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…
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…
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…
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…
I haven’t had purple in my hair for over six years… basically since covid when I stopped going to my colour person…
when the place I’d been going to for haircuts recently closed down, I found a hairdresser within walking distance…
she did a great job cutting my hair and we discussed the Elumen that I’d been using, and which she carried in her salon…
we booked a date and I was so happy to get there…
in the end she used two products… the Elumen which I’ve had before and really lasts a long time, and a little bit of the Pravana Everlasting … which will be a bit darker… she wants to compare the two of them to see which lasts longer and doesn’t come off on pillowcases or other things…
it came out very nice, once I got used to it again, lol… subtle 😊…
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…
had some fun picture taking… by this time it was getting rather hot, so we headed home…
