Contest Winners; Quince-A-Rama

Contest Winners; Quince-A-Rama

First, I’m happy to say that several many of you guessed that the thing missing from my tiny room was indeed a clock! Well done, and now you will all be murdered in nefarious ways in my new comedy book Murder Most Novel about a young woman/aspiring author who becomes embroiled in an Agatha Christie style murder scenario. If you have a particular preference for your murder (poison, machete, bashed with a clock), let me know, and I’ll try to accommodate. You were all very clever, but I have to say that Anonymole’s poem/riddle/guess really took the day:

Dueling portraits invite conversation,
while the bird tweets its irritation.

Below, the blood bright Persian,
offsets the walls’ psilocybin excursions.

A Tiffany, a punch bowl, a violin,
speak of parties, a present left to atone for prior sins.

Yet the room exists in silence,
it enjoys no ticks, no tocks,

For nowhere amongst its fine refinements,
do we see a cherry clock.

So thank you, my friends. You all rose to the challenge and proved that you really do know me so well!

In other news, I’ve been very busy because it’s one of my favourite times of year—the quince is finally ripe. Many years ago, we had a pear tree on our property which started to die. But as it did, another plant sprouted from its base, and that plant was a quince bush. Apparently, quince have hardier roots than some pear species so they’re often grafted onto quince. And while I missed the pear, I soon realized the (labour-intensive) joy that is the quince fruit. They are rock hard and can’t be eaten as is, but if you cook them first, they turn a delightful pink colour and taste amazing. Every year, I become super-home-maker-y and produce several batches of jam as well as some wonderful quince crumble. Of course, I always have more quince than I need so I can sell off the rest to quince lovers in the area and make some money to fund my miniature obsession.

In other other news, I also completed a miniature outdoor courtyard. I think it’s very cute but I’m at the point where I don’t quite know what to do with all these miniatures—maybe I can throw them in with the quince, like “Buy some quince, get a miniature room for free”. It’s a vicious/delicious circle.

22 thoughts on “Contest Winners; Quince-A-Rama”

  1. I can’t believe that i didn’t see the clock missing. I probably didn’t try hard enough though, lol. I LOVE quince fruit and I’ve always eaten it as is, it’s hard but it worth the fight. But making it into jam/spread is probably the best way to eat it as it gets sweeter. There is also a Mexican candy that’s extremely delectable made with quince too. I had a pear tree when I moved it and got a summer of more pears I could eat but then it died on me last summer because of the brutal summer heat.

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  3. One of my wife’s uncles has, on occasion, made quince liqueur. I can’t imagine what a chore it must be, especially starting with the labor-intensive quince. He only makes tiny bottles fit for miniature rooms.
    As for my departure I’ve always liked something Ambrose Bierce said in his last letter before he disappeared: “Goodbye—if you hear of my being stood up against a Mexican stone wall and shot to rags, please know that I think that a pretty good way to depart this life. It beats old age, disease, or falling down the cellar stairs.”

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  4. If an obsession is miniature is it really an obsession?
    Once you’ve 3D scanned your creations a sacrificial miniature bonfire (bigger than a candle flame) would be a treat. Sacrilege I know.
    “In today’s news, a woman’s historic home collapsed upon her and her husband when the weight of hundreds of clocks, doorknobs, French watercolors, books and what appear to be delicately constructed miniatures of various ages overwhelmed the building’s aging beams and crushed them to death. Only a single wine glass survived.”
    [I’m honored to see that poem lifted into the quince-light.]

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  7. We have a quince tree as well, and it produces well, but we rarely get more than one or two fruit. The reason? Birds, possums and an alpaca with gourmand tastes. 😦 Short of building a whole caged room around the tree there’s nothing much we can do. Netting doesn’t always work as the bird sit on the branch and just peck /through/ the netting. -sigh-

    Re your miniatures…don’t you dare! They are simply gorgeous. Why don’t you offer them as first prize in a contest? I don’t know how you’d go about delivering it, but maybe the walls could be collapsed or something?

    If I were not in Australia, I’d go for one of them as a prize!

    If that doesn’t appeal, and there are no young girls/boys in the family, how about donating them to a children’s hospital for seriously ill kids who have to spend months away from home? I could easily imagine a young kid forgetting about the misery of the real world while arranging and re-arranging your miniatures. -hugs-

    Oh! And before you do any of that, how about using your phone to take a video walkthrough of each room? If you upload the video to something like Dropbox[?] I could download it and edit it for you. Then, all you’d need to do would be to get a Youtube account and upload the video to your Youtube channel. The offer is there. 🙂

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