The Gatekeeper

Here's another of the sculptures that are on display in Oak Bay as part of the Arts Alive program. This striking piece is entitled "The Gatekeeper" and is by sculptor David Hunwick.

Hammered!

About 50 paces away from where I took the beach photo I posted yesterday I came across the sight above. It is, of course, the preparation for the famed Oak Bay Tea Party Ladies' Nail-Driving Competition. Below are some of the contestants, hammering.

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.

Gonzales Observatory

Though it is no longer used as an observatory, this building and the little hilltop park in which it is situated remains a favorite spot for me. It has some of the best views in the city and we'll take a look at them later in the week.

Marina Restaurant - Oak Bay

I had the pleasure of lunching at the Oak Bay Marina Restaurant earlier this week and recommend it highly. The food was terrific and the views are lovely. That's the restaurant on the left of the above photo, with the boats at the marina scattered picturesquely before it.

Willows Beach

I like Willows Beach best of Victoria's beaches, mostly because it has everything a good beach should have: sand, water, a nice view, a pleasant scattering of people, great refreshment stand (best fries in town), lots of places to sit down and finally, a lazy ambience you can feel in the above photo. There is also a nice sidewalk just above the beach for those of us whose aging ankles are not up to trudging through the sand. In the photo immediately below you can see the beach proper. That's Cattle Point in the background. In both these photos we are looking roughly northeast.

In the photo below we are looking in the opposite direction, southwest, towards the Oak Bay Marina whose sailboat masts can be seen in the distance.

Gonzales Hill Shrouded

On a recent walk the fog rolled in and created such a eerie mood. - Fern

Cattle Point

Because I live in Vic West I tend to focus on the western side of Vancouver Island. But one place I like to visit regularly, Cattle Point, is on the eastern shore of Victoria. It's a great place to birdwatch, especially at this time of year when the autumn migrations are taking place.

McNeill Bay

You would think that it is endless sunshine in Victoria if you only had Victoria Daily Photo to go by wouldn't you? But no, here is lovely McNeill Bay in Oak Bay on a recent rainy day. - Fern

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.

Snowbow

When we stepped outside the Oak Bay Marina Restaurant earlier this week there was a fine light mist falling. By the time I reached my vehicle this had become a fall of tiny little snowballs about the size of BB gun pellets. Then, while I stood to take this photo of the "snowbow" over the entrance to Oak Bay, the small pellets changed to pea-sized ice balls. Twenty minutes later that particular cloud had blown past and the sky was once again blue. In the photo above you can see the "snowbow" on the right side of the photo and if you look closely (or click the photo to enlarge it) you can see some of the small white snowballs that were falling.

Beach Time - Willows Beach

Now that summer's definitely here everybody's looking for beach time. This is one of the more popular urban beaches, in Oak Bay, called Willows Beach. Victoria's sea beaches are never very crowded, perhaps because many people prefer swimming in some of the numerous local lakes. The lake water is often warmer than the Pacific. Thetis Lake and Durrance Lake are two lakes much frequented by local people.

Beaches 3 - Willows Beach

This is generally the most popular beach in the Greater Victoria area, Willows Beach. It's a long, sandy beach and closer to the city center than either Cordova Bay or Cadboro Beaches. It's got a food stand with a terrific summer menu - french fries and hot dogs and all kinds of other fast food. But you can also sit down and have a nice cup of tea if you like. This is Oak Bay, after all.

Oak Bay Village

I've mentioned before that greater Victoria is made up of several smaller entities, one of which is the City of Oak Bay, on Victoria's eastern shores. And while I've often featured photos of Willows Beach and other parts of Oak Bay, I've not before posted a photo of Oak Bay Village. It's a very comfortable shopping area with lots of small book stores, art galleries and specialty shops, very pleasant and relaxed.

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.

Willows Beach Sunrise

I've been thinking that I might get some better sunrise shots if I rode over to the eastern side of the city so I did that this morning. Though the mornings are getting chilly, it was well worth the trip. Here is the first of a series of photos of sunrise at Willows Beach in Oak Bay. Here we are looking towards Oak Bay, facing southwest.

Garden City

Victoria prides itself on being a "garden city" and has some famous gardens such as the Abkhazi Garden and Butchart's but one of the aspects of the city that makes it a pleasure to live here and to move around in the neighbourhoods is the wealth of small private gardens in the yards of individual residences. Victoria is well known for its high percentage of retired people and this may account for the many splendid gardens in the city. Whatever the reason, today's photo is my salute to the many gardeners of the city whose work we can all enjoy. The house and garden in the above photo is just opposite Willows Beach in Oak Bay and is one that I often stop to admire when I am passing.

Oak Bay Twilight

I happened to be in Oak Bay last night and was amazed to see Mount Baker in Washington State catching the last rays of the setting sun. Mt. Baker is often visible but seldom so clearly. It is about 80 kilometers (about 50 miles) distant.

Attention!

It's nice to see a sense of humor from the City of Oak Bay Recreation Department. This sign is posted on the entrance to the beach at MacNeil Bay. This beach is usually nearly deserted - it's really only a narrow strip of rocks and sand below the esplanade. Earlier this year MacNeil Bay hosted a visiting Gray Whale thoughtfully recorded by N. Wemyss and posted to YouTube by NorthOlbo.

Oak Bay Marina

Visitors to this blog will have noticed that many of the photos include boats of all shapes and sizes, not surprising for a coastal city on an island. Some people live on their boats but most boat owners must find places to moor them while they live and work elsewhere. This is one of the largest marinas in the greater Victoria area, called the Oak Bay Marina. This photo was taken about a week ago before our atmosphere became polluted with smoke. Much of the province of British Columbia is experiencing forest fires right now due to extremely hot dry weather. The smoke from these fires now lies over this area like a dense smog.