High time for some more shots of things growing in our garden!…
…and possibly some other random images that I have overlooked throughout the last couple of months. Let’s see what I can find…
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Tags: British Columbia, Modern life, Victoria
I thought that in these times of danger and all-round ugliness it might be good to post something pretty instead.
For those of us who get up on the early side on work days one of the rare joys of the the clocks going forward is that we once again coincide in the mornings – for a brief period at least – with the rising sun. I can’t resist taking photographs:
Not to be outdone the moon has of late also been putting in unexpectedly powerful appearances:
Winter lingered so long in the lap of Spring that it occasioned a great deal of talk.
Bill Nye
It has, of late, been particularly wet here on the west coast coast of Canada. Not in the catastrophic flooding/exceptional weather kind of way that some other regions of the world have been suffering, but just a constant and relentless dampness from day to day. The aquifers are doubtless happy – as are the ducks – but as for the rest of us… not so much!
Further, even on days such as today – when the sun has decided to peep through the murk and the temperature has climbed to something approaching acceptability for human life – come eventide it will have again plummeted towards the red (or should that be blue) zone and the nights remain consistently chilly.
As a result our early spring flowers have been caught in two minds as to whether or not to grace us with their bloomin’ presence. The snowdrops have done their thing regardless – but then, that is what snowdrops do.
The daffodils and tulips – on the other hand – have poked their heads out, formed buds and then just stopped… unwilling to burst fully into bloom until the sun comes out in a more meaningful way to provide some proper spring warmth. My worry is that they will just eventually give up without ever bursting properly into flower.
The glorious magnolia featured in these photos is at the college at which I teach. Hopefully this will act as an exemplar to our own rather more timid flora.
Five years (nearly) down the line and we visit a local beauty spot (within a couple of miles of us) for the first time (well – first time for me anyway).
To be fair I have visited this particular Shangri La before – from the water-side – and have even posted photos thereof to this very journal. It is also immediately adjacent to Butchart’s Gardens, the which is a regular hunting ground, but this was my first time exploring the approach from the east – along Tod Creek.
Any-which-way… here be ‘phurthur’ photographs!
We do not normally get much snow here in Victoria (last year was an exception) and we handle it about as well as does London and the south east of England. Most years the snow experience is similar to that which we have just enjoyed; a brief – if heavy – fall of snow, followed rapidly by recovering temperatures and the associated expeditious disappearance of said frozen precipitation.
We do, however, occasionally get a ‘Snow Day’ – as did we yesterday. It was a teaching day for me and I awoke to the news that neither my – nor my students – presence would be appreciated on campus. College was closed!
Traditionally one emits a loud ‘Whoopee!’ at this point, followed by joining the eager throng rushing out to play in the snow. I restricted myself to the former – any pretence at the latter taking the form of shoveling snow to try to keep our access clear.
Anyway – it looked like this:
One of the big challenges in this sort of weather is keeping the nectar in the hummingbird feeders from freezing. When it does so I have to contemplate venturing outside to whisk the feeders in and try to warm the contents. The birds themselves, meanwhile, are getting in the habit of lining up outside the windows – wings a-flutter – and peering in at us as if to say – “Oy! Get out here and sort this out!”
Though the New Year is already slightly less new than it was and term has already started, I find that I am still trying to get up to date with posts that I had intended for the twelve days themselves.
This one – for example – features a visit that we paid with dearest friends before the New Year to Butcharts Gardens, to view their illuminated Christmas extravaganza. We have been trying to get to this annual celebration for the past four years, failing each time for one (good) reason or another. Well – this time we have finally been successful in so doing.
This festive flight of fancy is unsurprisingly based on the Twelve Days of Christmas – some elements of which can be seen in the photos below. See if you can spot them…
A very jolly and appropriately seasonal event it was too…
Tags: Butcharts, Celebration, Christmas, Gardens, Victoria
A second walk in two days – during what I gather is now called ‘Twixtmas’… Who knew? (well – those who pointed it out to me, clearly!).
This expedition was to somewhere that we have driven within a few hundred yards of on many occasions (on the way to Costco; to the Rugby Centre of Excellence at Westhills; on our way up island) but to which we have not actually been for some considerable time (or indeed ‘ever’ in my case!).
This is Thetis Lake – and very gorgeous it is too, as I hope you will agree…
Happy Twixtmas!
Last year on Christmas Day The Girl and I took a constitutional upon Island View Beach which was blessed with pleasant sunshine and a mild temperature. This year the weather was less obliging but a visit to the same locale proved efficacious in blowing away the cobwebs that always seem to set in at around the halfway point.
As with the weather the images that I snapped are less dramatic than were those of last year, but I offer them none the less:
We had unexpected guests in Victoria yesterday.
The Red Arrows – the RAF’s display team – have been on an eleven week tour of north America. The trip included only two excursions north of the border, so yesterday’s brief appearance in British Columbia was all the more welcome.
Whilst not performing a full aerobatic display the team were scheduled to perform a number of passes yesterday over Vancouver as well as making a two day ground visit.
As a precursor to the Vancouver flypast the Red Arrows carried out a single pass over Victoria’s Inner Harbour and Parliament Building. Given that it can take them only about five minutes to get from Victoria to Vancouver there is no doubt that they were well into the second part of their jaunt whilst those watching in Victoria were still wondering if they were coming back.
Indeed, the brief nature of the event would in normal circumstances have put us off driving the twelve miles or so into the city. Yesterday, however, we had an engagement downtown anyway, so we went a little early and found a spot by the Inner Harbour to watch the spectacle.
I have seen TV coverage of the Red Arrows many times on a variety of ceremonial occasions but never actually encountered them in the flesh – so to speak. I don’t know quite what I was expecting but I was taken completely by surprise by a sudden involuntary lump in the throat as they soared over the city, trailing the red, white and blue plumes for which they are well known. Those who have had similar experiences will be very aware of the power and efficacy of this strangely arcane form of ritual.
Some might think that such displays are out of place in this troubled and restless new world. I am an old fart, however, and I say long may such spectacles continue.
Tags: Celebration, Event, Victoria
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