Calypso!

Just received this urgent email from my pal C. She found this at Sally Ann (aka Salvation Army). Note the price tag ($1.00!).

Lovely.

Sometimes you can't tune a piano...

I just changed the image to the right of my blog posts yesterday to a photo of our new computer desk. It's a lovely old piano (late 1800s) that can't be tuned anymore (ok. it can be if we replace the strings to the tune of $2600+). We've been debating what to do with it for years and, lacking any woodworking skills, our options seemed limited. Then I thought I might be able to just remove the front panels and somehow store books in it. Having removed the panels to reveal the lovely wood and workings I suddenly had the brainwave - computer table. Add it fit perfectly! I would eventually like to replace the white board over the keys (an old cupboard door that I needed to saw about 1cm off of) with a heavy piece of glass so you could see the keys. The cool thing about the piano desk is that it still plays. You can ping the strings directly, work some of the keys below the board, and even just sneeze (!) to get some lovely out of tune sounds from the piano.

Then today I was perusing Core77, a very interesting design blog, when I saw this!

Secret_spaces_repurposing_a_piano_into_a_hidden_workbench

The post shows how they did it. (My project was WAAAY easier!)

Smell-o-vision

Just for the Aussies who are heading into winter, I present pictures from my Canadian garden as we are deep into spring and soon summer. I wish I could add a scratch-and-sniff option! The scents this week are... delicious!

Fading already, we begin with the lilacs. The scent is gorgeous, so much so that when they first burst into bloom I bury my face in every lilac bush I encounter on my way to work! (Think "grandma's eau de toilette")

Hard on the lilac's heels are the summer phlox (?) a tall weed really, but the scent! My husband thinks its a bit cinammonny.

I could smell spirea all the way home from work today and I was riding my bike! It always takes me back to the yard I grew up in. This one is too close to the house and seems to be affecting the foundation so we may have to move it this year. Hope it survives!

This was Buster's favourite sleeping spot. The flowers don't smell but the leaves are lovely. It's catmint.

And what I always feel is a secret treasure, the lily-of-the-valley. Probably because I'm the only person in Ontario that isn't overrun with it! (Another classic granny perfume)

COMING SOON:

This one is just about to bloom, but the scent is in the leaves - sage! On a hot day, you can smell it as you brush by.  

Can you see the tiny ant on the big ball. It's trying to open the next smelly beauty - peony. I've been babying a few of these for years and finally get enough blooms to bring a couple into the house (after I've given them a good shake to dislodge the many ants!) Another one you just want to stick your face right into...

Finally, two little bouquets from the garden in a couple of milk-glass (probably fake) vases. (And an over-the-top flowered table cloth!)

 Cheers!

Life after Life

This is just to say I've been reading Kate Atkinson's new novel, Life after Life, all day. It's wonderful. And I've still got half the book to go. And it's supposed to rain all day tomorrow. Life is good.

Finished! Last night I was so close to finishing this book that I went to bed at 8pm so I wouldn't be up reading until after midnight. SPECTACULAR. I love this book. I highly recommend you get on the waiting list at your library ASAP! (And then hope for rain...)

Dying and un-dying

Our cat, Buster, died this winter, having lived 17+ years, outliving his twin Angus, surviving (and healing from) feline diabetes, and giving us more pleasure than I'm sure we deserved. He was lovely.

I'm always taken by coincidence and serendipity, which doesn't make me unique - it's a common human trait or so I've read. Currently, I'm reading Christopher Hitchens "Hitch 22" which was written before he knew of the cancer that eventually killed him. The version I'm reading is the paperback (but e-book) so it has a preface that he wrote knowing about the cancer. Yesterday I read the first chapter in which he talks about reading about his own death because of a typo in an arts magazine ("the late Christopher Hitchens...."). He continues to talk about what that does to people who hear the news of their death before they die (Mark Twain, et al).

Then, when I came home from work, I found that someone had done a street-view goole-map of our house. And there, on the lawn, in his usual sunny spot, was Buster our cat. As alive as ever.