I discovered two cows wandering on sidewalks in Gig Harbor last month. They weren’t far from a Ben and Jerry’s ice cream shop so I guess they may have been part of a famous ice cream herd.
Not much to graze on.
Category: Day Trip
Looking up
Old Victorian buildings are sometimes called “painted ladies.” This one in Port Townsend is a good example.
Night and day
The Parliament building in Victoria is beautiful by day. Lit at night it shows off its elegant architecture.
This is a side of Parliament that many tourists don’t get around to seeing. It’s at the back of the building. And it’s none too shabby for a “back door.”
Double fun
The nighttime reflection of this First Nations canoe in Victoria Harbor caught my eye last month.
Bee happy
I was pleased to see lots of bees visiting many of the flowers at The Butchart Gardens last month. I’ve long been concerned about dramatic declines in bee populations. It’s one of those things that has been given various reasons but the bottom line is that bee populations have been crashing. Be it microscopic mites or disease, pesticides, climate, or something else, bees are dying at alarming rates.
These little insects are very important if you care about eating. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, 90% of the food eaten around the globe comes from 100 basic crops. Of these crops, 71 rely on bee pollination.
You can thank a bee for your daily coffee. Or apples, cherries, almonds, beans, grapes, and many spices. Click here if you’d like to see a list of crop plants pollinated by bees. And click here if you’d like to read a New York Times article about a beekeeper and the plight of honeybees.
These little guys are important, and worth caring about.
The Sunken Garden
The Sunken Garden at The Butchart Gardens is located in a former limestone quarry. In the early 1900s Jennie Butchart’s vision was to beautify the site which had supplied her husband’s Portland cement plant. Many of the plants in the gardens were originally collected by the Butcharts during world travels.
There is a core gardening staff of at least 50 with additional workers hired during summer. Flowers are continually deadheaded. Visitors don’t see withered blossoms or decaying foliage, nor do they see cut stems.
Tens of thousands of bedding plants beautify the gardens and are changed seasonally. The gardens own 26 private greenhouses and have full time arborists and nursery staff. It shows.
Lost in flowers
We spent a day at The Butchart Gardens while we were in Victoria B.C. last month. It’s one of my favorite beauty baths — total immersion in flowers, color, and a landscape perfected over more than 100 years.
The first time I went to Butchart, over 30 years ago, was in summer. This was the first time I’ve visited again in summer and the gardens were vibrant and filled with masses of seasonal favorites.
I’ve tried to pare down my photos to several days of favorites. Not easy. The place is a feast at every turn.