

I planted out Sweet 100, an F1 hybrid cherry tomato which produces insane numbers of fruit; I have over 80 on one plant. Black Cherry, a heritage variety of tomato with small, reputedly irresistably sweet, purple/black fruit. Striped stuffer; a large stuffing tomato with skins which ripen to red, yellow and orange stripes. Calliope, a variety of aubergine/eggplant with small, globular, white and purple striped fruit. Last but by no means least, an extremely expensive chilli pepper variety called Joe's Long (£3 odd for 7 seeds!) which grows extra-long chillies up to 18 inches long!

I was excited, but I've been completely destroyed by potato blight. The very same as that which caused the Irish potato famine. It doesn't just affect potatoes; but most of the Solanaceae family, which includes tomatoes, aubergines and peppers too. I can kiss those crops goodbye, and need to burn them to get rid of the spores. Kill it with fire!

Ah well, at least the strawberries did well this year, with only one fruit lost to a slug and the rest in our stomachs, I've also increased my number of plants and varieties. Plus, I've been given an enormous allotment for free! Its been fallowed for about 15 years and will require a lot of preparation this autumn, but next year all that nutritious soil will be feeding me! I've got a tayberry bush already, and my guardian has redcurrant and blackcurrant bushes she said she'd propagate some cuttings for me from :3

So, I decided that gaining a copy of the Watchmen graphic novel was relevant to my interests, so I took the car on a trip to the other side of the city. The Borders store was the nearest bookstore I was aware of that would stock something like that, so off I went. I don't much like Borders store;, they don't feel like proper honest bookshops, only like a corporate machine within which you are immediately assaulted by a plethora of 'popular' books. I bet someone with shiny-shoes and a tick-box sheet on a clip board calls this 'driving sales', but I walked straight past that rubbish, as always!

I couldn't find the graphic novel itself, but I was spoilt for choice as far as suppourting material was concerned. The art from the movie. Stickerbooks. Even the DVD, but no graphic novel. Bookstore? Lol.

I decided to check out the science section to see if they stocked a bigger range of David Quammen's or Steve Jones' books than the Waterstones bookshop in the city center. The popular science section was tiny and shoved underneath the stairs, but I eventually found it. Not a great selection either, but this was beginning to look like a wasted trip. I still managed to become mired in indecision, with three books on the shortlist.

1) A book by an author previously unknown to me, about freaks of nature and what they tell us about genetics and evolution. The cover graphic was of a four-legged baby chicken, and the font was in classical Victorian circus freak-show style. Decided that this book might be a bit morbid and bad taste (but will probably buy it in the future).

2) A book by James Lovelock, founder and proponent of the popular Gaia hypothesis. A book on climate change is relevant to my MSc interests and would count as decent reading towards it, but Lovelock seems a bit looney to me. Maybe next time.

3) Steve Jones' Darwin's Island, The Galapagos in the Gardens of England. Winner.

Inquired at the service desk about the graphic novel, and a helpful lass called Amy confirmed that there were none in stock and none on order. However, she has ordered me a copy. Will be popping back in a week to collect it.