Canada #5 Pink Blooms at Butchart Gardens
The pink theme of Becky’s Square in September Photo Challenge fits perfectly with our day at Butchart Gardens and matches all three interpretations:
Mother Nature must really love pink!
Canada #4 Butchart Gardens
I wonder if, when Jennie Butchart first began designing her garden in 1906, she imagined how many people would come to visit in the future. Her work was the start of what would become the famous Butchart Gardens, 22 hectares of floral beauty visited by one million people every year.
Jennie’s first project was the Japanese Garden, complete with a red torii gate and traditional stone lanterns. Arched bridges span a series of ornamental lakes, and Japanese maples provide shade for beds of delicate Himalayan blue poppies.
The Sunken Garden was designed to fill the abandoned quarry which had once provided limestone to the family’s cement factory. A switchback path leads down into the garden, continuing on between raised beds of seasonal blooms, flowering trees and neatly manicured lawns.
At the furthest end of the Sunken Garden, the Ross Fountain performs a dazzling display of dancing water, at times reaching a height of 21 metres.
In contrast to the order of the Sunken Garden, the Rose Garden is almost riotous in its abundance. Fragrant blooms in every colour fill archways and spill out onto the paths. Arbors draped with climbing roses and oversized hanging baskets beckon visitors, who stop time and again to take more photos.
The Italian Garden and Star Pond are more formal in style, with trimmed hedges, waterlily ponds and ornamental fountains. Fuschias, clustered like ballerinas waiting in the wings, dangle from more hanging baskets.
Shaded seats with beautiful views are provided here for those enjoying a treat from the Gelataria.
In any season, the gardens are busy with people who’ve come to marvel at the beauty created by Jennie Butchart.
I think she’d be pleased to know how much joy her vision still brings, more than 100 years after she planted her first roses.
Join Jo for Monday Walks
Canada #3 Victoria
At the start, it wasn’t going to be a long walk! From the waterfront in downtown Victoria to Fisherman’s Wharf along the David Foster Harbour Pathway was just one kilometre.
We could have taken a relaxing carriage ride past the elegant buildings on Belleville Street but we were glad we didn’t.
We would have missed seeing the continual arrival and departure of the Harbour Air seaplanes. We marvelled at the skill of the pilots and the lightness with which these tiny aircraft landed on the water.
We wouldn’t have come across the Friendship Bell, symbol of a 30 year bond between the citizens of Morioka, Japan and Victoria.
We wouldn’t have seen these beautiful waterlilies, serenely floating in a water garden along the front of an apartment building.
When we arrived at Fisherman’s Wharf, the cafés, boutiques and tourist shops were all bustling with people enjoying the fine summer weather. We admired the colourful float homes lined up against the jetties and wondered about the lifestyle of the inhabitants. The queues at the cafés were long and the tables were full, so we decided to continue further along the path.
We passed the Canadian Coast Guard and the Victoria Harbour Heliport before arriving at Ogden Point, part of the traditional lands of the Lekwungen peoples. Ogden Point is the busiest cruise ship port in Canada; each year more than 400,000 passengers start their visit to Victoria here.
Ogden Point Breakwater, a 762 metre long concrete wall jutting out into the calm waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, is decorated with Na’Tsa’Maht – The Unity Wall. The mural painted by Salish Nations artists depicts the stories, past and present, of the local First Nations peoples.
After trekking out to the Ogden Point Breakwater Lighthouse and back, it was time for a rest at the Breakwater Café Bistro Bar. We enjoyed steaming hot chocolates served with a view of the snow-capped Olympic Mountains across the water in Washington State.
Continuing along Dallas Road to Holland Point Park, we joined the Waterfront Trail which passes through the park to the Shoreline Trail. Both tracks were lined with delicate pink flowers growing wild on the edge of the cliff. Huge piles of driftwood washed up by the ocean lay in stacks along the shore below.
At Douglas Street we left the Waterfront Trail, stopping first at the Mile Zero Monument which marks the start of the Trans-Canada Highway.
Nearby we paid our respects at a statue of Terry Fox, the inspirational teenager who, after losing his leg to cancer, started a run across Canada in 1980 to raise awareness and funds for cancer research. He never finished the journey, succumbing to the disease after running 5,373 kilometres in 143 days. Today, his legacy lives on in the Terry Fox Foundation.
Further down Douglas Street we entered Beacon Hill Park, where a giant watering can sprays cooling water from its spout on hot days. The ducks at Goodacre Lake didn’t need a hot day to take to the water – they were all bottoms up in search of tasty morsels.
We walked past a local school with a famous name and an intriguing place in Canadian political history and the Royal BC Museum, on our list for another day.
At last we arrived back where we’d started in downtown Victoria. Our walk may have been much longer than we planned, but we saw a lot more than we expected.
Join Jo for more Monday Walks
Canada #2 Chinatown, Victoria
If you’re walking along Pandora Avenue in downtown Victoria remember to look up, or you might miss the sign for Fan Tan Alley.
The entrance to Canada’s narrowest street is nondescript and you could easily walk past without noticing. Once inside though, you can’t help but look up. A thin strip of blue sky dotted with a line of bright red lanterns guides you through the alley to Chinatown.
Located on Fisgard Street, Victoria’s Chinatown is the oldest in Canada. Here you’ll find restaurants, grocers and medicinal shops side by side with those selling paper umbrellas and happy cats. In Fan Tan Alley, there are quirky stores where you can treat yourself to an ice cream, a vintage record or some handmade jewellery, soap or clothing.
At the top of Fisgard Street, the brightly decorated Gate of Harmonious Interest marks the main entrance to Chinatown.
Red and gold are favourite colours in Chinese culture, symbolising good luck, wealth and happiness, and we feel endowed with all three in this lively atmosphere. More strings of lanterns gaily crisscross the street while ornamental signs point the way to other narrow alleys.
It’s the colour red which catches our attention in Fan Tan Alley. This slender door, its red paint worn and patchy, has an air of mystery. There’s no number 23 or 24, just this door – halfway in between.
Perhaps Fan Tan Alley is too narrow to fit them all!
Canada #1 Victoria BC
There’s something special about visiting a country for the first time. When we arrived in Victoria, British Columbia the feeling was extra special, with flags, music and colourful celebrations on every street. But we knew the party wasn’t in honour of our arrival. We were there in time to celebrate Canada Day!
This year, 1st of July was the 151st anniversary of Canada’s achievement of self-governance and we were excited to join the festivities in front of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. Proud Canadians wearing red and white formed a living flag and, all around us, the national anthem was sung with patriotic fervour. With markets, concerts and cultural displays to enjoy, we were immersed in the emotion of the day.
At dusk we stood on the crowded Johnson St Bridge to watch as fireworks brightened the darkening sky. The city lights, with the illuminated Legislature at their centre, glowed on the blackened waters of the Inner Harbour.
Even though the party wasn’t meant for us, we felt welcomed in the most special way!
An Australian Point of View #6 Healesville Sanctuary
Australia is renowned for its unique wildlife and we sometimes joke that international visitors imagine there are kangaroos jumping down our main streets. While estimates put the kangaroo population at more than 50 million, urban dwellers don’t tend to see them unless they leave the towns and cities behind and head into rural areas. Other well-known Australian animals like koalas, echidnas and platypuses are even more difficult to spot in the wild.
A beautiful place to see many of our native animals is Healesville Sanctuary, an hour’s drive from Melbourne in the Yarra Valley. A bushland zoo dedicated to Australian fauna, the sanctuary is home to those native animals with which we are all familiar and some others less ordinary.
Two walk-through aviaries, Land of Parrots and the Wetlands, have purpose-built hides where visitors can quietly observe native birds in their natural environment.
Flightless emus have their own large enclosure.
The zoo has an extensive conservation and breeding program for some of Australia’s most threatened or endangered species.
Native flowering plants bring seasonal colour to the paths leading through each bushland environment.
Unsurprisingly, the most popular exhibit is the Koala Forest, where raised boardwalks and platforms rise up into the canopy of the eucalypts. Here, the sleepy marsupials rest in the forked branches of manna gums, seemingly unaware of their admiring audience.
For a close up view of Australia’s unique wildlife, Healesville Sanctuary is the perfect choice – it’s easier than waiting on the street!
Join Jo for more Monday Walks
An Australian Point of View #5 Mountains
One of my most vivid memories of my first year of high school is the day my geography teacher, a European immigrant, made a scathing comment about Australia’s mountains. How dare we call our main mountain range “great” when, in comparison to the European alps it was nothing. I remember, even at the tender age of 12, feeling indignant that he should feel free to criticise my country.
Since then, I’ve seen much of this land and explored many of its mountain areas. I know now that Australia, once part of the supercontinent Gondwana, is the oldest and flattest continent on Earth.
Norseman, Western Australia
Nullarbor Plain, South Australia
Tectonic movement and volcanic activity have shaped the upland areas and erosion by wind and water has worn them away; instead of the rugged craggy peaks seen in Europe and the Americas, Australia’s mountain ranges are characterised by highland plateaus and deep canyons, wide valleys and rounded peaks.
Cradle Mountain and Dove Lake, Tasmania
Mount Wellington, Tasmania
Porongurups, Western Australia
Bungle Bungles, Western Australia
Katherine River and Katherine Gorge, Northern Territory
Australia’s highest mountain, Mount Kosciuszko, reaches an elevation of just 2,228 metres above sea level.
Mount Kosciuszko, New South Wales
The Great Dividing Range, so maligned by my teacher, is the third longest land-based mountain range on Earth. It is 3,500 kilometres long and stretches from the northernmost tip of Queensland, through New South wales and into Victoria. At its widest it is more than 300 kilometres across. The range dates from the Carboniferous Period, making it more than 300 million years old. Surely the term “great” is well-deserved.
Where the mountains meet the sea, Cape Tribulation, Far North Queensland
Daintree National Park, Far North Queensland
Kroombit Tops, Central Queensland
Glasshouse Mountains, South East Queensland
Bald Rock National Park, Northern New South Wales
Alpine National Park, Eastern Victoria
Perhaps that teacher needed to study his geography!
