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…

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…

trip…

13 Thursday Aug 2026

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

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afternoon tea, Airbnb, big girl pants, blessed, Butchart Gardens, family, moments, Technology, train, trip, Victoria BC, widow

my daughter recently sent me this postcard to remind me how close we are to our big trip…

for my birthday – the big 75 – I decided to take the train through the Rockies and visit gardens on Vancouver Island…

planning started last summer, and we had to book our train trip by December to be able to travel in September… crazy, lol…

next we searched for gardens that we would like to visit, besides the Butchart Gardens, which were first on the list…

then came looking at other spots in and around Victoria that we would like to see… we are going to have as many afternoon teas as possible, lol…

finding accommodations for our stay took a bit of work, but we found a lovely AirBnB close to the Butchart Gardens (and a Butterfly garden)… our second place to stay is a cute little hotel that faces the ocean in Victoria…

and finally, first class flights were booked back home… as I haven’t travelled for ages, the flights were covered by points… how cool is that;-)…

now to think about what I need to pack for a train trip and fall on Vancouver Island…

installation…

12 Thursday Feb 2015

Posted by sulis303 in life, nature

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art installation, big girl pants, Butchart Gardens, memories, Park, waterlilies

the art installation is complete… it was finished on Saturday… we got the last of the twenty-nine framed waterlily photos up… and when I say we, I mean my friend, while I passed the odd thing to her…

she did an amazing job… not only are the pictures even and square, there are stickies in the bottom corners so they stay level, lol…

when I described a wall of water lilies she was thinking it might be a bit, shall we say, boring… now that it is all finished she agrees it was the right choice for me… I love water and the lily flowers too…

every time I walk down the stairs, I see something different…

this one reminds me of a walk through the Leo Mol garden with George in the summer of 2011… the ducks were a complete surprise in the pond… had never seen them before or since…

this one brought back my time at the Butchart Gardens in Victoria with my kids, just before they moved from Vancouver Island… we had been on the cruise to Alaska, and spent time in Seattle… finished off with a wonderful day in the Gardens and had tea at The Empress… so many memories…