April 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 April 2016 photos. There are four to choose from today - Victoria in April is like a giant garden, especially my favorite little jewel, Highrock Park. Which one do you prefer?

Victoria from Christmas Hill

Camas Lilies - Highrock Park 1

Bengal Lounge - Empress Hotel (This would be a slightly out of place photo except that three of the recipients of the annual calendar are visible in this photo. It also has historical significance because the Bengal Lounge - a venerable Victoria watering place - is no more, having been deleted in the Empress Hotel's recent renovations. The photo was taken shortly before the room was closed forever.)

Camas Lilies - Highrock Park 2 (I know this is not much different from the other Highrock Park photo but in the spring this park has such an unearthly beauty I spend hours up there wandering around.)

Moonrise

Christmas Hill Part 2

Yesterday's post showcases the view from Christmas Hill but this folks, is the real deal, the whole enchilada, this is what it's like IN Christmas Hill. The explosion of green is incredible and almost impossible to capture with a camera. - Fern

From Christmas Hill

I've recently shown you some views from high points in the city. Today's view of the city was taken on a recent visit Fern and I made to Christmas Hill, another great little Garry Oak park. You can see glimpses of Swan Lake in the foreground. It's also part of this nature preserve.

Looking Southwest

I think this is the best view overlooking the city. Here we are looking southwest from the top of Christmas Hill. In the foreground is Swan Lake.

Christmas Hill (Continued)

Fern mentioned yesterday that Christmas Hill has lots of good views over Greater Victoria. Here's one looking northeast. That hump on the left is Mount Douglas (Pkols). Despite the woodsy look, what we are looking at here is mostly residential - Victoria is a very well-treed city.

Christmas Hill

Benjamin and I spent a lovely afternoon on Friday up in this truly magical park. It is a great look out spot, affording views in all directions but I love it most for exploring the many paths that take you through the garry oak meadows. At this time of year it is so lush, green and purple thanks to the camas. - Fern

Chocolate Lily

Here's another favourite spring wildflower - the Chocolate Lily (Fritillaria affinis), sometimes known as Rice-root because of the many small swellings on the roots that look like grains of rice. I also saw a few of these blooming on my recent trip to Bear Hill but no matter where I see them, I seldom see more than two or three together. For a couple of years I knew of only one plant of this species that grew near the summit of Mount Douglas so I am happy to have located others.

Christmas Hill

Though Fern and I have lived in Victoria for many years we still find that there are new places to discover. The photo above is from our first visit to Christmas Hill earlier this week. Christmas Hill is part of the nature reserve of Swan Lake, which is visible in the foreground of the above photo. It offers splendid views of the city in every direction and has a wealth of wonderfully made paths and trails through a Garry Oak woodland that was carpeted on this day with rich blue-purple Camas flowers (visible on the bottom of the above photo). It's a real gem of a park with the best views of the city.

Swan Lake

Because the ocean is such a presence in Victoria - one is scarcely ever out of sight of some part of the shoreline - I have a tendency to ignore the less dramatic aspects of our local landscape. There are many lakes near Victoria and this one, Swan Lake, is very near the downtown core. It's a small lake surrounded by bullrush marshes and is entirely enclosed in the Swan Lake Christmas Hill Nature Sanctuary. It's a haven of peace in the city. There were few sounds when I was there but the buzzing of insects and the calls of the numerous red-winged blackbirds. It's easy to see why it was the first feng shui site in Canada. Chinese astrologers selected nearby Christmas Hill for the Chinese graveyard in Victoria's early days. The cemetery was eventually sited elsewhere, but Swan Lake retains that aura of tranquility.