| Yesterday's photo of the Foxglove flowers was taken near the shore of Durrance Lake, about a half hour's drive from the City of Victoria. Above is a photo of the lake itself. Just before we left, one of the local residents swooped down and perched overlooking the lake. |  |
Today is our annual national holiday, called Canada Day. But before I leave the microcosm of Durrance Lake behind and go downtown to check out all the festive activities, here are two photos of dragonflies near that lake. I've always admired dragonflies for the silent precision of their flight and their ability to hover. I confess also to a fondness for any insect that is NOT interested in me and dragonflies are suitably stand-offish. In fact it is quite difficult to get close to them because of those big eyes and their shy nature. Until I looked them up in Wikipedia I didn't realize what an incredible variety of dragonflies there are, and I have no hope of specific identification of these two.
The top photo was taken by my daughter, Fern Long, and I am responsible for the one below. 
Linnaea borealis (Gronov.) L. var. Longiflora Torr.
While out at Durrance Lake on the weekend, I chanced across one of my favorite wild flowers, the diminutive Twin-flower. I cannot do better than to share a few quotes from Lewis J. Clark's description in his Wild flowers of British Columbia:
How to write the charms of this exquisite woodlander? Perhaps in no more impressive way than to call attention to the fact that of all the thousands of plants known to him, this was the favourite flower of the great Carolus Linnaeus. And so Fredrik Gronovius, once his benefactor in Holland, in 1737 named the monotypic genus to honour his illustrious pupil.
This dainty plant spreads long runners creeping over the moss, or trailing from rotting logs or stumps, from which at frequent intervals rise 2-4 inch stems. These fork at the top, each branch supporting a single trumpet - a demure, pink, rose-flushed and slender bell. Where a patch of sunlight reaches the forest floor, an elfin troupe of hundreds of these exquisite little flowers fills the still air with an incredible sweetness - surely one of the most enchanting of all plant fragrances.
 | I've mentioned before that in addition to ocean beaches Victoria has a number of lakes nearby. Here is another of those, called Durrance Lake (aka Durants Lake). It's a small lake with three or four miniscule beaches on its edges, but plenty of room for the few people who come to enjoy it. |  |
