Thursday, May 15, 2014

Beauty and Renewal at Butchart Gardens

Life's been a little crazy for me lately. Change is afoot. The school year is winding down to an end. For some reason, the 5th Grade will now have Physical Education daily for the rest of the year, greatly increasing either the laundry load or the the stink-o-meter reading if my child re-wears his uniform without washing. My youngest child's birthday is coming up, and I'm starting to wallow in sentimentality. This is the last year I'll have a kid with an age in the single digits. My oldest is just shy of hitting 6 feet (2 meters) tall. Where has the time gone?

I'm thinking back to our big summer trip of 2007. It was significant for a number of reasons. This was our first family vacation with 3 kids purely for fun, not to visit relatives. It was also the first time we traveled internationally as a family, making the trek from Texas to Canada. I also remember what a nervous traveling mama I was back then and realize how much easier it comes to me now that I have miles under my belt. Canada seems like a piece of cake compared to Tibet.

Butchart Gardens is an inspiration for the Canada Pavilion at EPCOT in Walt Disney World

Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island was one of my favorite stops. I really wish I could get my yard to look like this.


Look at that riot of color in the Sunken Garden! It's organized but not too rigid, kind of like me. The flower beds sweep around in a fluid design inviting people to stroll through the paths for a closer look. Even my young boys were enthralled. My girl, on the other hand, was fast asleep in her stroller until almost the end.

Before it was a garden, this area was a limestone quarry. After a few decades, the Butcharts had dug all the limestone out of the ground that they could, and Jennie Butchart transformed the giant hole in the ground over the course of 12 years into the gorgeous Sunken Garden that you see above.


Shade Garden
There were more restful areas, too, where different shades of green with pops of yellow combined to form a garden that was anything but monotonous.


Butchart Gardens
Ross Fountain
What did you hope to get for your 21st birthday? The Butcharts gave their grandson, Ian Ross, this beautiful garden estate which he ran until he died 58 years later. (My kids should in no way expect anything on this scale from me when they hit that age.)


Don't pick the flowers
In Malaysia, I'm accustomed to seeing frangipani, hibiscus, and ginger plants. The blooms in this Canadian garden seem so exotic to me.





Butchart Gardens
Totem Pole
Totem Poles carved by the Tsartlip and Tsawout First Nations amazed my oldest boy.


Butchart Gardens
Broccoli Trees!
I heard my son exclaim, "Broccoli Trees!" before I looked up to see what made him so excited.


We've entered a new stage of travel this year. I'm so confident that I can take on whatever the kids send my way, that we let the children each propose a vacation destination and put it up to a family vote. They're helping us plan what to see and are even trawling TripAdvisor to make suggestions on hotels.

In some ways, this reminds me of Butchart Gardens. It went from being a quarry to a woman's beautification project to a National Historic Site of Canada. I'm passing through phases, too. Hubby and I traveled the world before we had kids, then reinvented what travel involved when the children came along. Now, we're letting the children take the lead. I can't wait to see what's next.


This post is part of the following Link Ups. Check them out for more around-the-world travel inspiration.
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