Insights Into Me: October 2009

A bit behind, but oh, well. Better late than never right? :)

Getting to Victoria!

The only way to get to Victoria from Vancouver is to take a ferry! That was a first for me and was pretty fun. We went through a bunch of islands and it was so pretty.

It was so cool to see the wake of this huge ship! Kinda fun to see where you have been.

Getting ready to dock! It took forever!

The Butchart Gardens!

Finally! We left the house around 8 o'clock in the morning to be sure to catch the ferry at 9:30. We finally got to the gardens around 11 o'clock. It was a lot of traveling time for just a day trip!

Pictures of People

Family picture at Butchart Gardens.

I really liked these flowers. They were pretty. I wish I had gotten a closer picture of them. Oh well.

I love this shot I took of Jon and Brit! They take some really romantic photos. :)

Roses with my Daddy. Roses for my Daddy! :)

Pictures of Flowers

I love taking pictures of flowers just after it rains! I love to see the drops on the flowers. For some reason there is peace for me in the beauty of it all.

The flowers in Butchart Gardens were huge, as you can see. These pink flowers were so beautiful and being as big as they were just added to it. Around every turn in the gardens there was something else that was breathtaking. It was wonderful!

I loved this flower just because of how odd and different it looks. I think Mom said it was a pinwheel flower which would be an adequate name for it. :) Isn't it beautiful?!

Even the simple and everyday flowers looked gorgeous!

This was in the Rose Garden. They all looked the same to me. :) This one caught my eye because of the water within its petals. Right after I took this picture I looked up to see Jerrod taking a similar picture. I got a kick out of that. :)

There was an area within the gardens with a bunch of baskets hanging from a twenty by twenty foot skeleton of a shed (or something similar). It was beautiful! I even had to duck down in some places to not hit my head! These were in one of those hanging baskets.

I didn't see these flowers, but Nikki or Joie did. It is a pretty flower and picture. It qualifies as a favorite because I love the spiral flare of its petals.

These are pretty too. I like how different the petals are arranged. It isn't the typical arrangement of a flower. I do wish Joie had got something to compare the size to because I don't remember how big they were.

This flower I remember! It was as big as my head! Everyone was stopping to take pictures of it though so I didn't stop. Lol. I borrowed this picture from Joie. Thanks Jo!

Views from Within the Gardens

This is a pond within the Sunken Gardens. The Sunken Gardens is a garden that Mrs. Butchart transformed from an old stone quarry! It is unbelievable to see the the before and after pictures of this place. It is amazing and inspiring! Things are really what they are made out to be by their creators.

This is the house built and lived in by the Butcharts. It is right on the grounds. The Butcharts, after cultivating and making the gardens what they are, they opened the grounds up to the public to share the beauty of the land and their gift of gardening with the rest of the world. I am so thankful that they did. It was peaceful, beautiful, wonderful, and amazing experience to walk through the acres and acres of flowers.

This is a view of the Sunken Gardens that had that pond in it. You can't see it in this picture, but there is a smokestack in the background on the right hand side. The smokestack was used when the Sunken Gardens was a quarry.

Dad kept asking me why I was taking pictures of under the bushes. :) Lol. I kept telling him that beauty is all realitive. I love this picture because of the peace that is in it. The branches and leaves of the bushes have protected the ground beneath from the rain, wind, and elements of the world around us. I have wished for that feeling of peace, protection, and wonderful comfort for these past four years. Sometimes it is there and sometimes it isn't. I am thankful when it is . . . and yearning for it when it's not.

From the outside looking in. From a dark corner looking forward into lighter, brighter, happier paths.

This is in the Japanese Garden portion of Butchart. This part of the garden was one of my favorites. It had water falls, peaceful ponds, and a unique beauty. It was a great place to go and contemplate, ponder, and relax. I could have stayed there for a while. That is until I drove myself nuts with my own thoughts. Lol.

I got a picture of this spot, but Joie got a better one. Mine was from the other side. From here the bridge sticks out more and you can see more of the Japanese Garden. So beautiful. :) Thanks Jo for letting me use the picture. :)

This garden is within a small greenhouse. It was so pretty I couldn't NOT take a picture. Lol. :)

The "Sign In" book. :) This time there is more family on it. :) I wish I had caught out comments so that we could remember what we wrote. Oh well. :)

After Butchart, we found a place to go to the beach. I really wanted to go because I thought it would be a sin to be so close to the ocean and not go to a beach. :) Lol. It wasn't very big and there weren't any good seashells so I'll have to plan another trip. DANG! Lol. I would like to go to the Oregon coast sometime. I hear it is pretty there too. Sigh. Maybe next year. :)

After the beach, we wandered around downtown. This is the capital building of British Columbia. We were taking pictures of it and the lights came on! It was gorgeous and way unexpected. There was a guy there taking pictures and he must have been a professional. He had a good camera and his pictures were coming out really beautiful! I was impressed. I watched him and gave him praise for quite a while. I'm sure he thought I was totally weird. ;) lol.

This is a picture from the pier just in front of the capital building. It was amazing to see the calm waters and the lights reflecting off of the water. Really pretty. :) This was on the way to the car. We had to go because the last ferry was leaving in a couple hours (at 9:00pm) and Jerrod and Dad were afraid we were going to miss it. That would have been bad. Lol. All of our clothes and everything were back at the house in Lions Bay! Northwest of Vancouver. :0 Lol.

We were so tired and worn out on the way back home. We left Victoria around 7:30 to be sure to make the ferry at 9:00. The ferry ride was an hour and a half long and then we had to drive for another hour and a half to get to the house. Everyone was dead tired. Joie and Jordan even fell asleep on the floor! We got back to the house around midnight. I was so tired that I even went to bed without blogging. That is why this is so late! But it was a great, wonderful, busy, beautiful day!