Winter Garden Theatre

Spring is coming to Park Orchards, and it's still only mid-winter. This could be normal, but last year Clem's plum tree didn't bloom until the first week of spring (September). Our green apple tree is just starting to bud. There is a gorgeous purple bush out back already in full bloom, but that bloomed in mid-winter last year, so it is not surprising.

We spent the day doing winter/spring chores. Andrew, Tristan & Scott pruned the diseased branches off the apple & plum trees in the back (Andrew & Julian had already worked on flora in the front yard); I made good use of a combined loan from Heidi & Linda, and first vacuumed, then steam cleaned all the drapes in the house.

These photos were snapped just now before the sun went down. If you have really good eyes, you can even see the piles of branches around the newly trimmed trees. The sunset is looking east from our back landing over the neighbours' back gardens.

The Spices of Life

I have a new spice rack. I'm looking at it as a belated anniversary gift (or an early birthday gift, I'm not sure). It's one of those things I thought it would be fun for Andrew to make, but in light of the cost of materials, to be honest, it was less expensive to buy one. It of course matches the brand of spices I use here.

My old spice rack (also pictured) only had 2 tiers, and I was cramming all those spices on top of each other, in front, etc. If you look carefully at the blurry snap, you'll notice that I still couldn't fit all the spices, and some are residing in the salt box that Dad Kayton made all those years ago. Of note in various positions around the spice rack are all kinds of oven mitts: from Mexico (courtesy of Jeanne), from Mom Kayton (the very handy plate "mitt", and a double mitt from South Africa (courtesy of Linda, Bernie & Michael's trip). Lurking in the new spice rack are some spices from the US that my Mom & Jeanne brought with them. The trivet collection is hidden by the mitts, but they include ones from Dad Kayton and one from Turkey that my Dad brought me from a holiday.

It's quite an international kitchen, dishes from my Mom & Dad's house, tools and gifts from my siblings and also from Andrew's family. It's certainly fun to buy new things (like my cast iron cookware) but it's also wonderful to have stuff that reminds me of our families and friends.