As a lover of flowers and colors, Butchart gardens in a must.
The day was overcast, but no rain. Probably better to see flowers that way than in bright sunlight. Notice I am dressed for a California winter.
The old cement quarry in all it’s glory. A collection of gardens this size is an ongoing project. Still in the hands of the same family, they are doing a magnificent job, of both maintaining the gardens and sharing them with vast numbers of visitors.
This is my second visit, I have only been here in summer, each season has it’s own beauty. This could be an inspiration for a quilt or artwork, the shapes, the shades of green, the pops of color.
Flippossibilitiesing for black and white open up all kinds of new posiblities.
But back to color
One can take a boat ride out on the water, this is an island after all.
I only rode the bronze horse, not the many fanciful animals on the merry-go-round.
And now to the flowers, interesting how in a compact grouping, they include mostly common flowers like geraniums and coleus for contrast in color and texture.
The individual flowers are irresistable.
The bees are busy, without them, no flowers.
Nature produces the most vibrant colors.
Often the texture and color of leaves is more impressive than flowers.
Sometimes it’s just the flower.
and sometimes, it’s how one looks at a tree.
Especially if it is the strange monkey puzzle tree.
Or
Of
I take liberties with the blocks, this was supposed to 6 tiny hexie flowers on a 6.5″ block. Sorry, but no. I enlarged them a little and fell back into what I was doing two years ago – making an all over hexie quilt.
Then a nice pieced block, with flying geese and half square triangles.
A very fussy applique got easier when I simply made the block with Broderie Perse. This is a very old technique of cutting out elements from a print fabric and appliqueing them down. Used mostly with flower motifs.
Ahh! Paper piecing, very intricate paper piecing. I even fussy cut the four central blades. Designers say that paper piecing is extremely accurate. Yes and no. The real issues arise when sewing together separate sections. I haven’t found a solution and I don’t care to, quilting isn’t about perfect accuracy. The makers hand – in this case mine, is more important than something that was stamped out by machine.
I tried to see if this could be paper pieced – waste of time. So a lot of starch and patience. People love the little elephant. I got him in a pack of 2.5″ mini charms, so he won’t repeat anywhere on the quilt. As time goes by, more and more fabrics get added in.
Another Hexie block. This technique of machine sewing the hexies was developed by Nicole of 
Easy paper piecing! No question, I like piecing and paper work.
Applique and embroidery.
Paper piecing, by machine on the left, the two hexie blocks are English paper piecing. the all over one is completely done by hand.
Of course they don’t all fit into neat catagories.
So I added a few more props this time.
The dress is made out of rayon crepe. That most elusive fabric. I found this online and immediately ordered a large quantity. 
I clearly cut the back skirt more on the grain.
These lovely ladies are somewhat skewed on the front. I also discovered that there is a lot of this print out there for sale. Maybe the manufacturers felt there was something racist about these ladies and they decided not to make garment out of this. So the jobbers celebrated and sold it to many an online fabric store.
You can see the print a little better, as well as the cute details of the bodice. They of course get completely lost in the busy print.
Did I mention how cool I feel in this?
I have had this hibiscus for over five years, I get one flower at a time. I’ve seen the same bush elsewhere just covered in these dinner plate flowers. Who knows, maybe like my Meyer lemon that has finally started producing fruit year round, I will get a bush full next year.
Blending in with the pots.
Like this counter balance draw bridge with the old pilings from an old pier.
Sometimes it’s the close up that is arresting.
Or nature.
Sometimes it’s the representation of nature.
Using plant materials for the whole sculpture, even grass as water spouting out of the blow hole.
How about this shoe? 
Store signage can be fun, a button and yarn store. Of course I checked it out, but to be honest, I bought my yarn at 
Beehive Wool is 110 years old!!! See yarn stores can last a very long time. They are also situated in this building, the Masonic Lodge. The Star of David is incorportated into Masonic emblems, they have respect for the Jews, they aren’t ignoring where it came from.
Sometimes it’s just the angle you take when looking up.
Some decorations are generic.
Others are very specific
Now that are buildings are so large and tall, we don’t see this kind of detail anymore.
On a building by the port, representing commerce not a medical building. When a symbol like the cadaceus is from the Greek times, it like the Jewish star will be used for more than one purpose.
Just a flower.
There was a program of decorating with mosaics. I only saw a few examples. This one is older than the modern pipe that was installed above it. When renovating old buildings, you can’t always get the plumbing hidden away.
Every city decorates something, being by the sea, a dolphin is a good representative. Even better when covered with mosaic.
This is an alleyway in the old town. I can show you examples of paved brick roads and alleys here in Los Angeles. This isn’t brick, this is wood!! You use the material that is most easy and pleniful. In British Columbia that is strong hard word from old growth trees. I bet that 99.9% of the people walking here never bother to really see what they are walking on. Joel never would have noticed had I not pointed it out to him.
Then I saw this wonderful grate that surrounds trees on the sidewalk. 
Next post will be back to flowers.
Look at this, a building from 1863! Guess what, people in Victoria were no more conservation conscious than Angelenos. The difference is that when a city is growing and thriving – the old is always replaced by new. When a city stagnates – as Victoria did from the depresson onwards, there is simply no reason to tear down the old, even if it is empty and derelict.
Victoria’s big boom was during the Klondike gold rush in the late 19th century, so many buildings were erected.
Along with an impressive custom house.
The early 20th century saw a boom in building, from businesses on Government Street.
To the Empress hotel on the bay. We had the pleasure of staying here. I say pleasure, because they have renovated the rooms. Sorry, Victorian size and style of room would have been way to cramped for me.
But all this growth and developement ended with the depression. There are just a handful of Art Deco buildings, and then nothing at all in the downtown area for quite a while.
So Victoria became a tourist town, and that really only started happening in the 1980s.
And that is when smart developers swooped in and started renovating those old decrepit buildings. Even painting them in bright colors.
Victorian homes may have been brightly colored back in the day, but not the businesses downtown. I’m wondering if the TV show Miami Vice had any influence here as well? The old Art Deco in Miami Beach was never so colorful until that show in the 80s. So although I really enjoy these bright colors, they aren’t authentic to the period.
People love these brighter colors. But are they being honest about preservation? I am happy when old buildings get a new lease on life and I am fine when historical inaccuracies like this happen. But I’m also honest in that I don’t call myself a preservationist. I like the mix of old and new, even if it happens to be in the same building.
Painting houseboats in bright colors is also new. This is Fishermans wharf, much smaller than San Fransico. I can’t imagine people living here permenantly – all the cruise ship visitors walk here, as well as visitors like us. Who wants to live in a fish tank?
Another example of that, outside of architecture is this.
I had to go in and see, what is an Indian sweater? Apparently, it is the big bulky 70s style sweater, with some local northwestern motifs. Unfortunately, the yarn is bulky and scratchy. Carpet yarn, not hand knitting yarn.
Gradient yarn refers to so many types of dyed yarn. This one goes from black to dark green with very definate breaks between the colors.
I found a pattern on Ravelry for a side to side shawl. 
My one complaint is that the top edge rolls since there isn’t enough of an edging. It would have been easy to fix, but it also would have meant starting over. I’m getting pickier and pickier about patterns, this one was ok, but I won’t be making anything else by this designer. I guess I am expecting certain standards when I pay for a pattern.
Maybe it doesn’t matter too much, since the shawl is scrunched around the neck.
I do like the overall look of this.
We’ve been having very hot humid days here. Heat is one thing, but we aren’t used to this humidity.
Which is why I didn’t model this myself.
Here is my choice of fabric, Ruth will be making my bag.
and here is what I got from Denise, we both chose dots.
This one worked very well.
I stabilized the bag with Soft and Stable and as you can see, it opens wide and stays open.
I have used up most of these labels, time to order new one.
I used some star fabric along with the dots. 
The frames is longer but not as deep.
So the bag doesn’t open as wide, but it is still very functional, I added some internal pockets as well.
Denise likes her bag, I will share the bag I got in another post.
Wild ones on the roadside.
I even captured a butterfly on the tigerlilly.
Different shades of purple on the iris.
This color of iris is completely new to me.
Peonies the size of dinner plates.
We don’t have these poppies in LA and I’ve never seen this salmon color, intriquing.
I think this is post bloom, whatever it is, just loved the bright yellow green agaisnt the dark purple.
Then it was on to Victoria. I will have a sperate post on Butchard gardens. This is what I remember from my visit here 37 years ago, the baskets hanging with flowers! Ah rain. Turns out that rain isn’t enough and there is a truck that drives around town and waters over 2000 baskets. I am very thankful they still do this, I don’t think Victoria would be the same for me with out them. So much has changed in almost 40 years, good to know the flower baskets are still here.
Silk flowers in a store window. These will be very easy to duplicate.
At one point we walked under the freeway.
Up onto the train tracks. We were told not to walk on the tracks.
The locals don’t care. forest afterwards a very big freight train did come by.
Back down into the forest to see something we don’t see often, a rushing gushing river.
This is what people did a while ago when they wanted to leave their mark.
Today it’s all about spraying with as much color as possible.
In Canada, they authorize this kind of thing. Not sure that I like that they did so on a tree. It has become a problem that viewing nature or even old ruins isn’t enough, everyone wants to leave their mark.
What about arrested decay? There is so much beauty in the rust alone.
So what happened, how did these train cars end up in the forest? It was a freight train, something went wrong and about 7 cars careened off the track and down into the woods towards the river. Many trees were knocked down, but not all, and of course in 60 years others have grown around the train.
Nature is slowly taking back these wrecks.
One of the cars is hanging over the abyss. It didn’t make sense to try and retrieve the cars, so they unloaded whatever was in them and just left them there.
The impact of the cars left it’s damage.
Steel can crumble, but it’s holding up rather well, despite 60 years of snow, rain and wind.
Not only is this now a grafitti park, the cyclists come here and ride all over the trains, they have built bridges and ramps to jump off the tops.
I love old industrial elements like this handle.
Today a new bridge is being built across the river, for bikes and pedestrians. That will make the access much easier.
Back up on the tracks, the old wooden railroad ties and the new concrete ones that were put in when they repaired the tracks after the accident. No one was hurt or killed in the accident, becasue it was freight cars, but that must have been a terrible fright for the engineers.
