 | It's been some time since I checked out the Victoria Public Market. It's been open now long enough to have developed its own character. It's mostly about food - trendy olive oil and cheese shops but lots of vegetables and exotic fast foods and places to sit and snack. I like the sign above the pie shop below - definitely a good sentiment. |
 | Here's another of the shops that have just opened in the new Victoria Public Market. This one is called Olive the Senses. This is a very specialized shop that sells only vinegar and olive oil, but it sells those two items in more varieties than you ever dreamed were possible and promises to open your taste buds to a whole new range of flavors. Click the photo to the left to read a bit more about this shop. |
 | I mentioned last week that Victoria's new public market just opened recently in the ground floor of The Hudson on Douglas Street. Here are a few glimpses of what's happening there. The directory above gives a good idea of the current tenants - a mix of trendy fast food purveyors and equally trendy condiment and deli style shops. On the left, some Pie Co. staff prepare take-away lunches for customers. On the right are a few of the delicious breads available at the French Oven Bakery. I'm going back there to get some of the pain au chocolat, fresh croissants too. Below, diners line up for Roast beef sandwiches from Roast. Other lunch stalls were just as busy. Tomorrow we'll have a look at Olive the Senses, a shop that sells only oil and vinegar. |  |
 | Here's the final instance of The Hands of Time sculpture series, a dozen small sculptures by Crystal Przybille that depict life-size hands engaged in activities symbolic of Victoria's past. The hands above are carrying Point Blankets, a kind of blanket that was much treasured by indigenous peoples when the Hudson's Bay Company first began to trade on this coast. The placement of this particular sculpture is very fitting; it is located on The Hudson, a building that formerly was occupied by the Hudson Bay Company store, the retail descendant of the trading giant that brought these blankets to this coast. The sculpture is on one side of the entrance to what has just opened as Victoria's new public market on the ground floor of this building. We'll have a look inside the market next week. Click The Hands of Time if you want to see all twelve of these small sculptures. |
