Homes

Four centuries ago, a French landscape architect designed an exquisite garden for a chateau called Vaux le Vicomte, using principles of scale and proportion to create extraordinary vistas that looked longer and larger than they actually were.

Dear Debbie: We are planning our new baby’s room and we would like to purchase furniture and a carpet that will last at least 10 years.

Dear Tony: Would you please comment on strata council members who do not apply bylaws to themselves as they would to other owners. Our president decided to get a dog that belonged to a family member.

Dear Helen: I’ve noticed several different kinds of double-flowered primroses in garden centres and other plant outlets this spring. I’m wondering whether you can comment on them as garden plants. P.F. Dear P.F.

Some people wear labradorite necklaces, pendants or rings.

It’s shaping up to be an elongated spring that began in early February with sheets of crocuses opening their flowers in the sunshine and even some daffodils in bloom.

I recently attended Maison et Objet, the annual multicultural lifestyle trade show in Paris. For the uninitiated, this is not for the faint of heart.

Dear Reena: I purchased a new pair of shoes and when I returned home, I noticed that one shoe fits looser than the other.

Dear Helen: I have some well-established perennial plantings and wonder when and how often they should be divided. Can you comment particularly on Lenten rose, hostas, border sedums and bearded irises? L. P.

Becky Medina teems with creative decorating ideas for her newly renovated home in Maple Bay. And strangely enough, the fulfilment of her brainwaves tends to coincide with trips her husband Tony makes out of town.