by orchids, art, election results
Ah, what a busy and lovely weekend we’ve had here. Our eldest daughter arrived Friday evening for a visit from the interior of BC. We’d last seen her at Christmas which we’d spent with her and her partner. For a change our weather was glorious, sunny and warm most of the weekend and thank goodness for that, as today it’s back to more cold and ‘liquid sunshine’ as we say in these parts!
Anita treated us to a visit on Saturday to the wonderful Queen Elizabeth Park gardens. Of course, the gardens are at their spring best with flowering magnolias, cherry trees, tulips, daffodils, heavenly scented hyacinths and many spring flowering perennials. We toured the smaller quarry gardens in the morning, then went into the Bloedel Conservatory with its tropical plants and trees, a waterfall and birds galore and the featured Orchid Show. Wonderful display and information, just wish I had the room to grow more of them but hopefully I will now take better care of the ones I do have.
Time for a break – a tasty lunch in the restaurant (you can see a corner of it in the second photo above). Then another stroll (who can walk fast here?), this time around the even more stunning larger quarry gardens. There is always at least one wedding party having photos taken here but this time there was actually a small intimate wedding being performed in a quiet area.
Unfortunately I forgot to recharge our camera batteries and ran out of juice in the middle of the orchids! Anita and Erika made up for it with their cameras, so I hope they will blog some of their photos. The above photo showing the conservatory on top of the hill is one of Anita’s. Thanks for a fantastic day, Anita!
Sunday had us out on a little tour of my very much more modest garden, selecting divisions of a few perennial flowers for her to take home to add to her still-developing garden.
After Anita left in the afternoon, we went to Roger Fidler’s exhibition opening at the Havana Gallery. Though I’ve seen about half of the works before, it was wonderful to see them with his unfamiliar-to-me works, attractively framed and hung around the room. The first piece that caught my eye as we entered was a photo collage of the gardens in the Bloedel Conservatory! Of course, all the work was new and very interesting for my husband. Congratulations, Roger!
This evening will be an anxious time for us as we await results of our federal election in front of the news reports. We hope a great number of voters are making their voices heard today. Polls close at 7 pm and the numbers from the east start coming in, moving across the country to the west, until all BC’s final poll counts come in. It’s predicted to be a nail biter!
May 2, 2011 in Art Exhibitions, Canada and BC, Current Events by Marja-Leena
BB, somehow I knew I’d get a comment from you on this one. I had to chuckle at your description of me with head in clouds, brought down by a dead battery! And by the Tory win of a majority! Consolation prizes with the NDP surge into official opposition and with Elizabeth May’s win of the first ever seat in Parliament for the Green Party. Curiously, we now have in power polar opposites with the right wing and left wing, with a big hole in the centre. However I do think all the parties have shifted more to the right, with one far right. That seems to be happening in many countries, wouldn’t you say?
Is AV a voting system of fair and proportional representation? If so, I hope you achieve it. We sure need it in Canada! Sorry to hear about a funeral….
Ran out of battery in the middle of the orchids! My dear M-L if the price of freedom is eternal vigilance then acute battery consciousness (If not battery paranoia) must be the price paid by those whose head is normally in the clouds and whose avowed task on this earth, if not the next, is to celebrate the glories of BC.
Actually you sucker-punched me with your headline. No need telling me about elections that are about to be held; I can’t vote in them though if I could it would be early and often. I note that there is a resurgence on the Canadian left and that some people standing would almost qualify as Commies in the minds of the current right-wing wretches. Get out and about M-L, put aside your prints for the moment, harangue people at the polling stations, be prepared to go to jail for your wobbly liberal principles and dig up the scuttlebut on tumultuous times in Canuck politics. Having said that I envy you: next Thursday, on the day we’re faced with a long drive to attend a funeral, we somehow have to find time to our put our crosses against the question: For or against AV? (That’s Alternative Vote but as a student of politics you knew that, didn’t you?)
I’m happy to report, if I didn’t do so earlier, that they opened the Public Gardens here several weeks early so we’ve been happy to include strolls through green lawns and spring flowers almost every day. I was so relieved when the crocus came into bloom some weeks ago as I was afraid there’d be none. Silly me. There are even some magnolia in bloom and I never thought I’d see them again.
On May 1st, International Sunflower Planting Day, we went down to the enormous Pt. Pleasant Park where I planted 60-70 sunflower sprouts and seeds along one of our favourite walks on the way to the beach. It was cold, overcast, and a bit windy (of course) but well worth the effort. I’m keeping my fingers crossed some of them grow. I have more seeds ready for further walks (but not in the Victorian garden.
I didn’t see the election results until this morning. Thankfully, our NDP representative kept her seat and as you mentioned, Elizabeth May got hers. I wish the NDP or the Greens were better represented as there’s no way to balance the Conservatives if they continue their nasty habits. It’s definitely worrisome and a horrible example.
Your photos of the QE Gardens are magnificent. There’s nothing quite so wonderful around here, even though it’s nice enough. I loved seeing them and sorry about your film.
Susan, what a wonderful idea to plant sunflowers in a public space, hope they all survive and give joy to you and everyone who walks past them, as much as you have had from the spring flowers that surprised you.
Of course, you would not see the election results until the next morning with this big land of many time zones! We did not sleep well after watching it all unfold. We were also quite upset that the west was mostly ignored – it’s all about Quebec and Ontario! I’m now wondering if you now feel that Canada isn’t such a haven after all. We certainly worry about the future here.
Most of the orchids you photograph don’t do well where I am but are happy at higher altitudes where it’s cooler.
Really sorry about the elections but think that Canadians are wide awake now and will be able to turn things around.
still crying over the election results over here, wipe my tears for long enough to look at pictures of your day in the gardens. i suspect it’s very edwardian of you to be after orchids. any chance you’ve revived some of mine? i can rarely get them to come back.
i’m envious of your dividing and propagating amongst yourselves, would that i had a friend with a plant to take a cutting of! maybe one day soon. for now i’ve brought my mint and my lettuces inside to be my edible, and therefore ill-fated, houseplants.
What a beautiful park! So sorry to hear about your elections. I know how maddening it is to feel that so much is at stake and the fools running the ship are heading it towards the rocks. Oh but the flowers! And the beautiful birds and koi! Such a lovely time of year.
Leslee, glad you like the garden photos. Yes, politics in Canada has become maddening; I like your ‘ship of fools’ analogy and have already used it. Let’s hope the fools founder but don’t take the rest of us down with them!
Elisa, my orchids don’t all rebloom but I plan to try the suggestions given by the orchid society. Most were gifts rather than my seeking them out but, you know me, I love all plants. I wish I could share them with you too, especially when they outgrow their homes.
Hattie, there were many tropical ones on display that i would not be able to grow in my home, and made me think of yours growing in your porch in Hawaii!
Yes, this election is most upsetting and the future worrying in many levels. We’re afraid that a lot of damage can be done in the coming four years. Like some of our younger family members expressed in Facebook, we are almost tempted to move to Finland!
I couldn’t believe what wonderful weather we had for our day in the Park! Especially when I got home to find it had rained here most of the weekend. Thank you for a great visit, and all the plants. I will try to get my photos of the weekend on my blog soon, but with all the plants from you to get in the ground, I’ve been madly digging in the garden! I should have grabbed more lily of the valley, last year’s divisions from you are loving it in the north shade of my deck and now I have more shady spots to fill. Thank goodness for garden chores as they’ve taken my mind off this latest election loss. Close, but no cigar – a gambling term, which seems fitting as lately elections feel more like a roll of the dice. So back to the garden, which rewards my efforts with results I can be happy with.
Anita, it sure is good to have a garden to tend when the big bad world out there gets too creepy! As you know, we took off on a little island holiday the next day, which also provided some much-needed respite from our nasty politics. Back home now and needing to get out into the garden again but also need to work on some blog posts about the trip and share photos.