April flowers

I thought the Easter lilies were late this year, but maybe not. The picture above was taken on April 2nd.

By April 13th there was a mass of them.

Magnolias were also in bloom.

This magnolia was in a yard outside of the park.

A snowfall in Victoria January 19, 2012

Beacon Hill Park

I always forget what this monument is for and don't usually get up to it because it's in the middle of a putting green, but it's regarding Robbie Burns. I'll bet there are many Robbie Burns memorials in the world.

Beacon Hill Park & Rockland June 6, 2011

Beacon Hill Park

The structure below used to be enclosed in wire with birds living inside. Then someone came along and killed all the birds. The aviary stood neglected for many years, but just recently it has been renovated and turned into an information kiosk.

In and around Government House in Rockland

I don't remember seeing these reddish poppies in town years ago. Orange and pale salmon were more common colours.

A magnolia blossom.

I don't know what this flower is but it was actually quite small.

At a nearby house is an intriguing view of a gate to the back yard. How I would love to see what is back there, as if it might transport me to a different place - Italy perhaps.

Rockland & Beacon Hill Park Feb. 9, 2011

Seen in a Rockland neighbourhood yard - this combination of pinecones and snowdrops around a tree trunk makes for a nice way to display the flowers, I think.

At Government House there was a bit of colour. Not shown: pink rhodos in bloom.

The usual array of birds were at Beacon Hill Park - the mallards, wigeons, Canada geese and Henry the Heron.

Beacon Hill Park April 9, 2010

On a walk in the park...

The Easter Lilies (white fawn lilies) were blooming.

One of the few remaining great blue herons in the park stood by a pond and caught a small fish while I was watching. Just a few years ago there was a colony of a few hundred herons with about 70 nests. That was before the bald eagles went on a rampage. As far as I know, the heronry has not been re-established.

Beacon Hill Park February 12, 2010

Continuing my walk through town, I headed through Beacon Hill Park...

...where there were sure signs of spring

...and the usual array of ducks and geese.

A walk in the park

Yesterday we walked through Beacon Hill Park to Cook Street village. At Pic-a-Flic we rented "Little Fugitive", a 1953 black & white film about a 7-year-old Brooklyn boy who takes off to Coney Island after he mistakenly believes he killed his brother. A simple movie which brought back childhood memories and gave us some chuckles.

Here are a few pictures of the park.

Along the back side, the chestnut trees are starting to come into leaf.

I want a decent photo of the inside of one of these White Fawn (Easter) Lilies as the centres are quite decorative and colourful. But their little heads hang down so it's a challenge to focus the camera while it's nearly on the ground facing upward, and the wind is blowing the flowers around.

The Shooting Star (Dodecatheon hendersonii, I think) is a small flower native to western North America from southern BC to California. From the BC Archives website, the name Dodecatheon "has its roots in the Greek words twelve (dodeka) and gods (theos). Pliny gave this name to a spring flower, thought to be the primrose, which was under the protection of the twelve principal gods." I have no idea who Pliny was, but I'm always interested in where words come from.

Heading home we passed by this pond along Douglas Street.

Canada Geese are flying by honking quite a bit lately.

What's that they say about not having your subject facing out of the picture? :-)

For such large birds they have delicate-looking heads. It's nice to have the telephoto so I don't have to get too close. As a kid, geese scared me about as much as our neighbour's bad-tempered Angus bull... although, come to think of it, I never had a bad experience with a goose.

And finally, on the way home out of the park was this magnolia. I must admit, I'm almost getting to like them.