Butchart Gardens

Another post, the floors are swept and mopped, dishes done, dinner is ready to go in the oven, the dog(my summer rental) has been hiked and is sleeping on the front porch, things are put away, I did a big, big clean yesterday...so I don't feel guilt over another post today when I should be doing something else. Sadly, I do not know the name of these off the top of my head. We tried to buy the seeds in the Seed Store at Butchart but they had sold out or did not have them...I will have to look over the pamphlet again to get the name of these. I want them in my garden. Here is the sunken garden...of course, it is so much more impressive in real life. Photos really do no justice to this place. We spent all day there and were awed by everything. I am sure we stilled missed more than we actually saw. The crowds were huge because it was a fireworks night so it was difficult to see all that you wanted, difficult to linger over the truly abstract.
This was cool in colour, but I like it better in black and white.
Totems and Michael...I can use this cuz you can barely see him. He doesn't like when I put his picture up. On the same note, there are lots of photos I can't put up because they involve the faces of those I love, Michael and my family-away-from-family. They know who they are, and how much I love them, but plastering their faces all over the internet is not how I choose to show it! I love the Otter on the bottom of the totem on the left. I originally thought it was a bear, but he is holding a clam on his belly and has a long tail...a dead giveaway that it is an otter! His face is most precious.

Holy Schmokes, Folks!!! Are these not the most beautiful things? I don't know the names of these either, tragically. I need to read that damn pamphlet. I GOTTAGOTTAGOTTA have these for my garden. Tomorrow I will post the other colour of these most amazing flowers. And maybe the name?
Another flower I do not know the name of...the stems were over six feet tall, though didn't seem to be trees, but flowers. These bells hung straight down over our heads. This photo is literally looking straight up! The flowers were at least 10 inches(um, did I mention I am an American living in Canada? Inches, feet, pounds, miles per hour....I am sorry, our schools did BEGIN to teach metric when I was in fourth grade and then said "F'it! We're American and the world will adjust." I don't buy in to that mentality and p-p-p-please don't hold it against me. I am in my late thirties now and trying to learn the conversion at this age is like trying to learn a foreign language. Spelling colour and neighbourhood with a U, and cheque instead of check is a huge undertaking and I understand that 32 degrees is HOT not COLD...after that, though, I am truly and utterly lost)long and five or six inches across...impressive. Fountain, obviously. It was set to a dance routine. Many jets going off in a pattern of some sort. Doesn't look nearly as cool in a photo. Dragonfly....I took lots of photos of this guy, well, gal, as some of the photos show her laying eggs(I presume). I "squandered" many photos on her that I could have used on flowers but I love dragonflies....mucho. And I don't think I really wasted anything when I see the photos I got. I like them lots! Trying to pass the beauty of the gardens off in a photo is like trying to capture magic in a jam jar. It just doesn't come across. It was truly impressive and all I could capture are these tiniest of moments...and that is what it's all about anyway, right? These tiniest of moments?
G'nite, all.