Victoria - Week 6 Houses

There is a style of homes in Victoria that I had never seen before. We've been coming here for four years now and it was driving me crazy what the style was. If it even was a style. Because what do I know about architecture? Not much. So I finally asked my brother Jimmy who knows about houses, what kind of houses they were. He told me they were Craftsman homes. They look very cozy and pretty. They were built at the beginning of the 20th century.

I don't think boring old Ottawa has any Craftsmen houses. At least I've never seen any. 

UPDATE: I stand corrected. Debbie informed me that there are some of these homes in Ottawa. I'll have to check it out upon my return.

Victoria - Week 6 where to get the best Carbs

I love carbs. I cannot tell a lie. And Victoria has yielded some of her best carbs to me. Some I have baked myself. Some I have purchased. And the bought ones may be better than the homemade.

This is the cinnamon bun from Discovery Coffee. When I chose it I asked the clerk if their cinnamon buns were good. He said yes. I looked at it skeptically, and wasn't sure. I went out on a limb and bought one, which Fred and I shared. Oh. My. Goodness. The best cinnamon bun I have ever eaten. Dense, chewy, gooey, buttery, cinnamony, and probably more calories than I would ever want to know about. Their coffee is also very good. In fact Victoria has a crap load of independent coffee shops. Way more than Ottawa. Why is that anyway?

We went back to Discovery this week, but the cinnamon buns hadn't been delivered yet. Note to self. Go an hour later next time.

Next we have Portofino's seeded hearth bread. Oh. My. Goodness - part 2. This bread looks ordinary. But it is not. It's chewy. Seedy. Spongy. Delicious. Makes great peanut butter and jam sandwiches. Or toast and peanut butter. Or just eat this bread naked. It all works.

And last but definitely not least, we have the monster scones sold at the Market on Yates. Once again, they feed two people (the picture does not do it justice). Every day they have a different one, blueberry and white chocolate, cranberry and white chocolate, etc. Also savoury ones. Really really good scones. Moist and blueberryiey. Even the white chocolate works and I'm not a big fan of it. Because clearly dark chocolate is better. But in these babies, the white chocolate works. The Market also has an all round fantastic bakery section and an amazing butcher shop.

All the grocery stores in Victoria sell Portofino breads, and there are many different kinds, including gluten free. But I think the seeded hearth bread is the best.

Who says woman can't live by bread alone?

Victoria - Week 6 High tea

Today we went for high tea at the White Heather Tea Room in Victoria.

It was excellent. Much better than the one Johanna and I had in London England at Harrod's. Well worth the visit. The service was also excellent.

I wish we had taken Maureen and Mike to high tea when they were here, but it just never happened. I am sad about that.

Victoria - Week 3

Monday we went to Villa Eyrie for lunch. Great view. Pictures below. On Saturday we celebrated Mike's birthday, happy birthday Mike. You can see the cake I made: white cake and chocolate icing which is Mike's favourite. I won't hold it against him that he didn't want chocolate with chocolate icing.

The cake was a bit lopsided. I bought two cake pans at Value Village while here in Victoria. One was an 8 inch pan and the other was a 9 inch pan. At $1.99 per pan, one can't complain. And the two pans were actual aluminum without any non-stick coating. Aluminum is the very best one can use for baking in my opinion, since non-stick doesn't seem to work very well. People must be buying non-stick because it seems to be the only kind stores sell these days. I still have proper aluminum-non-non-stick pans at home. In fact I still have two from my own mother, and three from my mother in law. I will never throw them out and hope when I croak my kids won't either.

Okay okay, I'll shut up about aluminum pans now.

Last evening we went to the Irish Times pub for dinner and Smithwicks beer. I haven't had draft Smithwicks since we were here last year. Not enough places sell it in my humble opinion. It's almost as good in Canada as it is in Ireland.

I also made bread today. Not the yeast kind but with buttermilk and soda as leavening agent. Yum.

Victoria - Week 2 St. Andrew's Cathedral

I've been blessed to be able to attend Mass here in Victoria at St. Andrew's Cathedral. What a beautiful church it is. It is a real traditional church with beautiful Catholic art and stained glass windows. What a joy it is to be here.

Friday morning after Mass we stayed for a time for adoration of Jesus. I spent some time thanking God for the gifts he has given me. There are a lot. My health, my family, my being able to be here in Victoria. My siblings. My beautiful grandchildren. My work. The beauty and the peace of being here in this church. Being away from the snow and cold.

It struck me how important it is to be thankful, especially when I feel like complaining. Which has happened, you know, maybe once or twice in my life.

As I sat in the church in the silence, I felt only peace. Thank you God.

Victoria - Week 2

Maureen and Mike arrived safely Tuesday from Ottawa to visit us. We were a bit worried because of all the snow that day. We all left Ottawa to get away from the snow and what do we get in Victoria? Snow.

We've been touring around the city, safely ensconced in our honking compact Jeep SUV rental.

Yesterday we went to the Fernwood Inn for dinner and today we stayed away from the icy sidewalks and visited the Hillside Mall instead.

I've also been doing computer tech support for Maureen and myself. I was able to extricate Maureen's old email address from her Apple ID and Apple iTunes and update it to her new email address. Only took me about three hours. I have learned that I will never buy an Apple anything. Promise. Today as I was writing this blog I was trying to edit my pictures and lo and behold Microsoft has changed Paint. It doesn't work anymore.

More important, I've discovered I become a monster when I'm trying to trouble shoot stupid products like Apple and Microsoft. Trust me. They are both stupid. Though I guess I discovered this already when putting up with my previous Lenevo computer which I threatened more than once to back my smart car over.

Sorry about all the complaining. Maybe I need to stop using technology. De-monster myself.

Victoria snow pictures below.

Victoria - Week 1

Victoria is in a cold snap. And windy. Yesterday we had snow. And high winds. The first pic Fred took from the Fernwood Inn. I had white chocolate stout there last Friday when we first arrived and we went for nachos. Yum. Especially the white chocolate stout. You can see the Belfry Theatre from the Inn.

Below that is Fred in our cozy kitchen. Then the backyard below that. With snow. I thought we had left the snow behind in Ottawa. I was mistaken.

Jan who lives upstairs has a hot house you can see where she has lights on, trying to keep her lemon tree alive. I hope it survives the cold.

They even have salt trucks here. Who knew?