Caching in Canada 3

As I mentioned in an earlier entry, we spent about two hours taking in the sights at Butchart Gardens. This was the day it rained on us a bit, but the showers were light and intermittent. BG had stands of small, clear umbrellas everywhere. Later Dave suggested they probably did that so those who used umbrellas did not block the views. Made sense since the paths were often jammed with people.


As you begin your tour, you walk a bit and then come up to this large wall. When you look over it you see the Sunken Gardens. Turns out the Butcharts made their megamoney on a quarry and cement factory. Once the quarry was no longer used, Mrs. B, a horticulturist, wanted to make the area beautiful again. So the Sunken Garden was born and hence why it's down so far. It is quite a breathtaking view, especially to take in from above. This picture is just one portion of it.

Although I do like color in a garden, I also appreciate landscaping that primarily makes use of a large variety of greenery. Somehow it seems to take more skill to make an area like that look so pretty.

The deepest part of the quarry was sealed off to form a lake. Years later a grandson added this ever-changing water feature.

One of my favorite spots was the Japanese Garden. This bridge was in an especially picturesque setting, I thought.

I could have taken hundreds of pictures of blooms but limited myself. Can you tell what my favorite color is? :-)

The property borders the coast at some points. I like the layering in this scene.

There was a virtual cache inside Buschart Gardens. Turns out you had to send info about the year this statue was brought over from Italy. It's a copy of a famous statue in Florence, Italy, one thought to bring luck to those who rub its nose. I kept thinking all of that sounded vaguely familiar, and then it hit me that I had rubbed the nose of the original while on a week long middle school trip to Italy during our last stint stationed in Germany. Quite a co-inky-dink.

Did you notice all the men sitting on benches behind the statue. Where are the women you may wonder? Well, the souvenir shop is just to the left. ;-)

Once we returned to downtown Victoria we ate, hit the wax museum, and then did a bit of caching on the Inner Harbor. Was a fun day.