Butchart Gardens and Family Day Weekend

On Thursday afternoon, when I left school, the sun was shining and I got the hankering to visit Butchart Gardens. It's a beautiful place even without the flowers. The lines of paths and trees and shrubs undulate through the landscape. It's a place of harmony and loveliness.


A couple of the earliest rhododendrons are just beginning to open, pink and pretty. 

Clumps of hellebores bloom so luxuriously that I think I'm going to show my own single hellebore this photo to encourage it to do as well. 

Here is a look at the famous rose garden, bare now, but the bones are there, and it won't be long until swaths of colour fill this view. 

Between January and March, the Blue Poppy Restaurant is converted into a Spring Prelude garden. Here, pots and pots of orchids show off their forms and colours; hyacinths, daffodils and irises fill the air with their scent, and it gives one hope for springtime outdoors. 

I admired this pot set among the greenery against the red fence panel. I'm always looking for ideas for my own garden. Inspiration abounds at Butchart. 

Spritely Siberian Irises fit so well with daffodils. Blue and yellow - a perfect match. 

On this Family Weekend (Monday is a holiday in our province), our Vancouver family came over. We got together with most of the local family, as well, although some were sick and stayed home. An Iris of another sort stayed with us and delighted us all with her smiles, giggles, and sheer happiness. I snapped this photo just before they left - she's wearing a sweet handknit sweater, a gift from her mother's sister's talented mother-in-law. 

This afternoon I did some laundry, sorted through the photos I took (over 100 - most of them of the baby :), and Tim and I went for a walk. A lovely way to spend a February holiday.