Whidbey Island Respite

While the Vancouver trip tours will still be posting for a while yet, this week we took a little vacation to Whidbey Island.  Monday through Wednesday we took walks, worked a little on the cabin garden and did a lot of sitting and reading. 

 The photos below were taken with my little Canon with the big zoom, and they are fuzzy, but I liked the effect. 

There are always lots of bunnies.

 I was struck by this rugosa rose, of which there are quite a few in gardens along the beach road. It has red hips, 

 green hips,

 buds,

 and blooms. 

Sunsets over Useless Bay are sometimes just gray, sometimes brilliant, and sometimes just pretty, like these. 

We're back in Seattle on a cloudy, cool day, a respite before it heats up again over the weekend. 

Today I pay the bills and go grocery shopping. Tomorrow I turn the calendar to September. Saturday I make food for Sunday, and Sunday we return to Whidbey Island for the annual Phosie-Gertie Picnic. 

You can't stop time, so just go with the flow. 

Vancouver, BC, Part 4: VanDusen Botanical Garden

The VanDusen Botanical Garden is another return visit for us. It is located about a mile west of Queen Elizabeth Park. 

Unlike Queen Elizabeth Park, which is a display garden, a botanical garden is a place where plants are collected in categories, studied, and displayed attractively but not intensively. This garden has a more casual feeling to it. 

As I look at the map of the garden now, I see that we covered only about a quarter of the total. It is a huge property, full of trails that you could walk for miles, visiting all of the different collections in various seasons. 

Our tour will just be a taste of what's here. 

 Along the most accessible pathways there was a continuous display of sculpture. 

What kind of tree is this???

The sign says "Golden Rain Tree", not "chain tree". That's a new one for us. Such interesting pods. Seems more like golden lanterns. 

Canada geese, of course!

There were heavy cable bundles and flood lights strung all along the pathways. and then we found this stuff on the dock on the pond. What? Well, turns out they were setting up for a shoot for a TV show, Once Upon a Time. They were filming that night. 

This path went through the "Black Garden"

Interesting and colorful rose hips. 

We emerged at the formal rose garden. 

Black rose hips on an heirloom rose. 

Figs were set on the trellis behind the restaurant. 

Water plants in pots. 

The grass border. 

By now were were ready to go find our hotel, check in, and get settled. We would soon have to get some dinner and be ready to walk to the stadium by 6:00.