The Gardens at HCP…

26 Saturday Sep 2026

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

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big girl pants, blessed, Bonsai Garden, family, Japanese Garden, moments, nature, relaxed, serene, sleeping mermaid, The Gardens at HCP, widow

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 😊…

Butterfly Gardens…

25 Friday Sep 2026

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

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big girl pants, birds, Butterfly Gardens, moments, nature, plants, pond, stick bugs, turtles, variety, widow

after two days at the Butchart Gardens, we visited the Butterfly Gardens which were close by…

the first thing you see is an area focussed on stick bugs and poisonous frogs… there were a lot…

then we moved into the Butterfly area… just as we arrived a keeper was letting a box of maybe 50 butterflies out… there were all types inside and one landed on my daughter and climbed up her, lol… another one, a cracker (one of my favourites) landed on the front of a man who was beside us… it stayed on him the entire time he walked through the garden…

besides butterflies, there were a few types of fish, a variety of turtles and tortoises, a flamingo, many parrots and other birds… part of their mission is to take in injured creatures…

they also have some butterflies in all their stages… from eggs, to caterpillars, to the butterflies… that was exciting to see…

the space is very large and it can be difficult to spot the butterflies, although there seem to be more in the front area… but many types and also different ways to display them…

it was fun to see so many creatures in one spot😊…

High Tea – Butchart Gardens…

24 Thursday Sep 2026

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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…

Butchart…

22 Tuesday Sep 2026

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

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amazing, big girl pants, blessed, Butchart, Butchart Gardens, family, flowers, gardens, moments, nature, Vancouver Island, widow

we made it to the Butchart Gardens…

what an amazing place it is… the first day, we spent six and a half hours wandering the many gardens and had a delightful high tea with a wasp guest…

I was absolutely stunned (in a good way) when I stood at the top of the sunken garden… it is so beautiful it brought me to tears, and what a way to start the tour…

we saw giant trees, beautiful beds, topiaries, and rows of stunning dahlias…

we also saw beautiful Japanese Gardens where I took maybe one picture and then just absorbed the quiet beauty around us…

many water features, a carousel, and so many flowers;-)… awed by the wonderful combinations of plants that made every corner more interesting than the last…

day two, we arrived later in the day with plans to see the gardens lit up at night… we visited some of our favourite areas, especially the Japanese Gardens and took an electric boat tour… sadly, I ran out of steam and we headed back to our AirBnb just as dusk was taking over the gardens…

tulips…

21 Monday Sep 2026

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big girl pants, blessed, family, flowers, moments, nature, travel, tulips, widow

my daughter brought tulips for our trip, as it was all about gardens and flowers…

we had them on the train…

at the AirBnb…

and in our hotel… as well as some fresh ones…

currently they are residing in the bathroom where I can see them every day and be reminded of the spectacular time we had together 😊…

train…

20 Sunday Sep 2026

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beloved, big girl pants, blessed, daughter, family, moments, mountains, new friends, train, trip, VIA Rail, widow

we booked a train trip from Winnipeg to Vancouver on VIA rail… these trips are so popular, you have to book (and pay for the entire trip) nine months ahead…

the start of the trip was a bit stressful as we were expecting to leave at 9:30 pm and ended up leaving the city at 5:11 am…

it was amazing to see how every inch of space was used… during the day we had two chairs to look out the window and at night the space turned into an upper and lower berth… I got the bottom one, lol…

we found guests from all over and loved hearing laughter and voices speaking numerous languages throughout the days…

we’ve discovered that train travel is completely different here than across Europe, for example… and not necessarily to the good🤪…

the food was delicious and we enjoyed meeting new friends at mealtimes…

we spent a lot of time in the observation car and the morning the mountains came into view, I took two pictures and then just sat and soaked up the beauty😊…

and then we were there😳…

it has been a fun learning opportunity for me, and I see my beloved more and more every day in my daughter, who makes friends wherever she sits, or stands, or, just is🤗… what a delight…

help…

18 Friday Sep 2026

Posted by sulis303 in business, family, life, moments, retirement, technology, travel, Uncategorized

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big girl pants, family, flights, help, moments, run, Technology, travel, widow

yesterday I listed a bunch of transportation methods…

today we ended with Ubers, planes, and vans… and home😊…

we started out in the dark with a lovely Uber driver who got us to the airport right on time…

we waited a while for our flight and when we arrived for our connecting flight we literally ran from one end of the airport to the other… yikes… not too thrilled with the help I received from WestJet online when I booked it…