Well, we have the first snow of the season tonight, so I figure I better get some of the many fall photos onto the blog before the winter photos take over. I'm still working on a bunch of local fall ones I took over the last two weeks (it was our most colourful and prolonged fall that I can recall), but as the ones from Butchart Gardens this week are ready and the others are not, I'll do them first.
Monday was a beautiful day, and Pat and the poms and I took the Mill Bay - Brentwood Bay ferry across to the Saanich peninsula. It was a lovely way to go, and the ferry lands about 5-10 minutes from the gardens. The gardens were ablaze with colour:
After waffling back and forth, I had decided not to take Maggie and that turned out to be the right decision. Paths are narrow (and bordered on either side by either dense bushes and/or chain barriers on posts) and people tended to travel in large groups, leaving no way for Mags and me to step to the side to let them pass. Additionally, many people (nine out of ten, I swear) stopped right in front of us to bend over and reach out with grabby hands to excitedly comment on the cute little poms, Cosmo and Lexi. Grabby hands, excited people, groups front and back, and no way out is NOT a good combo for a socially-anxious dog like Maggie.
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| Busy paths |
We did, however, see a sheltie whose name was, coincidentally, Maggie! While her humans were oohing and aahing over the poms, I snuck this photo of eleven year old Maggie who is not my Maggie:
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| Another sheltie named Maggie! |
I was using my no-longer-reliable point-and-shoot (about 20 or so of the 140 photos I took turned out okay - most of the rest were either unfocused or had jolly pink or red or blue circles or stripes on them), but also took along the Canon EOS with a 50 mm lens and a 12 mm extension tube to practice some macro shots (super close ups) of flowers.
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| Petals on a hydrangea blossom |
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| Fuschia |
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| Possibly lipstick plant, or maybe closed hibiscus? |
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| Late blooming Toad Lily |
Close-ups of bugs were also in the mix, but this little bug was the cutest of all. The gardens have a policy against costumes, but made an exception for her. A ladybug in the gardens seems very apropos!
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| Cute as a bug ladybug! |
The fountain was beautiful, shooting spouts of water high in the air, changing shapes over and over again - wide, skinny, short, tall, up, down - a wonderful sight:
Cosmo, however, was more impressed with this little fountain. I'm not sure if he was hoping to go for a swim (he loves swimming) or making a wish on all the coins in the well:
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| 🎵 Three coins in the fountain....🎵 |
The last time I visited Butchart Gardens, if I recall correctly, was with family for my mother's 80th birthday in 1998. That was early October, with the dahlias in full bloom, creating a beautiful backdrop for some family photos. The dahlias were a bit more scarce on this late October day, but still provided lots of colour.
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| A Single Happy Romeo dahlia |
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| Bzzzzzz |
We had a lovely afternoon surrounded by sunlight and colour, and decided as our Christmas gift to each other this year, Pat and I would each buy a season's pass for 2018. They are the cost of two entry fees and give unlimited access. My goal is to go at least once each season.
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| Maple leaves in fall |
4 comments:
Butchart Gardens is one place I've always wanted to visit. It looks breathtaking! Love each picture and can't get enough of the Dahlias.
Thanks for taking us along.
What beautiful pictures of your day at Butchart Gardens, you seemed to have gone at perfect time before the snow fall. So nice to see all the flowers as we have a ton of snow here this morning, thanks for the posting.
Absolutely stunning colors! Love all the detail shots of the flowers. What a cool fountain, too!
I have only been there once, and that was to visit a classic British car show. I didn't get to see much of the flowers, but I have seen a few now thanks to you Jean.
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