Kaleidoscope Centres

Drink Holder Re-make

It seems an age since I've done one of my makeover projects, so I'm excited to share this one with you. My friend has just sold the house she grew up in and she gave me these retro wire drink holders that belonged to her parents.

These holders may look like they are fine just the way they are...

but a close-up reveals their peeling and rusty condition.

Just a few minutes with a spray can of matt black paint ...

and these super cool retro drink holders are ready to be pressed into service... with style.

Tulip Beauty

These gorgeous tulips in my garden remind me of peonies.

Thought they bloom weeks before the peony buds open.

Beautiful wisps of pink and green that look as though they have been brushed on with the stroke of a paint brush.

Truely lovely.

More Magnolias

After taking some successful photos of my own magnolias, I decided to head to the Experimental Farm's gardens to have a look at their varieties.

There were all sorts of different ones. Some creamy, some deep yellow.

There was an interesting pink magnolia with a green stripe through it.

I thought this last one very sophisticated in its colouring.

Montreal

I love these bits of architecture that I noticed when I was in the McGill ghetto in Montreal. The soft dreaminess of the patina on both the window and the bottom of a bay window. So beautiful!

Remembrance of Things Past

While baking a batch of madeleines the other day, I remembered how inextricably linked they are to a segment of  Marcel Proust's novel, In Rembrance of Times Past. 

She sent for one of those squat plump little cakes called "petites madeleines," which look as though they had been molded in the fluted valve of a scallop shell … I raised to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had soaked a morsel of the cake. No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure invaded my senses …

Whence could it have come to me, this all-powerful joy? I was conscious that it was connected with the taste of tea and cake… Whence did it come? What did it signify? How could I seize upon and define it. 

And suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was that of the little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray … when I went to say good morning to her in her bedroom, my aunt Leonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of tea or tisane …. and the whole of Combray and its surroundings, taking shape and solidity, sprang into being, town and garden alike, from my cup of tea.

Taste sometimes propels me headfirst into a memory from the past, but for me that magical journey to another time and place is more usually achieved through the sense of smell. For example, the scent of diesel instantly takes me back to childhood visits to my grandparents in industrial Birmingham, England with the image of a bus station to accompany it. Wax crayons, and fresh notebooks to the first days of school and the tummy tingling sense of nervous anticipation . The scent of certain colognes reminds me nostalgically of certain teenage crushes.

Like Ballerinas, Light and Airy

Magnolias are so ethereal, so delicate, so pretty.

They seem to have a secret world inside them, so take the time to have a look inside...

and share their secrets.

 They are like ballerinas, dancing, airy and light.

The Beauty that is Narcissi

What a beautiful spring bouquet a mix of narcissi and tulips make. I planted various varieties of narcissi last fall and I am thrilled by their beauty this spring.

Narcissi are so breathtakingly beautiful with their colour variations and ruffly goodness.