Tuesday saw us wake to sunshine with a fog bank on the horizon! We decided to walk into town following the coast road. Great views across the Juan De Fuca Strait, to fog and the USA Rockies, still with some snow on the high peaks. There was a really cool breeze making the coast path popular with joggers but as soon as we turned inland it heated up to Mediterranean summer temperatures.

We just had a wander around the harbour with its quirky little ferry boats (see photo) and old town shops. Ice cream at the gelateria was delicious but at $7 for two scoops it needed to be! We walked back to our house on Gonzales Bay through Beacon Hill Park which boasts the highest totem pole in the world.

On Wednesday we headed off to the famous Butchart Gardens. They were established around a hundred years ago when Jennie Butchart set to work to turn a limestone quarry into garden. It seems the family owned a cement works nearby and regularly enlisted the workforce to assist with the major groundworks!

As well as turning the quarry into a sunken garden Jennie planned Japanese, rose and Italian gardens too. How does anyone have the vision to lay out young trees and understand how they will look and give structure in 30 or more years time? The Japanese garden was shaded and subdued but was the exception as everywhere else was a riot of bedding plans and colour, sometimes subtle often not! A fabulous fountain was a 60th anniversary addition by Jennie's grandson Ross. This provided a cool, meditative place - well it would have been meditative but for the continual stream of fellow-garden visitors who wished to be photographed with the fountain.

Tomorrow we are off on a three-day trip to Ucluelet, or Ukee which is less of a mouthful, so our next offering will probably be when we get back.