Victoria: a change from snow and %&*$#@

I have my marching orders from Maureen:

"I'm sick of the Ottawa snow and %&*$#@. A change would be nice (pictures of flowers)".

The flowers still aren't blooming, but here are a few pics to cheer you up.

Bulbous trees.

This looks like a picnic table stuck to a tree. Maybe a picnic table for birds?

Funny signs.

Pretty houses.

Big trees.

And I did find flowers. Outside our hosts' front door.

Our first beer. Yum.

Peace and tranquility at St. Pat's Basilica Ottawa amid covid

Before winter hits

Victoria - Week 8 final days

We leave Saturday to return to the land of snow, ice, and definitely no flowers. Yet. But they will come.

A few final pictures. These are from Fred. Beautiful. Especially the last one.

Jan and Knut's place where we stayed. We are in the downstairs apartment.

Victoria - Week 1

Victoria is in a cold snap. And windy. Yesterday we had snow. And high winds. The first pic Fred took from the Fernwood Inn. I had white chocolate stout there last Friday when we first arrived and we went for nachos. Yum. Especially the white chocolate stout. You can see the Belfry Theatre from the Inn.

Below that is Fred in our cozy kitchen. Then the backyard below that. With snow. I thought we had left the snow behind in Ottawa. I was mistaken.

Jan who lives upstairs has a hot house you can see where she has lights on, trying to keep her lemon tree alive. I hope it survives the cold.

They even have salt trucks here. Who knew?

100th anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima

Today at St. Maurice's church and St. Gregory's school in Ottawa.

Entrance Procession

Bishop Riesbeck Homily

Consecration

Procession to the school

Father Shroff leads prayers before lunch

Father MacDonald's talk

Vancouver Island in March

Victoria has had a cold and rainy March. When we came here two years ago it was much warmer and spring was in full bloom. Not this time.

However...

Ottawa has been having a horrible snowy, cold, freezing rain, disgusting March. We are so glad we aren't in Ottawa. Thank you God.

Pictures below are from Victoria, Sidney and Nanaimo.

Parliament buildings and harbour in Victoria

Sea lion in Sidney

Harbour in Nanaimo

Cute little tug boats in Nanaimo Harbour

...and cute little sea plane

 

Do you believe this guy?

Do you believe this guy?

Now this is obviously a Nanaimo bar, a must to eat if you're in Nanaimo. Now for the record Fred ate it and not me. Really. He said it was pretty good.

Nanaimo harbour again

There were three peacocks that day in Beacon Hill Park, Victoria

You looking at me?

Love that trunk

Pretty in red

...and blue

...and greenish yellow

Guess who found Smithwick's Beer? Yum

And I finally figured out where Victoria got its name