Winter Visitors

I've been walking on the West Bay Walkway again recently and have been happy to see some of our winter visitors back from their northern travels. Pictured today are my favorite diving ducks, a trio of male Hooded Mergansers (Lophodytes cucullatus). On the same walk I saw some Common Mergansers and large flocks of Bufflehead Ducks like those in yesterday's photo. These are birds we don't see at all in the summertime because they migrate further north to nest and rear their young. As winter sets in they fly south and many stop here to brighten our shores until spring.

Paddlers

A hazy winter morning on the Inner Harbour earlier this week found these paddlers setting out and a flock of little Bufflehead Ducks taking off.

Rail Fence

Here's a feature of most of the parks in this area - rail fences. Sometimes they are used to provide a barrier such as on the edges of steep drop-offs but mostly they are used as in this photo, to protect areas that the groundskeepers are trying to restore to native vegetation. Most of the local parks' "wild areas" are overgrown with introduced "invasive" species of plants that compete with the indigenous species. Sometimes the introduced species such as English Ivy or Scotch Broom completely take over the environment and native species are in danger of extinction. Rail fences are used to protect areas where native plants are growing and where their health can be monitored and competing species removed. This particular rail fence protects such an area on Macaulay Point.

One More Mushroom

Well the cold weather has arrived early this year - it's freezing every night now and I doubt I'll see many more mushrooms popping up this year. But before I bid the season adieu, after last week's posts of weird-shaped fungi I thought I would post this mushroom-shaped mushroom. It looks good enough to eat though I have no idea whether it is edible or not.

Be Love

I had the good luck recently to be invited to eat lunch at one of Victoria's newer restaurants, Be Love, downtown near the corner Blanshard and Fort Streets.

Here's what they have to say about themselves: be love is an offering of sustainable organic cuisine to nourish and heal the body, mind & soul. here to honour our earth, community and one another , we mindfully source our ingredients, fostering change to provide a future of health, love & respect for all. everything we serve is wheat, gluten, dairy, meat, additive and processed sugar free. we use 95% organic whole ingredients that are sourced locally and seasonally where possible. everything we serve is made from scratch, with love!

The above sentiments are not so different from most other vegetarian restaurants. What makes Be Love different and outstanding is that the food is extraordinary. Normally, vegetarian restaurants serve hearty, healthy food with maybe a specialty or two - but the experience is like a relic from Haight-Ashbury or 1970s 4th Avenue in Vancouver - experimental food with the emphasis on nutrition rather than flavour. Be Love takes organic, vegetarian cuisine to a new level. This is a mature cuisine. The presentation is lovely, the flavours are superb, the service is great and the food is good for you. Pictured above is what I had, called a Green Bowl on the menu. Wonderful! Fern had the Teriyaki Noodle Bowl - also delicious. For dessert I had a slice of the Daily Cheezecake. Fern opted for a wedge of the Butternut Pumpkin Pie. Again, both were melt-in-your-mouth scrumptious. If you're in downtown Victoria and looking for a truly exquisite dining experience with a difference, drop in to Be Love (click the link to take a look at the menu).