VICTORIA & ENVIRONS

17th July – 31st July 2008 VICTORIA & ENVIRONS

It was so good to be back on the Island and the first 2 weeks sped by at a frightening speed, every day a full day.

Here are the highlights.

Being able to spend lots of time with Alan and Emi has of course been highlight NUMERO UNO. It’s been so wonderful to see them in the context of their busy lives and to know that we have 6 weeks here.
On our first evening Al came out to see us and we went to a flea market and to have dinner in Sidney, which is very close to where we’re staying. Every Thursday evening during the summer, the main street of this busy little coastal town is closed off and venders come to sell their wares, such things as fresh veggies, clothing and jewelry, and musicians come to entertain. At one booth a woman was selling her freshly baked bread and she recognized Eric’s accent. It turned out that they had both been born in Pietermaritzburg!
We’ve had a yummy meal at Al and Emi’s place on Yates St in Victoria, and they’ve eaten with us at Site #102 Oceanside RV Resort on the Saanich peninsula, delicious food and lots of time for fun and conversation.
Al introduced us to the Gowlland-Tod Provincial Park, our first walk on the Island, which took us through the enormous rain forest trees, and down to the rocky water’s edge of the Saanich inlet, home to numerous starfish. He also introduced us to The Red Barn, a great place to buy fresh fruit and veges and Udder Guys icecream.
And one evening Eric and Al managed to fit in 9 holes of golf after work.

One Sunday, Eric and I visited the famous Butchart Gardens which cover 55 acres. The idea for these gardens came from a Jeannie Butchart a hundred years ago. She wanted to beautify a worked out limestone quarry that had supplied her husband’s nearby Portland cement plant. The couple evidently traveled extensively and brought back plants from other countries, some quite rare ones. First a huge sunken garden complete with waterfall was created and later a Japanese garden, rose garden and Italian garden were added. “In 2004 The Butchart Gardens, in bloom for 100 years, was designated a National Historic Site of Canada”.
They are obviously accustomed to dealing with large numbers of people, cars and tourist busses. A Sunday afternoon in July is a very busy time. The gardens that day were vibrant with great swatches of brilliant colour, opulent in places, I’d say. There was much stepping aside to get out of the way of people taking photos under archways dripping with roses, or against a backdrop of giant begonias or fushsias.

One day we spent a couple of very happy hours at the Royal BC Museum where there was a most interesting feature Exhibit called Free Spirit, Stories of You, Me and BC. All kinds of people had contributed to this exhibit with stories going back 150 years, the age of BC. These were the stories, letters and artifacts of ordinary people. I was particularly interested in the stories of hardship and adventure during the gold rush since we’d recently driven the Gold Rush Trail; and another display of letters from children written to their families while they were at boarding school.
We also viewed an exhibit called War Brides, One Way Passage, which was a celebration of these women by Bev Tosh, a Calgary artist, whose mother had been a war bride. She used paintings, photography and many old letters to depict and record their varying stories in order to create her powerful exhibit.
On another day we went to the Art Gallery where there was an Andy Warhol exhibition, which we thoroughly enjoyed. The gallery is in a large century old house, which has been added on to, a really lovely location I felt.

When we got to Victoria, I signed up to do 5 weeks of yoga at the Ayengar studio here. What a bonus to be able to slot into a yoga class so easily. I go on Thursday mornings and so far have been to 2 classes with 2 different teachers. Interesting to notice the different teaching styles.

It has been special too to connect with our ex-neighbours from Mississauga. The Bell family lived across the road from us and have 3 children of comparable ages to our guys. They recently left Ontario and have almost completed the building of a gorgeous house overlooking the Saanich Inlet. We had dinner with them one evening and were given the full guided tour of their new home after 36 years on Albertson Crescent and enjoyed catching up on all the news of their now grown up family. Since then we have joined them on a short hike in Gowlland-Tod Park and had a
fresh-from-the-fish-market salmon dinner with them here.