Vacation, Part 2

After leaving Vancouver, we went to Victoria, Canada where we visited The Butchart Gardens.

Now, you probably know by now that we are not “garden people,” but everyone we talked to about going to Victoria said we had, just had to go to The Butchart Gardens.

We could’ve gone whale-watching, but with the chilly weather and no guarantee of seeing any whales, we opted for the flowers since they couldn’t run away from us. And we wouldn’t have to worry about losing our noses to frostbite.

When we got on the bus to head to the Gardens, there were approximately three other people there under 65. I guess they were more adventurous and went whale watching.

First of all, the proper pronunciation for the place is, “BOOCH-art.” But of course, Husband called it “BUTT-chart.” Would you expect anything less?

This, at one time, was an old limestone quarry. The wife of the man who owned the quarry was upset that he’d left such an ugly hole in the ground right outside her kitchen window. He told her to do something about it, and she did. She built a garden. It’s still a family affair, now owned by their great-granddaughter.They had the biggest Begonias I’ve ever seen, nearly as big as my fist. A quick pause for a self-portrait. We didn’t once ask a stranger to take our picture. I’m always freaked out that they’ll take off with the camera. Plus, they always become instant professional photographers, worried about landscape and lighting. I just want a picture, thankyouverymuch. So I did it myself.This is a view of the sunken garden from the top.  More of the sunken garden. More of the sunken garden. There’s a huge hill in the middle, that tree is not just sticking up there all by itself.I couldn’t believe how still and serene the ponds were. You can see rabbit tracks in the wet grass below. Quite a few years back, somehow a bunch of domesticated rabbits got loose in the Victoria area. They bred like, well, rabbits, and now they are everywhere. We saw those cute, fat rabbits all over the place – black, brown, white, etc. It was pretty funny to see those big lop-eared bunnies hanging out in random places.This was a bed of roses & baby’s breath, one of my favorite combinations. I kept thinking about the song lyrics, “I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses….” This is the tree on top of the hill in the middle of the sunken garden. Another serene pond. They were so cool. A view of the sunken garden from the side. I love Zinnias. And the bee, well, he’s ok as long as he leaves me alone. Standing underneath a Redwood, looking straight up. It was magnificent. This was the archway between the rose garden and the Japanese garden. Looking over toward the Italian garden. I’m glad I don’t have to mow that lawn. A Bonsai-looking tree in the Japanese garden. The floor of the Japanese garden was covered in moss. It was very quiet – the moss absorbed a lot of sound, I suppose, Some Japanese mushrooms. We didn’t try them, although I’m sure Dad might’ve been interested. A pond in the Japanese garden. The Italian garden. I’m not sure what these are called, but they were pretty cool. They were in the hanging garden. This is the famous Empress Hotel in Victoria. It was built on a saltwater swamp, and is being held up by a few hundred Douglas Fir trees that were driven down into the swamp. They won’t rot because of the saltwater. So go figure.  The rest of The Empress. We could’ve gone there for “high tea”, but I think a trip to The Butchart Gardens was enough culture for us for one day. Next, we get into some real culture…The Goonies!