Tag Archives: Butchart Gardens

Flashback Friday~Butchart Gardens

In August of 2009 Greg, Katie and I managed a one day journey from Washington State to Butchart Gardens. When I had a glitch with Photobucket all my photos from early days with my blog were deleted. It’s quite a task to revive those posts. My photos have been recently recovered and I’ll share the photos I have from  our one day epic trip in 2009 here.

On Tuesday (August 4, 2009) we left our house at 6:00 am and headed north to Anacortes to catch the 8:15 ferry to Sydney, Vancouver Island, B.C. Our ferry ride through the San Juan Islands was very foggy and misty for most of the way. At first it was hard to make out the islands till you got very close. Towards the end of the trip the skies lightened up. Vancouver Island was nice and sunny. We made it to Butchart Gardens after stopping for breakfast along the way.

First things first before touring the Gardens… Katie learned that she needs sunblock or else she’ll burn like a marshmallow in a campfire.

Katie was really intrigued by the Chilean Rhubarb that grows 6-10 feet tall. I zoomed way in to try to capture it. Katie is sure you could float down a river on one of the leaves! :0)

A little blue from Butchart Gardens. It always makes me smile to see blue flowers. The stained glass window was from the Blue Poppy Restaurant in the gardens.

From the Ferry in Sydney on our way to Butchart Gardens we stopped at a restaurant called The Roost which had great freshly made food. I opted for their sandwich special with Beet Borsch on the side. The sandwich was a chicken, cheese, basil, tomato, red onion and Portobello mushroom. Dear had the same sandwich but with a Roasted Yam and cilantro soup. Katie ordered the 3 cheese quiche with a garden salad. We would go back to this spot if we ever ferry across from Anacortes to Sydney again. After we walked about Butchart Gardens and on our way into Victoria we stopped in Oak Bay and were happy to stumble upon the Penny Farthing where we enjoyed some traditional Fish & Chips and Lamb Stew.

It’s too bad we had to be in the ferry line for 90 minutes prior to our trip back to the states or we could have fit in one more good meal on the Island!

We traveled on the Black Ball ferry out of Victoria to Port Angeles to get home. From Port Angeles we had to make it to Kingston, Washington before the last ferry set sail at 11:10 pm. We were so thankful to make it on time and to be in our beds by 12:30 am!

It’s incredible to me that we managed this trip in one day back in 2009. We were still living in Camarillo, California during this time and we enjoyed coming back to our home in Washington and spending as much time as we could with our adult children.

Sisters!

It’s been 5 years since we’ve had a “Sister weekend”.

We made some good memories then and it’s time for some more…

Last time on the first weekend of April 2011 we took the Clipper to Victoria for a weekend. This time we are staying in our homes in the Seattle area and venturing out from here.

Last time we were in Victoria we met up with Pondside and she gave us a grand tour of the area. My sisters and I loved spending time with her. She is a blogger that I so admire for her work ethic and her caring heart for all the people in her life.

I’m hoping to show my sisters our fields of daffodils this time around. Here’s hoping for decent weather and rows and rows of daffodils!

I’m getting things ready at this old house for my sisters. Trying to plan some easy meals in between our outings. I’m thinking about breakfasts, lunches, dinners, snacks and desserts. I’ve got two guest rooms ready for my oldest sister Kathy and my next oldest sister Vera. My younger sister, Lana, lives walking distance to me. Kathy and Vera live in southern California. I’m picking them up from the airport on Friday morning. I hope to share some of our adventures on my blog next week.

SAD NEWS FOR BLOGGERS!

I was so sorry to hear that Sally of Smiling Sally Blog has passed away. She hosted Blue Monday for years. I participated in the past but haven’t for some time. She was always encouraging and positive and kind.  I love what bj said in her comment on Sally’s blog…

Bye, bye, Sally…you are now in the best BLUE of all….Blue Heaven.

On her blog she has this verse as her favorite so I know I will see her again in the future in heaven…

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. I John 5:13

April Fool’s Day in Victoria…

Was it foolish to head out on our Sister Weekend on April fools?

 

Who can predict the weather and seasons? Not us humans for sure. Whatever the weather the time was right. After we docked in Victoria and convinced the local authorities that they could trust us in their country we jumped on a tour bus that would give us a little background on the city on our way to Butchart Gardens.

 

The gardens provide these great see through Bumbershoots for rainy days.

 

The great thing about being at the gardens on a day like Friday was having the gardens to ourselves.

 

The phrase of the day was “everything is 2 weeks behind this year”.

 

We saw a lot of great pruning jobs and a lot of blossoms promising to show their glory soon.

 

 

Photo taking was a little difficult as you had to hold the brolly with one hand and focus your camera with the other.

 

There was lots of beautiful color to enjoy throughout the garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I learned some new names for umbrellas today. We are very familiar with Bumbershoot in Seattle because of our Bumbershoot Music festival on Labor Day weekend. Bumbershoot: Take the umbre from umbrella, and the chute from parachute. Combine them and give it a more phonetic spelling, and you’ve got the name Bumbershoot! Bumbershoot is an American slang word. Then there is Brolly, Brollies: used in the UK and Australia and New Zealand. Gamp: British slang for a large baggy umbrella.  A Hanway: An 18th century term used by English gentlemen. The name comes from Jonas Hanway, a Persian writer who carried an Umbrella and is said to have made the accessory acceptable for men to carry. Sadly we would not be needing a Parasol this weekend. This term comes from the Italian parasole, from parare, meaning “to shield” and sole meaning “sun.”

 

 

We ended our time at the garden with some nice hot cups of tea and coffee.

 

 

The tour bus took us back to our hotel in Victoria just in time for our check-in. I’ll show you the Beaconsfield Inn in my next post.

Happy Tuesday to you!

Acts 14:16-17

In times past, God let each nation go its own way. But he showed that he was there by the good things he did. God sends rain from heaven and makes your crops grow. He gives food to you and makes your hearts glad.

Photobucket replaced all my photos with these blurred out versions and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

I Sing the Mighty Power of God ~ Hymn

I Sing the Mighty Power of God

I sing the mighty power of God, that made the mountains rise,
That spread the flowing seas abroad, and built the lofty skies.
I sing the wisdom that ordained the sun to rule the day;
The moon shines full at God’s command, and all the stars obey.

I sing the goodness of the Lord, who filled the earth with food,
Who formed the creatures through the Word, and then pronounced them good.
Lord, how Thy wonders are displayed, where’er I turn my eye,
If I survey the ground I tread, or gaze upon the sky.

There’s not a plant or flower below, but makes Thy glories known,
And clouds arise, and tempests blow, by order from Thy throne;
While all that borrows life from Thee is ever in Thy care;
And everywhere that we can be, Thou, God art present there.

words: Isaac Watts

More from Butchart!

Welcome to my Outdoor Wednesday brought to you from the land of our lovely neighbors to the North…Canada!!  Please visit Susan at A Southern Daydreamer to see more outdoor posts…

I’m thinking this post will also be my Outdoor Wednesday Post but I’m going ahead and posting it now. There are so many wonderful things to see at Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island. Warning: This post has several photos!! I caught some flack for not having any photos of me on this post so I’m adding this one of Dear and I…

If you ever get a chance I would highly recommend a trip to Butchart Gardens!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Blue at Butchart Gardens

OK..I admit it…I’m a postaholic so please scroll down to get to Mosaic Monday or Thrifty Monday if you aren’t using the direct links!

It’s time for Blue Monday!

 

A little blue from Butchart Gardens. It always makes me smile to see blue flowers. The stained glass window was from the Blue Poppy Restaurant in the gardens.

Visit Smiling Sally to see more Blue!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Mosaic Monday ~ Our Beauty Amongst the Flowers…

Please Scroll Down for Thrifty Monday…

 

All these photos were taken at Butchart Gardens this past week. The beauty in the center is our daughter Katie! :0)

To see more mosaics visit Mary at Little Red House.

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Butchart Gardens ~ Random Shots

 

First things first before touring the Gardens… Katie learned that she needs sunblock or else she’ll burn like a marshmallow in a campfire.

 

 

I’ll be posting more photos from the Rose Garden, the Japanese Garden and the Italian Garden soon.

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Butchart Gardens ~ The Sunken Gardens

I have so many photos from Butchart Gardens that I’d like to share so I’m dividing them into a few posts for the different areas of the Gardens. The first area we visited were the Sunken Gardens…

 

 

 

 

 

Katie was really intrigued by the Chilean Rhubarb that grows 6-10 feet tall. I zoomed way in to try to capture it. Katie is sure you could float down a river on one of the leaves! :0)

 

 

 

 

You have to work real hard to get a photo without 10 people you don’t know in it at Butchart. It’s a very popular destination and after visiting we can understand why. I’ll show more flowers from other parts of the garden soon.

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.