welcoming autumn, six feathered ladies & visiting victoria b.c.

welcome to autumn, dearies!

we are thrilled to have rainy days and gray, overcast skies again in portland. it was a long, hot summer and hands-down, autumn is the favorite season for the dearie family. i think because it brings a cozy return to the kitchen, preparing delicious and slow-cooked comfort food with agatha.

last month i shared that we had adopted six chickens. our dear neighbor was moving and considered us her first choice to adopt her beloved ladies. we welcomed helen, bernice, beatrice, lucy, ruby and black pearl into the dearie clan prior to labor day weekend. each of these feathered ladies has their own unique, sweet yet sassy personality and while we love them all, each dearie has their own personal favorite in the bunch. (i have a soft spot for black pearl, myself!)

we've delighted in getting a daily egg from lucy, beatrice and ruby, and as a family unit, we were surprised at how quickly we've adapted to urban farming life.

in other news, i returned from a mother-daughter 4-day jaunt to victoria b.c. with my mum this past weekend. we went up by clipper from seattle to victoria and stayed in the beautiful and recently renovated, historic, iconic empress hotel. our room 438, had a lovely view of the harbor, and truth be told, we spent our fair share of time just sitting there staring out the windows watching the comings and goings of boats, ferries, pickle taxi's, tourists and seagulls. bliss!

(below, you can see the view from our room that i've cobbled together from three pictures i snapped.)

tearing ourselves away from the view, we also made time to tour the butterfly gardens and historic buchart gardens on friday (both highly recommended). saturday we explored fan tan alley and craigdarroch castle, then ended the day with high tea at the empress hotel late in the afternoon. it was a wonderful getaway and i look forward to returning with the dearie family in the near future.

now that autumn weather is here, it's time to start layering up to keep warm. fortunately, my dresses and flag pants lend themselves beautifully to layers! 

while in victoria, i received several compliments and inquiries on my own trusty espresso flag pants i wore with lace-trimmed sweaters, lace tights, and one of my beloved bretons. the deep pockets in my flag pants were another way to easily keep tabs on our admission tickets to the various attractions we toured.

a reminder that i offer complimentary shipping on all darling dearie purchases within the united states. shipping services are available to canada and the united kingdom, too. learn more about our shipping details here.

dearies, i hope that the leaves are changing to lovely shades of red, gold and yellow wherever you are this autumn!

until my next missive...


xoxo


darling