Sunday, October 22, 2017

A Stormy Weekend



We spent a good chunk of time in this room over the weekend. My parents came over on the ferry Friday night. Saturday was blustery and wet, very wet. We ventured out in the car for a little bit, but most of the day was spent at home, enjoying being together. 

In my previous post I included a similar photo, but with my slippers showing, and the fire off. Here the fire is barely on, and my slippers no where to be seen. A more formal view, as it were. 



Those quinces I mentioned earlier were poached in white wine with orange peel, then sliced and made into an Upside Down Honey Spice Cake. It's a Fine Cooking recipe, found if you click the link. It was okay. The quince taste wasn't very pronounced and I'm a little ambivalent about the whole thing. It was a fine experiment. If I get my hands on more quinces, I think I'll make Membrillo, a quince paste eaten with cheese in much of Latin America.

The cake was dessert for a family dinner on Saturday evening, four generations gathered for food and visiting. 



It's been a week of storms. On Friday afternoon, before the next system blew in, I went out to clip some flowers. The dahlias drooped alarmingly, their thin stems unable to hold the weight of the blooms made heavy by rain. Still the roses bloom, somewhat battered, but beautiful and fragrant. I also cut hydrangea stems, choosing the most richly coloured mopheads for a bouquet on the mantel. I placed all of the rather wet flowers in the sink before beginning to arrange them and thought they made a pretty bundle there. 

I arranged the roses in a teapot that cracked years ago and no longer holds water. A small jar inside holds the water.  



This afternoon we took my parents back to the ferry. They leave their car on the mainland and walk on as foot passengers, and we're happy to pick them up and deliver them back to the terminal. Before returning home, Tim and I walked along the waterfront. The rains held off until we were safely indoors at home once again. 

Linking with Mosaic Monday, hosted by Maggie of Normandy Life. 

36 comments:

  1. Wasn't it a great and rainy Saturday? We ventured out and ended up taking photos of a lot of the Victorian houses in neighborhoods in Bellingham. I got dreadfully soaked from having the window open to get photos of the houses - and even an outdoor wedding in a park, complete with clear umbrellas for the whole wedding party. Your flowers are gorgeous - how lovely to have so many still blooming. We both baked autumn fruit desserts this weekend. It must have been lovely to have your parents visiting and enjoying your beautiful home. Happy week ahead, I see we have some sunshine coming our way next week, or so they say.

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  2. Sounds like a lovely weekend despite the rain, I've always found the taste of quince a little strange but the paste sounds intriguing. Lovely teapot to hold the windswept flowers, I would have saved both too, can't bear to throw pretty things away.
    Happy Mosaic Monday.

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  3. Even with storms looks like you had great time.

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  4. How nice it must be to still have flowers blooming in your garden! Our growing season is very short and most of my flowers died in the snowfall we had a couple weeks ago.
    I never tasted quince and I'm wondering if it has a pear flavor? Did you ever put it in a crock pot with spices and sugar and some water cook it and to make a puree butter like spread? I wonder if that would taste good?

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  5. Dear Lorrie,
    I thank you wholeheartedly for everything you share, youì've always lovely things to tell and to show!

    Wishing you a most beautiful new week,
    I'm sending blessings on the remainder of your October

    XOXO Dany

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  6. The flowers tell of warmer days but those harbour pictures are very autumnal. We seem to be in a very similar weather pattern. My neighbours quince did very poorly this year, so no jam this year. Have a lovely week. B x

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  7. The flowers are a delight and made such a wonderful arrangement in the teapot. The clouds gathering over the harbour don't look good, not sure I would want to be on that ferry. Sounds like a lovely weekend, four generations together are memories made to treasure.

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  8. Its been a rainy week past here in Trinidad and Tobago.
    Happy Mosaic Monday

    much love...

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  9. What a wonderful post. Your home is gorgeous.

    I love your teapot. And freshly cut garden flowers in them make my heart sing.

    We've had perfect weather - but need the rain because it hardly rained all summer. So much is just so dry. I *heard* it's supposed to rain tomorrow, though, so that's a good thing for us.

    Glad to have met you - through Mosaic Monday.

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  10. Sounds like a lovely, cozy weekend. Sorry about the cake -- but it looks pretty! Your flowers are lovely -- and roses that smell like roses -- yippee! Pretty waterfront and the clouds -- gorgeous sky! Happy Monday!

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  11. Your living area is so warm and cozy, I adore your knitted ottoman.
    Isn"t is so nice to have fresh flowers from our garden.
    Your weekend sounds perfect.
    Have a great day,
    Sue

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  12. Beautiful pictures. It's good to see flowers still blooming.

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  13. Your flowers are so lovely. It's so nice to have colour still in the garden.

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  14. Yes, I do remember you mentioning the quince; how wonderful that you used them in this cake, which does sound intriguing. Today, Liberty and her father decided that we are to make a sweet preserve with ours, since the fig jam was such a success.

    Your living room is very inviting, and looks like it would be especially cozy on a stormy day.

    Glad that you got to spend some quality time with your parents. I miss my
    family back home. It's the bitter part of the sweet, when one lives a whole ocean away.

    How fresh and pretty all the flowers look, despite getting a little too much rain. All of ours are still thriving and surprisingly, not looking past their prime yet, even though we are in desperate need of rain, and so I continue to water them twice a week.

    Have a wonderful week, Lorrie.

    Poppy

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  15. That is a great way to repurpose the old teapot. It's lovely you still have fresh flowers to enjoy, hope the rain hasn't finished them all off.

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  16. Your living room looks like a cozy place to ride out the storms! And having four generations for dinner is a delight!

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  17. Your home is lovely (with or without slippers and fire), but even lovelier I'm sure shared with family. Great idea for reusing the darling teapot... like so many great ideas, it seems so obvious once you mention it -- but definitely not something I would have thought of.

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  18. FOUR generations WOW. I love the roses in the pitcher Just love it

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  19. Your living room is lovely and cozy. Interesting to hear how the quinces turned out. Beautiful shot of the storm clouds.

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  20. Lots of pretty things to enjoy in your post. That dessert for your family meal looks delicious! It was nice to have a dry day today. Another one promised for tomorrow so it's yard work day around here. Hope you have a good week.

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  21. I love cozying up indoors during a storm. So glad that the cracked teapot got a second life as a vase.

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  22. Those dark clouds hanging low over the boats is a beautiful photo. Looks like a perfect day to enjoy the warmth of your home. When I see how neat and pretty yours is....I think I need to declutter mine! lol Hugs!

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  23. Lorrie - it sounds like you "made lemons from lemonade" with the stormy weather. Although the cake may not have met your expectations, the picture certainly looked tasty. But I was most impressed by the flowers - to have such color in the garden at the end of October is marvelous - thanks for sharing. Have a wonderful week!

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  24. Your living room looks very cozy. I love your beautiful flower arrangement. We had a terrible storm here yesterday. We got 7 inches of rain and there was flooding and downed trees and power outages. Luckily for us our power stayed on and our trees stayed up!

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  25. Lovely mosaics, both quinces and flowers so colourful. It;s a lovely idea to display flowers in your old teapot. Your living room looks lovely and cosy to spend time in out of the wind and rain:)

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  26. Your living room truly is so cozy Lorrie. I adore the fireplace surround. You gift for photography shines in the rose photos.

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  27. How lovely that four generations gathered for food and visiting.
    Your living room looks great and I did enjoy seeing all of your photographs, such lovely mosaics.
    Thank you

    All the best Jan

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  28. How lovely to spend time with your parents. We have talked about walking on the ferry the next time we come to Victoria. Love your living room, so comfy looking. The cake and flowers are wonderful.

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  29. Your living room looks lovely and cozy! Sounds like you found the best way to spend a stormy weekend...indoors, with family. Your rescued blooms are beautiful.

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  30. Anonymous3:32 AM

    Sounds that you had a wonderful time in the room with all your lovable ones. It should be a very luck room to have heard of many sweet memories. Room looks neat and good. Cake looks yummy! Beautiful flowers.:)

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  31. I've never eaten a quince! :) I read over several of your posts this morning including this one then had to run / no time to comment. I wanted to come back and say that I enjoyed the last 3-4 posts :)

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  32. Your room looks inviting and cozy ... tha litle pop of orange looks great! I also love everything about late summer/fall roses.

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  33. That room looks so cozy and comfortable, I'd love to spend a few hours there with you.

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  34. Love those gorgeous roses, and that photo of the boats is just begging to be painted! So glad you enjoyed my rather lengthy Ireland post! :)

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  35. I love that knitted 'poof' in your living room ;) You've got some lovely blooms to show off indoors. The teapot idea is clever and well worth saving a cracked tea pot!
    Wendy

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  36. I wish I knew someone with a quince tree and fruit they didn't want! Once I even put out a query on Freecycle about it. I love quince and think it would be great to have enough to try quince paste, too.

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