Highrock Park

I've visited and photographed many of Victoria's Parks but I think Highrock is my favorite. A main reason is because it is close to where I live. But it also has an surprising number of environments in a very small area. There's some nice bits of Garry Oak Ecosystem but there is a little forest area as well, all this in a park you can walk across in ten minutes.

---

About a month ago I mentioned I was learning some new video edting software. I'm still learning, but here is my latest attempt - a montage of, you guessed it...Highrock Park. Come enjoy a three minute walk with me.

Camas 2

Yesterday photo of Camas is not a bad close-up but their real beauty for me is in their profusion and the photo above gives a better sense of that. I was up in Highrock Park again today and the Camas are really peaking.

Camas

Despite the subnormal temperatures this year and the cloudy skies, the Camas Lilies have once again spread their carpet of blue over the slopes of Highrock Park.

Spring Update

Here's another wildflower that is blooming up in Highrock Park now. They look like what are commonly called Buttercups except they are on tall stems rather than being close to the ground. You can also see some of the deep blue Camas Lilies in this photo, taken last week. I intend to visit this park soon - perhaps tomorrow - since it is never more beautiful than when the Camas are in bloom.

More Sea Blush

I wrote yesterday that, "the Sea Blush are painting the hillsides with broad splashes of pink..." but the Sea Blush photo I posted doesn't capture that well so here's another photo of the Sea Blush on the slopes of Highrock Park where you can see how they grow in beds where the glacial grooves in the rock have gathered a little soil. Highrock Park is basically just a huge rock with only the shallowest pockets of soil in these grooves. The green in the foreground of the above photo is moss that clings to the bare rock beneath. Over the next few weeks the pink of the Sea Blush will be replaced by the blue of Camas Lilies that grow in the same grooves.

More Highrock

While the Sea Blush are painting the hillsides with broad splashes of pink, in the more wooded parts of Highrock Park these lovely bushes are covered with white blossoms. (I can't remember what these are called. Anyone?)

Sea Blush

These pink Sea Blush have taken over the upper slopes of Highrock Park but the Camas Lilies are hot on their heels and by the end of the week most of those slopes will be clothed in their brilliant blue.

Special Tree

I've confessed to my favorite wildflower so, while I've not thought about it much, I suspect the Garry Oaks that are so distinctive a part of this place are my favorite trees. They are so wonderfully and irrationally gnarled. And, whenever I go to Highrock Park I always end up pausing when I see this particular oak. There's something about how it grips the rock it grows out of and how it is always silhouetted against the sky that makes me stop and appreciate it.

Reprise

I had another photo planned for today but when I was going through the file I came across this photo of a Giant White Fawn Lily and, well you know they are my favorite spring flower, so lets enjoy another one while they are here. This photo was taken yesterday.

Giant White Fawn Lilies

Well, I love all the spring flowers but when it comes to wild local plants I think these Giant White Fawn Lilies are my favorites. They also come in pink but those are pretty rare around here. I photographed these today in Highrock Park.

Satinflower 2

So I went up to Highrock Park again today to check on how the local wildflowers are doing in this colder-than-normal spring. Usually there is a fairly predictable progression. Satinflowers first and about the time they are finished the Shooting Stars and Fawn Lilies start, then the Sea Pink and then Camas, etc. This year, however, I am seeing Satinflowers, Fawn Lilies and Sea Pink simultaneously. I took this photo of Satinflowers today and you can see the small pink Sea Pink (Sea Blush) flowers at the bottom of the photo. Satinflowers are usually long gone by the time the Sea Pink blooms.

The Best Laid Plans....

I had something else planned for today. Unfortunately it was dependent on a warm sunny day, which didn't happen. So, today's post is something more suggestive of the weather we did have. Though we're seeing lots of blossoms now, spring weather has yet to catch up.

Guilty Pleasure

Here's another spring flower that blooms in Highrock Park in the early spring. They seem to thrive in the cold since they are even more numerous and vigourous this year than I've seen them in the past. They are not an indigenous species; probably escaped from someone's garden years ago and have naturalized themselves in a small patch of Highrock Park. I titled this post guilty pleasure because despite the fact that these Glory of the Snow plants are an invasive species, I look forward to seeing them every spring and photographed these yesterday. Below is an impressionistic treatment of these blue beauties.

Satin Flower and Osoberry

You may recall I went up to Highrock Park a week or so ago in search of the earliest of indigenous spring flowers here, the Satin Flower. There were none visible then nor at my next visit a few days ago. But today, there they were, nodding delicately in the breeze. Spring is so late this year that I expect the spring flowers will be treading on each other's heels rather than appearing in the fairly measured progression they follow in normal years. One truly balmy spring day will do it. Below is an impressionistic treatment of another of the earliest native spring blooms I saw today, the Osoberry or Indian Plum.

Anniversary

Today, March 10, is Victoria Daily Photo's ninth anniversary. I wanted to post a new photo today to mark the occasion and, since it was a sunny day and rather warmer than it has been lately, I took myself up to one of my favorite springtime haunts, Highrock Park in Esquimalt. I was hoping to see some Satinflowers, one of the very earliest of indigenous spring flowers here. I know several places in Highrock Park where they bloom, usually around this time of the year. I have photos of them taken as early as March 5 in previous years but today, I didn't see any, and not even any sprouts or buds. Our spring this year is definitely later than usual. Even without flowers Highrock Park is a delight. The bit of pathway pictured above is how I usually enter the park.

Misty Morning

Here's a photo from a few years ago of one my favorite places, Highrock Park. We actually had snow here the last couple of days though it's gone now. Usually by this time of year I am busy photographing the early flowering plums and cherries. There's the odd blossom on some trees but it's been a cold winter and so far, a cold spring. We still haven't had that first warm day that will have the trees exploding like pink popcorn.

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.)

A Few More From Highrock Park

At this time of year when the Camas are blooming I can't get enough of Highrock Park so here are a few more. Below is the path I usually follow to get to the Camas patches like the one above.

Highrock Park 2

I love these Garry Oak landscapes. They have the austerity and stark beauty of a desert and at the same time they have the lush richness of a rain forest.

Highrock Park

At this time of year when the Camas Lilies are blooming Highrock park really seems like a little bit of Eden or some other earthly paradise.