by Helen Kain | May 31, 2020 | Dundee, Home, Pets, Recent
Hi everyone. Dundee here. I know, I know, I’m not supposed to be on the counter, but I thought I’d say hello and bring you up to date on what’s going on in the World of Dundee. Oh yes, and Clementine. The parents have been around a lot lately....
by Helen Kain | May 20, 2020 | Blue, Home, Recent, Spring Tablescapes, White
The sweetest of flowers have arrived: white lilacs and lilies of the valley. Utter heaven. Their exquisite blossoms are as delicate as their scents. Not yet being blessed with blooms from our newly-planted-last-year white lilac bush, I have to content myself with...
by Helen Kain | May 15, 2020 | Holiday, Home, Recent, Spring Recipes, Summer Recipes, Sweets
The honeycomb pan for this cake has been lurking in my cake pan cupboard for a couple of years, waiting for its debut. Once the Bee plate table started to percolate, out it came. But first I had to do some research on the ultimate cake batter for this tricky...
by Helen Kain | May 15, 2020 | Black, Home, Recent, Spring Tablescapes, Summer Tablescapes, White, Yellow
We are all buzzing as the days grow warmer and sunnier, and there is a new air of hopefulness as the world begins to come to life again. So I set an outdoor table, complete with a Lemon Honeycomb Cake, perfectly portioned for snacking and sharing. We do like our...
by Helen Kain | May 9, 2020 | Holiday, Home, Recent, Recipes By Season, Spring Recipes, Sweets
Our neighbour’s flowering cherry tree is just breaking into bloom. For a few glorious days, its graceful branches festooned with pink blossoms toss in the wind, beguiling us with their beauty. (I will skip over the subsequent unholy mess of disintegrating petals...
by Helen Kain | May 6, 2020 | Antique china, Antique glassware, Blue, Home, Purple, Recent, Spring Tablescapes
Hooray for May and Mother’s Day! To celebrate, I thought a dose of soft pastels and fragrant lilacs was in order. Don’t let their lowly name, “common” lilacs, fool you. Their scent is divine. I paired them with antique Royal Worcester...
by Helen Kain | May 3, 2020 | Cathedrals & Abbeys, England, Entertablement Abroad
As cathedrals go, Ely Cathedral is one of the biggies. Literally, at 537 ft long, but also because of its story, which began in 672. A lot has happened in the intervening 13+ centuries. Not just the usual political squabbling and overly ambitious clerics, but...
by Helen Kain | Apr 29, 2020 | Blue, Green, Pink and Red, Spring Tablescapes, Summer Tablescapes, White, Yellow
It may be rushing the seasons a bit, but today we are featuring a table with hydrangeas—lush, full, colourful hydrangeas with an exuberantly blooming garden in the background. Blue hydrangea is the consistent feature on this set of mixed salad plates by Portmeirion....
by Helen Kain | Apr 23, 2020 | Brown, Pink and Red, Spring Tablescapes
This china pattern reminded me of a song my daughter Stephanie sang when she just a little mite: “Spring, spring, spring is in the air I can feel it everywhere And the pussywillows bloom And the pussywillows bloom And the pussywillows bloom in...
by Helen Kain | Apr 19, 2020 | Castles & Stately Houses, England, Entertablement Abroad
Most of the grand manor houses we see in England have a history involving a lot of ups and downs. Sudeley Castle is the veritable Snakes & Ladders of the genre. The tale began innocuously enough with a commonplace event: William le Boteler of Wem married heiress...
by Helen Kain | Apr 12, 2020 | Breakfast, Fall Recipes, Holiday, Recipes By Season, Spring Recipes, Summer Recipes, Sweets, Winter Recipes
Baking is a very soothing activity. Baking bread with scads of butter, sugar, cinnamon, and nuts is the epitome of soothing. Baklava Pull-Apart Bread came to me along a somewhat circuitous path, as frequently happens with my food inspiration. During this strange time...
by Helen Kain | Apr 9, 2020 | Antique china, Antique glassware, Easter, Green, Pink and Red, Spring Tablescapes, Vintage china
It’s a weird kind of Easter this year, as the Easter Bunny observes social distancing. We will need to hop to it and make do with pretty pictures and virtual gatherings. And some non-virtual chocolate. I set this table a few weeks ago, pre-pandemic, in blissful...
by Helen Kain | Apr 4, 2020 | Beautiful Towns, Entertablement Abroad, France
St. Malo, a town in Brittany on the northwestern coast of France, has some of the biggest tides in Europe. They can vary more than 40 feet from low tide to open sea, as you can see from views of the national fort, which becomes isolated at high tide. St. Malo is just...
by Helen Kain | Apr 1, 2020 | Amber, Blue, Brown, Fall Tablescapes, Spring Tablescapes, Summer Tablescapes, Vintage glassware
Let’s go to France this week and see the tulips. Wait … that’s wrong … tulips are Holland. And they’re supposed to come in the spring. But these tulips arrived last summer, at Trader Joe’s. It’s a mixed-up world right...
by Helen Kain | Mar 25, 2020 | Blue, Spring Tablescapes, Yellow
Flower focus. That’s my quick cure for the jumpy jitters. And as it’s March, daffodils are the flower of choice while hunkered down in solitary confinement proscribed isolation. Happily, daffodils are readily available at the grocery store, so we can comply with...
