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.

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.

Butchart Gardens March 14, 2010

Indoor garden

Pretty blossoms.

Magnolias again.

Rhododendron bud.

Yes, you can see gerbera daisies at the florist, but they add a nice bit of colour here.

The Alcanterea revisited

You may remember this unusual plant and the picture of the sign I posted back in January.

Well, now there is a new sign. Now the plant is from Brazil instead of Chile, and the new spelling of Alcanterea with the 'ea' ending rather than 'ia' ending is probably correct. The plant is nearly finished flowering so, sadly, I guess that will soon be the end of it. Who knows if I'll ever see another one of these in my life.

And that was the last weekend of the Spring Prelude indoor garden at Butchart's. Correction: I was wrong - it actually continues to the end of the month.

Butchart Gardens February 11, 2010

The magnolias are blooming in the indoor garden.

Interesting bark.

Remember the large potted plant labelled Alcanteria Imperialis 'Rubra' (see blog entry Jan. 15), the one from Chile that blooms once in 15 years and then dies? I thought it was blooming before but now it resembles a flower, more or less.

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.

Butchart Gardens March 29, 2009

This is the last weekend of the indoor garden at Butchart's.

The next photo shows a magnolia taken with the Canon camcorder followed by one taken with the digital ELPH.

A bird of paradise.

We don't remember seeing flags of the world in the parking lot before.

We saw swallows! A sure sign of spring.

Butchart Gardens Feb. 19, 2009

Inside at Butchart's "Spring Prelude" this week are red tulips, pink camellias, a red rhododendron, and (below) several gerbera daisies.

Here the petals are entwined, all friendly-like.

There are also magnolia trees.

And outside, heather is blooming.