The colour of this flower just caught my eye.

Some of the amazing architecture that can be seen in Victoria.

Some of the stained glass in Craigdarrach Castle. I cannot imagine livng in such a place...billiard rooms, smoking rooms, 17 fireplaces and a multitude of nooks, crannies and secret passageways.

Today I wandered up to Craigdarroch Castle, a spectacular mansion (25,000sq ft) from 1887. It has one of the finest collections of stained and leaded glass windows in North America. It was quite empty when I was there and I enjoyed the ghostly feel of the ballroom on the 4th floor. I could almost hear the orchestra playing and the rustle of the ladies gowns.

Just playing with my camera.

You'll see a lot of pictures of Victoria in prior posts, but I just wanted to put in this one too. This is where I walk my dog, it's Idlewild Park, just a 2 minute walk from my house.

My pictures are little unorganized, but I am using an unfamiliar computer. That's my excuse. There was a bike race today, a sanctioned meet with people from all over North America. It took me quite by surprise as they came whipping around the corner. The church pictures are from St Pauls, a small naval church celebrating it's 150th anniversary.

Scenes of beautiful Victoria.

Lions and Tigers and Bears...Oh my! Well, bears anyhow....

More bears...read below for further information. Gorgeous hey?

Victoria raises money in all sorts of interesting ways. This year, people are able to sponser a bear and paint it in any way they chose, then they will all be auctioned off in October. You find these bears scattered through the city and I came across them through the course of the day and I took pictures of as many as I could find. Some are incredibly beautiful.

Nuts. Rhiannon put a movie clip on her site, so I know it can be done. I'll get ahold of her and see how. My actual movie isn't good, but the music is just so great that I really would like to share it. Californiamama, does your hubby know how?

I see the pictures below turned out fine. You can see my Dad & Maria's place directly behind the church. Today, they had a concert in the church and there was quite a selection of Irish and Scottish songs being played. They even had a piper who plays with the Edinburgh Tattoo...I will try and download a clip of his music. The church is celebrating it's 150th birthday, it's a Naval Church, thus you'll see military/naval symbols in some of the pictures. The pipe organ (pictures to come) is over 100 years old and was just appraised at $750,000 (thousand!) The sound was fantastic (although i don't know pipe organs from Adam, but it sounded good to me) I'll post some pictures of Victoria soon.

Hmmm..I am at Dad's place, using a very unfamiliar computer, so I don't know how (or if) these pictures will turn out. Right now all I see is strnage "computerese". I think I can download a little movie though, so I'll fiddle around and see. This is St Pauls Church, it's on the grounds of where my Dad and Maria live (as in 25 feet from their window...talk about a peaceful place)

Boys will be boys. Brother John tried to go through a mudhole and got very stuck, and had to phone Steven to come a pull him out. Needless to say, it turned into a mud-run. Ahhh, shades of being 19 again....

I have been reading Corals blog and Rhiannons and I am so sad that I have been so lax on mine. Of course I don't have a new daughter or a pregnancy (thank God, thank God) to report upon, but still...my Spring Resolution is to start keeping up to date here. I am off to Victoria the day after tomorrow to visit Dad, and of course my travel friend Nicole, so I will most assuredly post pix and notes as soon as I return, maybe even sooner if Dad has his computer fixed. Just watch The New Me!!!

Above:. Steven, Irene, John, Marilyn & Roy.



The latest family event was the wedding of my nephew. It was a small but elegant affair and we all had so much fun, weddings are like mini-family reunions and I always have a blast with my in-laws, especially since I am an only child. The food was fantastic, mmmm the lasagna was SO good (I ate far more than my fair share) and the selection of cakes and squares just made a perfect day even more so! Well, seeing John and Leslie get married was pretty special too, but hey...having someone else cook, serve and clean-up is pretty damn special also!!

It just occured to me that I never did post a picture of any "sands of Zanzibar" so here is one now. Better late than never. Luckily this was taken before that horrendous episode of 428 dead dolphins washing up on the beach, what a sad situation.