Abkhazi High Tea…

01 Thursday Oct 2026

Posted by sulis303 in business, family, food, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, travel, Uncategorized

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Abkhazi High Tea, allergy, big girl pants, family, favourite, garden, moments, shade, wasp, weather, widow

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😊…

Parkside…

28 Monday Sep 2026

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big girl pants, blessed, cafe, koi fish pond, moments, Parkside, Parkside Hotel, relaxing, widow

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😊…

High Tea – Butchart Gardens…

24 Thursday Sep 2026

Posted by sulis303 in business, family, food, garden, health, moments, retirement, travel, Uncategorized, weather

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big girl pants, blessed, Butchart Gardens, family, first high tea of the trip, food, high tea, moments, nature, widow

when we first arrived at the Butchart Gardens we went to book our High Tea at the restaurant… unfortunately they weren’t open yet, but my daughter convinced them to add us to the reservation list…

when we arrived at the designated time, we were seated outdoors, overlooking the large green open area…

they had blankets at each table, which was great as it was a little cool…

because of allergies we ended up with a tower each…

one of the little cakes on my tower had jelly on the top… it became the favourite for a wasp that really enjoyed the jelly…

everything was delicious… I needed my fork to hold up many of the sandwiches, lol…

but I didn’t eat the jelly part, lol… and it was sweet that they included a happy birthday chocolate on my cupcake 😊…

the staff were excellent and we had such a fun time… first High Tea of the trip…

then, it was back to the gardens…

Vancouver…

23 Wednesday Sep 2026

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big girl pants, bus, family, ferry, luggage, lunch, moments, sky train, VAG, Vancouver, widow

the train arrived in Vancouver on time at 8 am… after all the concern about being late, lol…

once we got off, we were able to leave our luggage with VIA as we wanted to visit the Vancouver Art Gallery before moving on to the Island… before we left we booked the bus for our trip to Vancouver Island…

a sky train ride and a short walk got us to the Gallery… I went across the street to the Fairmont and sat in the lobby reading while Cyndi began her tour of the Emily Carr exhibit…

before too long I headed to the VAG and wandered through the Gift Shop… then I went up to the restaurant on my own and ordered some tea while I continued to read my book…

we met up in the Gift Shop and stopped at an outdoor cafe for a quick meal… then a walk back to the sky train to return to Union Station to get a bus to the Island, via a BC Ferry…

practically froze to death on the bus ride, but warmed up once we made it onto the Ferry…

it seemed like a short ride and then we were there…

pick…

19 Saturday Sep 2026

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arch, beans, big girl pants, cucumbers, garden, moments, nature, pick, topped and tailed, treat, widow

spent a quiet day resting up from the busyness of the last few weeks…

the main thing I did was pick beans and a couple of cucumbers from the arches…

then I sat outside and topped, tailed, and cut them up…

there were a lot and I will have some tonight and enough for another meal in the next few days…

a lovely treat😊…

Finest…

16 Wednesday Sep 2026

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big girl pants, blessed, delicious, family, Finest, fish and chips, moments, treat, widow

today, after a three day wait, I had haddock and chips from Finest at Sea… my daughter had the salmon tacos…

we couldn’t fit this spot in before this, as we’ve been very busy…

everything was delicious;-)… what a delightful treat…

the weather had been wonderful all day, so we took a lovely stroll, to wear off the calories, lol…

garden parties…

14 Monday Sep 2026

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big girl pants, blessed, bumblebees, family, garden parties, guide, moments, monarch butterflies, nature, The Leaf, water terrace, widow

started the garden parties with a visit to The Leaf…

after a private tour of the Biomes, with me as the tour guide, we had lunch at Gather…

we shared these…

I’d never had burrata before so was eager to taste it… it went nicely with the peaches and pistachios, but unfortunately, the peaches were under ripe… would likely have been delicious otherwise…

we had them put the blueberries on the side as neither of us really like them, lol, and I quite enjoyed this salad, which was different from what I had had on previous visits…

then it was outside to check out the Water Terrace and the Outdoor Gardens… had a lovely stroll and found monarch butterflies and happy bees everywhere…