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2024 BMW Z4 M40I CONVERTIBLE AT BMW OF WESTBROOK

Create curb appeal for a king or queen with this drop top in the driveway. The shade is technically Thunder-night Metallic, but we know purple when we see it.

$72,300 at 7 Saunders Way, Westbrook and bmwofwestbrook.com

Kip Dawkins photography

DEARDEN STRIPE FABRIC AT ACCENT ON WINDOWS

Wallpaper and complementary fabrics from the Willow Tree collection by Anna French show a softer side of purple.

$216 per yard at Accent on Windows, 936 Brighton Avenue, Portland and accentonwindows.net

LILAC SHRUB FROM ESTABROOK’S

While most lilac varieties stick to light violet, the “Sensation” variety of syringa has dark purple florets with a white border.

$400 to $750 at 337 E Main St, Yarmouth or 97 York Street, Kennebunk

HONEY LAVENDER DONUT AT THE HOLY DONUT

Snap up this April special, which is sweet and floral, just like spring.

$21 per half-dozen at 177 Commercial Street and 194 Park Avenue, Portland, 398 Route One, Scarborough and 1197 Portland Road, Arundel

ASHLEY® NYSSA TABLE LAMP AT ASPIRE HOME

Make a bright, bold, boudoir-light statement with a fabric lamp shade drum and rhinestone accents.

$89.99 at Aspire Home, 45 Portland Road #5, Kennebunk and aspirehomekennebunk.com

 

VIOLET VERITIES 1. Purple is somewhere between the optical shades of red and violet. It is considered a non-spectral color and people from different cultures have different interpretations of what can be defined as purple. 2.  The English word “purple” is derived from the ancient Greek “porphura,” the name for the famous purple dye made from snails. Before synthetic dyes were developed in the 1850s, purple was the most expensive to produce, which is why the color is associated with monarchy and extreme wealth. 3.   Violet is associated with the “crown chakra,” the seventh and highest focal point of meditation and yoga practices. Some traditions associate it with your head or brain, some position it above and outside the body. 4.   “Purple haze” was coined by Jimi Hendrix. Does it symbolize love, a drug trip or the view of mountains around his home of Seattle? As we look in the distance, we pick up fewer light waves, which makes far away objects take on a shade of blue to purple. Perhaps the phenomenon was “America the Beautiful” lyricist Katherine Lee Bates’s inspiration for “purple mountains’ majesty” as well.

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