In contrast to rainy Friday, Saturday dawned sunny and clear and we were going to take full advantage of it. First up, we headed out of Victoria to Butchart Gardens, located towards the northern end of the Saanich Peninsula. Leaving early to avoid the crowds, we arrived after a pleasant 45-minute drive. It was cool and crisp and you could see the mist coming off of the buildings and trees.

Butchart Gardens has an interesting history in that it was built on the site of a limestone quarry that had played out, leaving a very large pit. Afterwards, the wife of the quarry-owner, a one Jennie Butchart, decided to create a massive garden on the quarry site and this is the result, some 110 years later. Below are a number of pictures that we took on our stroll around the gardens. We didn’t photograph everything, but rather those views that we found particularly striking, especially from an aesthetic perspective.

First up, Toss Fountain:

And then the sunken garden:

And to think that once upon a time, this was a quarry pit… 🙂 Here’s one of our most favorite views, kind of reminiscent of Giverny…

The views were amazing in the sunken garden and with the Ross Fountain but we liked the Japanese Garden best:

The fall colors of the various plants and trees were simply amazing and it was more art than mere vegetation. Finally, here’s the Italian Garden:

We ended our visit with a cup of tea at their tea room and we were soon off to our next stop…

(To be continued…)