Norman Rockwell Moment - Oak Bay Tea Party

I captured this intent photographer while watching the Oak Bay Tea Party parade. This is an annual event that takes place in the Victoria community called Oak Bay. In a city that prides itself on being British, Oak Bay is the supreme bastion of the jolly olde tea-drinking set. The Oak Bay Tea Party has events over this entire weekend, including an air show and bathtub race today, so I'll be posting more photos soon. In the meantime, I trust all you photographers out there will enjoy this Norman Rockwell moment.

Oak Bay Tea Party Parade

Every year Oak Bay holds a community celebration called the Oak Bay Tea Party that is loosely associated with the Mad Hatter's Tea Party from Alice in Wonderland. The kick-off event is the parade held on Saturday morning and I always make it a point to attend because it's always a delight. It's a very small town kind of parade with lots of kids on their bikes or scooters, a few beauty queens, a half dozen marching bands and a few clowns. I'm sure most of the population of Oak Bay is there as the parade winds its way along its mostly residential route. Those that aren't in the parade are watching from deck chairs on their lawns. Above are some of the participants from the Ross Bay Pre-school and below is a collage of other marchers.

Oak Bay Tea Party Parade 2011

What most of us think of as "Victoria" is actually a cluster of smaller entities that are so close together that they are indistinguishable except on paper. One of these is the city of Oak Bay. Oak Bay holds an annual celebration called the Oak Bay Tea Party, unlike its more famed namesake in Boston in that it is so named in honour of the especially tea-drinking, British nature of the city and has a Mad Hatter/Alice in Wonderland theme. It's a very much more neighbourhood style of event than the Victoria Day Parade and the marching bands are local. Below is a taste of the Lambrick Park Secondary School marching band in case you missed the parade. The Tea Party is a two day event that also includes a carnival midway, an air show and bathtub races. We'll see some more of it here later this week.

Oak Bay Tea Party

Last Sunday Fern posted a photo here of this beach (Willows Beach) at sunrise. Eight hours later this is what it looked like, crowded with spectators for the Air Show. Behind me when I took the above photo was the midway - cotton candy, hot dogs, French Fries, cold pop and ice cream and, because it's the Oak Bay Tea Party, you could also have a nice cup of tea. And after stuffing yourself with junk food, what could be more refreshing than to be thrown about at high speed on one of the many "rides" (below). My favourite ride this year was "The Zipper" because it produced the most screams per minute. Below is a video of the Zipper in action. It's not a long video but if you just want the high point there are some particularly full-throated screams at about 18 seconds.

If you missed the midway at the Oak Bay Tea Party, don't despair. There's another local celebration this weekend with a parade and midway amongst other events - Esquimalt Buccaneer Days. The parade's on Saturday at 10 am but there are events on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Click HERE to find out more.

Oak Bay Tea Party Parade

Oak Bay, though part of what is called Greater Victoria, is actually a small city and the annual Oak Bay Tea Party Parade perfectly captures this small-town atmosphere. Above, while waiting for the parade to begin children romped and chased bubbles and neighbors exchanged news. Below is one aspect of modern parades - lots of parade participants throw candy to the children. Great idea! It certainly makes parade-watching more interesting for the kids.

Below is a bit of a montage that may suggest what this year's parade was like.

Rides - Oak Bay Tea Party

It's that time of year again when the carnival midways pop up in various locations around Victoria. Last weekend these rides graced the Oak Bay Tea Party at Willows Beach. This weekend the midway will light up Esquimalt for Buccaneer Days.

Oak Bay Tea Party Parade

I just got back from the Oak Bay Tea Party parade so here's a quick glimpse of what it was like. As usual, it was a parade full of kids on bikes and scooters, local marching bands, a few floats, lots of old fire trucks and, of course, some clowns.

Oak Bay Tea Party

At this time of year there is one or more major events every weekend. Last weekend was the annual Oak Bay Tea Party. I missed the parade this year but here's a taste of the midway at Willows Beach.

Oak Bay Tea Party

When the Oak Bay Tea Party sets up the midway at Willows Beach Park I am always amazed at how the big trees there make even the glitzy, razz-a-ma-tazz seem pleasantly pastoral.

Oak Bay Tea Party

The Oak Bay Tea Party takes place over the whole weekend so I went down to Willows Beach on Sunday to look at some of the events. There is bathtub racing, lots of midway rides, and an air show.

Oak Bay Tea Party

In a society where many of the fun things we used to do when we were kids are now off limits for children as too dangerous, it's nice to see that midway rides still offer some extreme experiences that feel dangerous even if they aren't. The kids above are enjoying one of my former favorites, the Tilt-A-Whirl, on the midway at the annual Oak Bay Tea Party, last weekend.

June Choices!

As I wrote yesterday, "Every year I put together a calendar for friends and family, of photos I have published on this blog for the last year or so. However, it's always difficult to make decisions about which photos to use. I am hoping visitors to this blog will help out. Every day for the next few weeks I will publish two or three photos from a given month and hope that comments and choices made by visitors will help me make a final decision which photos to use in this year's calendar. As an incentive, I will offer an online downloadable/printable file of the calendar to anyone who helps me make a choice."

Thanks to everyone who has given me their opinions so far, and it really helps when you give reasons for your preference.

Below are my favorite June 2016 photos. There are four to choose from today. From now on there is a steady stream of events every weekend through til autumn. June starts off with the Oak Bay Tea Party and the Vic West Skateboard Competition - two of my favorite events. Anyway, here's four photos of Victoria in June. Which one do you prefer?

Oak Bay Tea Party Midway (I like this photo because carnival midways usually look sort of trashy but this one looks so green and rural.)

Pierre St. Pierre - Street Performer (In Summer the Inner Harbour Causeway is a never-ending program of excellent street performers. Pierre is one of the best.)

National Aboriginal Cultural Festival (another great event in June)

Vic West Skateboard Competition (These four photos are a set, no need to choose between them.)

Bumper Cars

Is there anything finer?Probably not, although some seem to prefer the Tilt-A-Whirl.Whatever your taste in inane childish thrills, you will find it at the Oak Bay Tea Party. If the midway rides are not enough, you can belly up to some fries and gravy and a slushie while you watch the bathtub races. And of course, since it's Oak Bay, there is also the Baron of Beef and Tetley's Tea option. Where else can you have a troop of Girl Guides serve you tea on the beach? It's all still happening today at Willows Beach in Oak Bay and it's all for the benefit of local charities. Don't miss this great local event.

Oak Bay Panorama

Last week after enjoying the Oak Bay Tea Party parade I rode along the beach front past the Oak Bay Marina and I had to stop when I looked out over the water and saw this panorama. I realized that it was the perfect time to try out the panorama feature of my new camera. This is the result. If you click the photo above you will be taken to the half size original which, 6400 pixels wide, is still pretty big. You may have to click it again to see it full size since it may be larger than your screen. I'm pretty pleased with this feature. It's easy to use (just pan the camera with the shutter release held down) and the stitching between frames is invisible. That perfect snowy peak in the distance is Mount Baker, an extinct volcano about 80 km east in the USA.

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As visitor Paul in Powell River points out, Mount Baker is NOT an extinct volcano but is in fact the second most active volcano in this area, the most active being Mount Saint Helens. My thanks to Paul for this correction. See this entry in Wikipedia for more information about Mount Baker. If you want to see some beautiful photos of the Sunshine Coast, take a look at Paul's photoblog, A Powell River Photo Blog. I am particularly fond of his header photo of some Harlequin Ducks in flight.

Heat Wave

After a long, colder than usual winter, for the last few days Victorians have been reveling in HOT weather. No complaints here - I never feel comfortable until the temperature hits the mid-twenties at least (that's over 85 degrees for our American friends). Here's the scene yesterday on Willows Beach in Oak Bay. I went there to check out preparations for the Oak Bay Tea Party this weekend. The parade's on Saturday if you're in the neighborhood. Stay tuned, lots of party pics coming. Click here to see some from last year.

Oak Bay Tea Party

When you have a tea party of course you have to have tea cups.

Willows Beach

The carnival ride photo I posted yesterday is located in Willows Park where the rest of the Oak Bay Tea Party events also take place. We'll have some more photos of the Tea Party events this week. Today's photo is Willows Beach, probably Victoria's most popular ocean beach. When the busy bustling midway became a little overpowering it was nice to take a stroll along the beach.

Meanwhile....

Crowds came to Willows Beach on the weekend for the Oak Bay Tea Party, the midway rides and the junk food. Some people even came to drink tea. But many just came down to sit on the beach and do those beachy things, like...dig. I figure the Bald Eagle on the right showed up to take part in the air show but since he was snubbed, he flew elsewhere. As for junk food, there was lots of pink candy floss and burgers, hot dogs and chips of every description, but there was some other good stuff too - I had a vegan tofu wrap from the purveyor below that was as delicious as it was nutritious.