Victoria Classic Boat Festival’s Flag ship: Oriole

Oriole

The HMCS Oriole is one of the Canadian Navy’s officer training vessels. She also participates in public events, such as being the flag ship during the sail past at the Victoria Classic Boat Festival.

During the festival, I was lucky to catch her displaying the flag in the harbour. I was even luckier that there was a bit of wind when she had it unfurled.

The shot below is her out in the sail past with a couple of smaller boats out saluting her.

There’s just so much great tradition attached to the sea…

Oriole flag ship

Everything is new again

Pink Rose

One thing about moving to a new city is that everything is new again. Sure, it takes time to get set up with all the new stores and services that you need on a daily basis, but that’s good, because it helps you establish some new (hopefully better) habits.

I’ve never lived this close to a downtown before. I can walk almost everywhere I need to go on a daily basis, bus services is frequent, at about every 20 min or so and the city is very bike friendly. Oh, I still use my car now and then, but most of the time, I can just leave it parked. Nice.

Ahem, new cameras are nice too 😉

I found that I was leaving my DSLR at home more and more as I walked around the city. It just seemed to be getting heavier and heavier, so  just over a month ago, I took the step over to a mirrorless camera. The mirrorless systems are much lighter than the DSLRs.

I got a Fuji X-T1 and some lenses. There are others by Nikon, Sony and other folks, and they’re all good, but I really liked the Fuji for its retro look. It reminds me of a Pentax Spotmatic I had as my first camera, back in the day. I’ll keep my Nikons and all the gear for now, but for walkabout shots, I’m carrying the Fuji.

I took the shot above on a photo walk with some folks from Fuji. They came to Victoria on a promotional tour and brought a few different cameras and lenses for folks to try. It was a fun half day at Beacon Hill Park in Victoria. Beacon Hill is a much more developed park than Green Timbers Park in Surrey, but there were lots of things to photograph, so it was a good day.

Walking about, getting used to a new city.

Eclectic neighbourhood

Over the last couple of months, I’ve spent a lot of time walking about my new neighbourhood to see what there is to see.

In the summer, one spot I visited a number of times was a place called Fisherman’s Wharf. It’s less than half a mile from Victoria’s cruise ship terminal, and it’s a magnet for the throngs of visiting passengers walking along the promenade, from the terminal to the downtown core.

It holds an eclectic community of house boats (above), mixed with a slew of whale watching tour companies and restaurants. Some family joined me one day, and we quite enjoyed some halibut and chips from a place called Barb’s Fish and Chips (what else, eh). It seems that Barb’s is quite well known for its excellent fare, but it is seasonal, so I’ll have to wait until spring for a repeat performance.

The houseboats are what really stand out though. The various shapes, colours and artwork make each one as unique as the community they’re part of.

 

The start of a new month

Pacific Swift under sail
I moved over to Victoria from Surrey back in August. Shortly after that (in Sept) Victoria held the Classic Boat Festival in the inner harbour. Part of that festival was the sailpast, where all the boats left the harbour, went out into the straight of Juan de Fuca and around a flag ship – our navy’s training ship, Oriole.

This is a shot of a private training vessel the Pacific Swift heading out. She’d just caught the wind coming out of the harbour. The Pacific Swift has a sister vessel called Pacific Grace. They were both out that day, along with tons of ‘classic’ motor vessels.

I’ve attended this event several times over the years, and I’ve noticed that classic sail is being hugely outnumbered by classic motor. This year, I noticed that some of boats built in the 1950’s and 1960’s were being called classic. Not sure that meets the criteria, but I guess time marches on.

Speaking of time marching on; here we are at the start of another month, and I must get caught up here on the blog. Perhaps I can make this NaBloWriMo (National Blog Writing Month) in place of NaNoWriMo and get some posts up about Victoria in the fall.

We’ll see how it goes. I do have some catching up to do.

Meet my new neighbours

South side of Victoria harbour

Well, the deed is done. I’ve moved to Victoria, British Columbia, and this is my backyard now.

The view in this photo is looking south across the City’s inner harbour to the BC Legislature building. I live in the same neighbourhood.

The causeway along the east edge of the harbour (left) is usually filled with buskers plying their talents, and the government dock hosts boating visitors, festivals and a few businesses like the little ferries seen here.

There is always something going on, so it should be an interesting place to live.

 

Cha cha cha changes

A Coastal Experience_DSC6867

After a couple of weeks house/cat sitting over on Vancouver Island, I’m back. My sister, her husband, my nephew and his partner all headed off to Europe for a family holiday together. Nice, and I’m glad I could help out while they were gone.

I also did some house hunting, and found myself an apartment in Victoria’s James Bay neighbourhood. I’ve heard good things about the area, so I’m looking forward to moving there over the next few weeks.

Yes, it’s time for a change. And yes, in the future, I guess I’ll see more ferry stacks, like the one in the photo above of BC Ferries’ vessel, Coastal Experience.

I’m looking forward to some photography around the western most coast of Canada, and to exploring a more mediterranean climate around Victoria. According to Wikipedia, the area gets around 25 in of rain a year, compared to Surrey’s 55 in. Victoria is a little warmer too.

Mind you, just up the west (wet?) coast on Vancouver Island, Henderson Lake (the wettest place in North America) gets 261 in/year. A big difference across a small area.

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, this has been and still is a big project. I’ve actually spent a lot of time over the last few months getting rid of stuff so I wouldn’t have to move it. It’s truly amazing how much you can accumulate over 20 years in the same apartment, so it’s well past time to downsize and become more of a minimalist. Ha, like that’s ever going to happen ;-), but the load is lighter now.

Still lots to do, but the big hurdle of finding a new home is over. Just a few more balls to juggle and we’re done.

Busy as a bee

Bee feeding

I found this busy little bee working on a daisy the other day. It was probing and moving and probing and moving all over the centre of the flower. Once in a while, it would stop in one place for several seconds, before moving on to insert it’s proboscis somewhere else.

I have to assume that there are multiple sources of nectar there. …Wish I knew more botany…or at least more about the daisy flower.

Anyway, busy bee is an apt description of me these days as well. I have a major project in the works that is taking up a lot of time. It’s not overwhelming, but it does take some careful thinking and methodical effort to ensure it’s success.

Posting may be somewhat sporadic over the next few weeks, but my intention is to post at least a couple of times a week.

We’ll see…

Spring project comes to an end

Lily of the Valley berries

If you’ve been reading along, you’ll know I’ve been trying to document ‘spring’ in a local Surrey BC forest called Green Timbers Park.

One plant that I’ve been particularly interested in is Wild Lily of the Valley (Maianthemum dilatatum). It seems my reference for the name was a bit old, and it’s now called False Lily of the Valley or Two-leaved False Soloman’s Seal. (Impersonating both, I guess 😉 But the latin is apparently right. Yay.)

That said, they’ve finally finished flowering and the berries/seeds are developing.

It’s been a long time coming. I noticed the first young plants April 2, the first flower spikes April 9 and the first full berries today. That seems like a long time for such a seemingly delicate plant that’s found on the forest floor. I will say though, the plants themselves are now looking pretty battered by various insects and falling debris from the spring bud break on the trees above.

So with only 2 more days until the summer solstice here in North America, that about brings my spring project to a close. I’m thinking about another one to carry on through the summer, but there may be a smattering of posts on more of a variety of topics from here on in.