Garden Day

After a relaxing Sea Day, we stopped at our first port, Victoria. Here we are, making our way from the ship to the bus for our shore excursion to the Victoria Butterfly Gardens and the Butchart Gardens.

The weather was beautiful, nice and sunny with temps in the high 60’s. It was perfect for walking around at our two stops. First: the butterfly garden where Bill’s hat seemed to attract the winged creatures. Here is one of them.

 

We saw butterflies in all stages of their life cycle. This photo shows a chrysalis as well as a caterpillar, both on the same leaf.

When they hatch, they will look like this:

Hopefully you can see how large this moth is by comparing it to my hand at the bottom of the photo.

Bill & I had been to the Butchart Gardens with the Bilkas, one October several years ago. It was interesting to go back and see the different varieties of plants on display for the summer season. The gardens were built in an old limestone quarry and include a sunken garden,

a Japanese garden, an Italian garden, and a rose garden along with areas of fountains and totem poles. This totem pole was built in 2004 for the 100th anniversary of the Butchart Gardens.

Throughout the gardens, there were some really interesting specimens, including this Monkey Puzzle tree.

This hedge had to be a good three feet thick!

We had a great time during our visit to Victoria and hope to make it back to spend more time there.