Up and Down the Gorge

Above is the view you see if you stand on the bridge pictured yesterday and look up the Gorge westward. On the left bank is Gorge Park. Below is the view from beneath the bridge looking down the Gorge eastward towards the Selkirk Waters.

Tillicum Bridge

The Gorge is bridged in a number of places but its narrowest width is crossed by the Tillicum Bridge pictured above and below. The Gorge here is very narrow. The direction of water flow changes with the tide and it is sometimes called "reversing falls" and has a very strong current here. Protected in a fenced off area to the right beneath the bridge is large midden - the refuse of many centuries of shellfish harvesting here by First Nations People.

Takata Gardens

The Takata Garden is located in Gorge Park. Here's a bit of the history of this garden, from the Township of Esquimalt Walking Tours pamphlet:

In 1907 the Takata Gardens opened. Yoshitaro Kishida, a partner in the gardens, brought his father Isaburo Kishida to Victoria from Yokohama, Japan to design the gardens. Kishida also designed the Japanese Gardens at Hatley Park and Butchart Gardens.

The one-acre Takata Gardens had many trees and shrubs imported from Japan [that] were highly respected for their authenticity and beauty. The Tea Gardens were in operation until the beginning of WWII when the Takata family was relocated, along with other Japanese families, to the interior of the province and beyond. The Tea Gardens closed and the grounds fell victim to neglect and vandalism.

Today, enjoy the beautiful beginnings of a restored Japanese Garden and if you look closely some of the original plantings can still be seen.

When it opened in 1907, the original garden was the first Japanese garden in Canada.

Camellia

Last week I mentioned that I'd seen some blossoms lately despite this being mid-winter. Here's one I saw last week in the Japanese Garden in Gorge Park. I think the flower pictured here is a Camellia. It was bearing many of these lovely flowers on a bush about as tall as myself. Though it was a cold wet afternoon, seeing these flowers made it seem a lot warmer. Sunday was the shortest day of the year so we are now on what I think of as the downhill run towards spring with every day a little bit longer than the one before. The Japanese Garden in Gorge Park is an on-site restoration of Canada's first Japanese garden. We'll have a closer look at the garden later this week.

Special Effects

I have a love/hate relationship with the various tools available for post processing photos. I love them, they're like candy. And I want them all. Then, I feel guilty and usually hit undo. In this case I thought I'd put up two examples of some different effects and think about it some more. These are from Gorge Park I should mention. - Fern

Gorge Park III

Excuse me while I indulge my enthusiasm for Gorge Park. For me it's a new discovery - one of those places you drive past a hundred times a year without seeing. And then one day you slow down and stop and look around. We are having some bright sunny days now and I'm going to go out shortly and explore a little more of the Upper Gorge and Portage Inlet. I'm also going to take a look at Craigflower School, the oldest schoolhouse in Western Canada (1855).

Gorge Park II

A fellow Victoria blogger, "Postie," just posted a photo of the first Gorge Bridge, consisting of a few logs spanning the gap between the rocks that I showed in yesterday's photo. The photo above is taken from beneath the modern bridge. Just to my left (off camera) is a rather uninteresting looking mound of gravel. It is a shell midden over 4,000 years old, the oldest archaeological site on Southern Vancouver Island. This area was important to the Native Peoples both spiritually and materially.

This locality, here at the narrows of the Gorge waterway is a sacred place in the traditions of the Lekwammen (Songhees) Native People. It was here, at the reversible tidal falls that the spirit being Hayls transformed to stone a little girl named Camosun and her grandfather Snukaymelt ("Diving"). This act ensured the protection of the rich food resources of the Gorge - herring, Coho Salmon, oysters and ducks.

On a spirit quest individuals went for long dives into the Gorge until Camosun granted them the powers they were seeking. It was believed that only a person who practised regular spiritual cleansing rituals would gain the powers necessary to acquire success in life.

It was the spirit Hayls who created the Gorge and turned some of Camosun's people into the Garry Oaks, Blue Camas and Easter Lilies that grow along its banks. The natural foam created by the reversing tidal falls was used to wash garments to protect their wearers from drowning.

(The above quote is posted behind a fence erected to protect the midden.)

Below is a photo of the modern Gorge Bridge. The shell midden referred to above is located in a sort of cage beneath the bridge on the right side in this photo.

Gorge Park

Much of Victoria lies along the banks of an arm of the ocean called the Gorge. On its way inland the Gorge is crossed first by the Johnson Street Bridge, then the Bay Street Bridge and the Selkirk Trestle. Beyond the Selkirk Waters the Gorge passes through a very narrow rocky gap that is spanned by the Gorge Bridge. The photo above was taken from that bridge looking further up the Gorge. The Gorge Park walkway is visible on the left hand side of the photo above and over the next few days I will be pleased to show you a little more of this area.

Below is a photo taken beneath the bridge showing how narrow the Gorge is at this point. This photo was taken just as the tide was changing. When it begins to run fully there is a rapid and powerful current here.