Spring!

Spring: Magnolia Tree Flowers - Jubilee Garden, Mississauga

[Photo By: KPA]

August in Yellow

August in Yellow: Black-Eyed Susans
[Photo By: KPA]

Fives

Fives
[Photo By: KPA]

Lakeshore Lace

Lakeshore Lace
Photo By: KPA

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Trillium and Queen Anne's Lace
[Design by KPA]

Lily With Frills

Lily With Frills
Photo By: KPA

Lakeshore Flora

Lakeshore Flora
Port Credit, ON
[Photo By: KPA]

Daisies

Daisies
Port Credit, ON
[Photo By: KPA]

Of Lockdowns and Lilies

I thought Yves Rocher's Lily of the Valley eau de toilette was discontinued. But the bright Yves Rocher store in the Square One (Mississauga) mall produced two bottlesof the eau de toilette. These couple of months of closure must have got the staff cleaning out their inventory, and fortunately they found these bottles.

I bought one of the bottles at its reduced price, and it should keep me scented through the summer (and fall?).

I am sorry the perfume is discontinued. I will now embark on a search for a light, fresh eau de toilette, which should be an adventure.

This lockdown has certainly given us a second chance at some things.

Here are two sites which sing the praises of the eau de toilette:

An established on-line perfume reviewer, Basenotes (as in the base notes of a perfume) has this to say about these notes:

Green notes, Lily of the valley, Pink pepper, Bergamot, Lemon

And The Perfume Girl adds more:

Lily of the valley, bergamot, lemon, rose hips

The pink pepper is meant to ground the perfume a little, from being too intoxicatingly floral, and the lemon adds that extra freshness.

The bottle is a straightforward clear glass, in a rectangular shape, but with a lovely plant-like detail, which is actually Yves Rocher's logo, with the initials YR forming a plant within a circle. The liquid is a fresh, pale green viewed through clear glass.



Here are photos I took of the Faberge Lily of the Valley exhibition in 2014 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which was part of a rotating selection of items from The Met collections. This specific collection is the European Sculpture and Decorative Arts' Metalworks collections.




[Photos By: KPA]

Details of the work:
Imperial Lilies-of-the-Valley Basket
House of Carl Fabergé
August Wilhelm Holmström (1829–1903)

Holmström, August Wilhelm (1829-1903) a Finnish workmaster, born in Helsinki, Finland.
Was appointed chief jeweler by Gustav Fabergé in 1857. His mark is 'AH'.

A Fabergé workmaster is a craftsman who owned his own workshop and produced jewelry, silver or objets d'art for the House of Fabergé.[Source]

Russian, St. Petersburg
Yellow and green gold, silver, nephrite, pearl, rose-cut diamond; 1896.
Matilda Geddings Gray Foundation

Lakeside Lilies

Lakeside Lilies
Port Credit, ON
[Photo By: KPA]

Rooftop with Chimney

Rooftop with Chimney
Port Credit, ON
[Photo By: KPA]

Jubilee Peonies

Jubilee Peonies
Photo By: KPA
In the Jubilee Garden, Mississauga

Peonies

Peonies
Photo By: KPA

Yellow Flowers

Yellow Flowers
Lake Ontario (Port Credit)
[Photo By: KPA]

I believe they are Leopard's Bane.

Lakeside Blossoms

Lakeside Blossoms: Port Credit, ON
[Photo By: KPA]

"We Will Make Addis Ababa a Flower that Flourishes, Like Her Name"

In my previous post, I posted the Facebook dancing fountains of PM Abiy's Addis Ababa Riverside Project.

The "translation" on this Abiy's Facebook page Amharic note:

አዲስ አበባን እንደ ስሟ የምታፈራ አበባ እናደርጋታለን::

is...

We will make Addis Ababa a flower that fears Addis Ababa like its name.

This is slightly wrong!

The actual translation is:

We will make Addis Ababa a flower that flourishes, like her name.

I suppose in some ways it is good to fear Addis Ababa, to prevent enemies and ill-wishers from getting on her streets.

And, Abiy's philosophy of peace, for which he won the Nobel Prize for Peace, and his persistent strategies to ward off war with malcontent ethnic groups, makes his wish ring true:

We will make Addis Ababa a flower that flourishes, like her name.

City Hall Blossoms

Blossoms by the Mississauga Civic Centre
[Photo By: KPA]

Bougainvilleas and Rhododendrons

Rhododendrons (left) and Bougainvilleas (right): What's the difference?

The Port Credit lake side rhododendrons give a tropical ambiance, especially with the heat wave now going on.

They reminded me of bougainvilleas. I got the image on the right from "bougainvillea in Addis" google search. The left is my photo.

Technically, Addis Ababa is not a tropical city. It is a high altitude city, with temperate temperatures. So, there are some similarities, after all, between the two scenes.

Lakeside Rhododendrons

We've been getting some rain, and grey skies, these days.

But a grey day is perfect for color photography, without the harsh contrasts that a bright sunny day brings.


Lakeside Rhododendrons
By Lake Ontario (Port Credit)
[Photo By: KPA]

Magnolia in the City

Saucer Magnolia by the Mississauga Civic Centre
[Photo By: KPA]

Sunshine Tulip

Star Tulip
(Tulip Tarda)
Photo By: KPA -
Port Credit, Mississauga

This early species tulip stays low to the ground, and tolerates a root-filled space on a slope in my dry, sandy garden – albeit in one of its sunniest spots. The bulbs seem to increase, and always look incorrigibly cheerful in their sunnyside-up, fried-egg colours, each opening to a six-pointed star in the sunlight.
[Text source: Toronto Botanical Gardens Blog]