switched…

05 Monday Oct 2026

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spent time a few days ago moving plants and rearranging furniture to make space for those coming in from the garden…

first up was getting the maples into the front window, and then I put a number of small plants into the second basket planter…

ferns came in and the divider was rearranged to make space for the grow lights…

my housemate built a shelf to go under the dining room window… it is just the right height and currently holds three of the bigger plants that have come in…

then I spent time with the orchids… they have been struggling and I have kind of ignored that 😳…

I realized that a few had been planted in moss and clearly they didn’t like it… roots and dead leaves were trimmed, and pots were switched…

all of them have gone onto the shelf in the den and they look much better…

we will see how each plant feels about its new spot in the house🙂…

Royal Rhodes gardens…

04 Sunday Oct 2026

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we took an Uber across Victoria from our hotel to Royal Rhodes University… it also is the location of Hatley Castle…

we weren’t interested in the castle, and had a bit of trouble finding the gardens we were looking for, lol… eventually we found a gardener and they set us on the correct path…

we were headed toward the Japanese Garden and did find it… there was an upper part and a lower part, with big trees, a few buildings, and peaceful vistas…

it had a lovely pond as well as some creeks…

we had fun getting some lovely shots in the garden next to the castle where it looked like you were in a beautiful meadow 🙂…

transplanting…

03 Saturday Oct 2026

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the other day, Hilda the Gardener arrived for fall clean up…

instead we focussed on transplanting many of the plants that were coming into the house…

one of the best new pots we did was in the new basket planters that I recently had given to me…

it came out beautifully…

we cut the original mandevilla down by about half and then combined it with the new one I purchased on sale this summer…

excited to see how it grows…

Abkhazi Garden…

02 Friday Oct 2026

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had a wonderful time at the Abkhazi Garden after we had our tea…

this garden is basically run by volunteers…

they had a few canes available and lent me one, as I forgot my monopole, which has worked out well as a bit of stabilization for me…

it is a lovely space and the highlight for me was sitting under a tree with my daughter while a hummingbird visited and sat in the tree above us… my daughter took both of the above pictures…

found a few ponds with turtles and goldfish…

I was also impressed with the methods they used to support the trees…

amazing what a group of volunteers can accomplish…

Abkhazi High Tea…

01 Thursday Oct 2026

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we arrived at the Abkhazi Tea Room just in time for our reservation… our Uber driver had a little trouble finding it, lol…

which was fair as it looked like a house on the street…

it was my favourite high tea spot… more relaxed, but also set in the garden…

I wore my fancy hat, but it caused problems with taking pictures as it put my face in the shade…

the umbrella over our table had me in shade and sun, so I ended up moving my tea items into the sun for photos…

once again we had a wasp visitor, but not quite as serious as the one at the Butchart Gardens, lol…

our server was very attentive and quick to change out one of the items that could have caused an allergic reaction for my daughter…

a delicious and very relaxing tea😊…

Beacon Hill Park…

30 Wednesday Sep 2026

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we wandered through Beacon Hill Park… it is huge…

we saw giant trees, flower beds filled with flowers, roses, numerous ponds and creeks, and lots and lots of ducks…

and, the moss lady… once we found her, I was reminded of the Earth Goddess, which we visited in Atlanta in 2016… at that time I slipped under the fence and got a close up with her…

did the same thing with the moss lady, although I did not touch her…

from the bus we saw the mile zero monument, and the Terry Fox memorial…

clearly, you could spend days wandering through this park😊…

hop on, hop off…

29 Tuesday Sep 2026

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we decided to take the hop on, hop off bus and to do the whole loop to see what we might want to do the next time we took it…

the tour started at the Empress, so while we waited to board we visited the gardens there… we stepped inside the lobby to admire the beautiful arrangements and then wandered the lawns and gardens…

we found lovely flower beds and a few giant old trees…

we decided that the next day we would visit Chinatown and Beacon Hill Park…

after we’d been around once we walked to the Parkside Hotel where we saw the koi and had a snack beside the pond…

we went back to one of the stops and hopped on, and hopped off, just a few blocks from our hotel… very handy…

the next day, after I’d put on just about all the clothes I’d brought because I’d been cold the day before, lol, we caught the bus by our hotel and hopped off at Beacon Hill Park… it is very large…

we hopped on and hopped off again at the Empress and walked up a street to check out the shops… after lunch we walked to see Trounce Alley and Fan Tan Alley, which is only 3 feet wide!!! after buying a few treats, we caught the bus and hopped off at the stop which was close to our hotel;-)…

the hop on, hop off bus was worth every penny as we used it from around 1 pm the first day until around 5 pm on the second day…

Parkside…

28 Monday Sep 2026

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we went to the Parkside Hotel to visit the koi pond, which I had seen on an Instagram post… I was not disappointed…

as you walked up to the hotel there were a number of outdoor ponds with goldfish and water lilies in them…

inside you walked across the koi pond on the way to the front desk… part of the hotel was a cafe, that opened onto the street so that the neighbourhood could stop by for goodies…

I had hummus and some lovely bread to enjoy as I sat beside the pond…

every day at a certain time, they divide the food for the fish into containers, which the hotel guests can take and feed them…

a quiet and serene place for a break from all the busyness of the city😊…

partially…

27 Sunday Sep 2026

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what a delightful day…

I spent a good part of it in the garden, moving from one area to another…

at first it was because I was trying to stay partially in the sun… then out of the sunshine as it was very bright and a bit warm…

then, later it was to get into the sunshine to keep warm again, lol…

and I had some fun taking photos of various flowers…

what a lovely treat, particularly as the weather has been dull, overcast, and rainy for the last few days…

I am blessed…

The Gardens at HCP…

26 Saturday Sep 2026

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after spending time at the Butterfly Gardens, we Ubered to the Gardens at HCP…

these gardens seemed much more relaxed than the others we’d been to and the first few spots we walked through weren’t very exciting…

but then we found the Japanese Garden which had a creek flowing through it with light, shady areas, and ponds… it was quite large and was lovely with little surprises along the way, such as the sleeping mermaid…

the Bonsai Garden had a small building to rest in and was a lovely serene place…

it had close to twenty trees that ranged in age from a few years old to over 150…

it was a quiet place to stop for a few minutes before continuing on through the Japanese Garden area…

well worth the visit 😊…