The Pear Tree

Archive for the ‘Features’ Category

Most days, our dining room table stretches itself across the room, sad and bare. The only ornamentation on it is a collection of deep scratches and scars, inflicted by two over-zealous preschoolers, who would no doubt have a hay day with a setting of fine china.

Not that I would lay fanciful tablescapes every day if I didn’t have kids. Real life is not kind to china, fine or otherwise.

So when Easter came along, I felt inspired to break with convention and put on some airs. I wanted something fresh, something light, delicate yet simple. Soft colours, a bit of lace and a touch of whimsy.

So I pulled out my mishmash collection of yellow and green dishes, passed along to me by my mum. It’s not “fine” by any standards but my own. It’s lack of use on a daily basis puts it in the category of “good” dishes, but it’s hardly Royal Doulton.

The spoons are also a mishmash of old silverware that offer a fun, eclectic look.

Ditto the egg cups. This one is Laura Ashley, c. 1995. But there’s also one that I got as an Easter present from my mum when I was a little girl, and one that was my dad’s when he was a boy.

For breakfast, we had strawberry yogurt, regimental soldiers (toast with marmite cut into strips), a boiled egg each and hot cross buns with coffee for the grown-ups and orange juice for the kids.

Okay, and maybe a chocolate egg or two was consumed shortly after. How could we not?

How about you? Do you do anything special for Easter? A formal dinner? Easter egg hunt? However you celebrated today, I hope it was a happy one!

- Words and photos by Lori-Anne Poirier

“And there is pansies, that’s for thoughts.”

- Ophelia from Shakespeare’s Hamlet

I think I was about three or four years of age when pansies became my favourite flower.

It all started with my great Aunt Rex, my grandma’s sister, who was visiting from Toronto one summer. She was, up to that point, the most elegant, most glamorous woman I had met. She was thin, stylish, and spoke with an affected accent that sounded very old Hollywood. And everything was “mahvelous,” “fantastic,” or “superb.” She had naturally wavy auburn hair, drank hot tea and never took her high heels off, not even in the house.

One afternoon, while I was visiting my grandma’s house, we went for a turn in her back garden.

“Look, there, in that flower,” my Aunt Rex pointed out. “There’s a fairy sleeping in there. Do you see it?”

I did. It had a little green dress – or was that its blanket? – with a pretty little green head on top.

“At night,” she whispered, “they come out and dance on the green.”

The next time I stayed over night at my grandma’s house, I stood up on my bed, up on my tippy toes, to peek out of the window just overhead, to see if I could spy any of those fairies.

Sadly, I didn’t see any that night, but I knew they were there. And to this very day, I can still see them in there, sleeping in those pansies.

Can you see the one above? There, in the centre?

Today, pansies are just one of my many favourite flowers, and I like them for the way they look, as well as that magical story from my childhood. My favourites are blues and whites, and you will likely see a raft of them swaying in the breeze on my balcony during the summer months.

What’s your favourite flower?

- Words and photos by Lori-Anne Poirier

Well hello there – long time no see!

I haven’t said ‘hello,’ or much of anything else, for far too long and so, today being Monday, I think it’s time I said, once again, HELLO MONDAY!!!!!!

Hello readers – the faithful few still checking in! Thank you for not giving up on me – so good to see (well, virtually speaking) you again!

And hello beautiful new ceramic coffee cup! You were a gift from my friend Darcie Hossack, and apparently thrown by an 80-something lady in Calgary. I’m 40-some years younger, and can only dream of potting a cup so straight and stylish!

Hello spring! I am so ready for you!

Hello snowdrop flowers growing in Guisachan Garden in Kelowna. And hello to all the pretty spring flowers that are sprouting up now…

Hello to sweater weather, too – it feels so good to shed those heavy winter coats and boots.

Hello spring chickens! We went to visit this sweet little hatchling recently at the Cornerstone Learning Resources store on Ambrosia Street in Kelowna.

Hello long walks in the park, fresh air and playing in the back yard…

Hello Elaine Philips – if you’re reading this, we hope you’re feeling better, soon!

Hello to author Susan Toy, as well. She wrote and recently e-published Island in the Clouds, a mystery novel set in Bequia, where she lives part time. She asked readers to take a picture of where they’ve been reading new ebook, and I sent her this one. I was not driving when I took this (don’t worry), but parked and killing time while my daughter, Amélie, was having an unplanned nap in her car seat. To get a copy for your e-reader, visit here if you have a Kindle or here if you prefer Kobo.

And finally, hello Lisa Leonard, creator of the Hello Monday link-up party. Click over to her blog for details on entering the giveaway she’s currently holding.

What are you saying ‘hello’ to today?

- Words and photos by Lori-Anne Poirier

I know, I know, it’s been a while. Rest assured, I have been writing… it just hasn’t been for The Pear Tree blog. One of the things I’ve been working on will be revealed in due time, but in the meantime, I wanted to share a link to a guest post I did over on an online publication called Spectrum.

It’s a spiritually based, art-themed reflection, so if you’re into either of those things you might enjoy it. I’d love to read your thoughts in the comments section over there. Mr. Pear Tree and his artwork are also mentioned and the above painting, which now belongs belongs to my old friend Wendy Trim (who edits the section I contributed to), also makes a cameo.

Click on over, here.

I do miss our interaction, and will make every effort to be regular again in the near future.

In the meantime, feel free to leave any updates below about what YOU’VE been up to (enquiring minds want to know)!

- Words by Lori-Anne Poirier

- Image by Kyle L. Poirier

Our local newspaper is collecting photos taken by Kelowna residents yesterday, which was Leap Year 2012. Some of them will appear in an upcoming issue, and the rest will be posted online.

My first impulse was to do something really spectacular – not so much to get our pictures in the newspaper as to commemorate a day that only comes along once every four years. To make the most of this bonus.

As it happened, February 29, 2012 was just another day. There were no grand escapes to the ski hill or other big indulgences. No marriage (re)proposals, even just for fun.

It was just another day.

But I still kept my cameras (SLR and iPhone) close at hand to capture some of our everyday moments. Because too often they’re the ones that get lost in the shuffle and we ought to record them, too.

In the morning, the snow drifted down like icing sugar on our day… a gesture from Mother Nature that we hope was the last hurrah of winter.

So we got dressed up one more time and headed out to traipse and slide and tumble in it, to make snow angels and snowballs and pay our last respects (fingers crossed) to the white season.

After a cup of cocoa and some lunch, I pulled out an old relic from my own past to entertain Thing 1 and Thing 2…

It was an old record player and collection of records and 45s. The kids, especially Oliver, just ate it up and whiled away the entire afternoon spinning vinyl.

Who says old technology has no place in a modern world?

After dinner and bedtime for the kids, Mr. Pear Tree and I snuck away for a coffee date while Grandma held down the fort.

We were like a couple of teenagers on our date – playing with our iPhones, taking pictures and posting them online. So romantic (wink)!

How about you? What did you do with your extra day?

- Words and photos by Lori-Anne Poirier