Night lights

Monday, December 29

By about 10 am, we had paid cash (picked up at a bank in Victoria) for our moorage and filled Braesail’s water tanks and fuel tank, and were motoring over calm seas around the northern tip of the Saanich Penninsula and then south to Tod Inlet. The sun had decorated the dawn sky with bursts of gold and was now streaking the skies to the east with pretty pastels, and became so bright that I needed to don my baseball cap to shade my eyes!

We anchored in the sheltered inlet at about 12:30 pm, caught up on some reading, checked to make sure that our dinghy light was functional, put on layers of warm clothes, and climbed into Coracle at 2:30 to row the short distance to the “nature float” near the shore. Having secured the dinghy to the dock, we walked across the sandy beach and then along an easy dirt road through the forest for about 10 minutes to one of the parking areas at the world-renowned 55-acre Butchart Gardens (visit https://butchartgardens.com/ to read about the gardens and see many great pictures) created 121 years ago from an exhausted limestone quarry. We spent about two-and-a-half hours strolling around the gorgeous display gardens as the sun set (at about 4:30 pm), a misty half-moon rose, and the phenomenal lights came into view. Among the beauties of the gardens in their festive “Magic of Christmas” garb were: whimsical depictions of the Twelve Days of Christmas scattered throughout the gardens (the “Four Calling Birds” were shown using cellphones and the “Three French Hens” were enjoyed croissants near a small lighted Eiffel Tower!); an ice skating rink; a train layout running through a miniature winter village;

an indoor cascade of various poinsettias and orchids; the Rose Carousel (whose parading animals included a reindeer with a glowing red nose); two recently-carved Coast Salish totem poles; illuminated fountains and trees of all sorts (the lights in one of them moved along the branches and changed color when a viewer clapped or sang or otherwise made noise), softly glowing globes about the size of soccer balls, scattered about the bases of redwood trees, that faded from one pastel color into another; a waterfall, pool, and stream composed of moving blue lights; vast beds of “light-flowers” at the bottom of the Sunken Garden; light “fire-flies” in the trees above one’s head; and “Christmas trees” of all kinds,

some with lighted trunks and limbs and some decorated with sparkling light-ornaments. In the square in front of the coffee house, information center, gift shop, and restaurant was a shelter decorated with glittering trees and Christmas packages in which alternating half-hour performances by four costumed “Traditional Carolers” and the four-member “Festive Brass” delighted warmly-bundled audiences.

One sad incident: As we were making our way along a path above the Sunken Garden, we came upon a small group of people, including medical personnel, gathered around a warmly-dressed child lying silent and motionless on the path; when we returned that way later, the child was still there but was moving and crying, and I prayed that she would recover fully from whatever she had suffered!

After admiring the various gardens, Walt and I enjoyed a fine dinner in the Blue Poppy Restaurant (seafood pasta for me and a hearty chowder for Walt, with shared gingerbread tiramisu for dessert), but as we were sitting outside in the evening chill (the temperature was about 38 degrees F.) listening to the carolers, Walt began to feel very cold, and so we decided to hike the half-mile back to our dinghy tethered on Tod Inlet’s peaceful shore. This we did, making good use of our headlamps as we navigated the dark woodland path. We didn’t turn left toward the beach shortly before we reached the end of the road as we should have, and so had to backtrack a bit, but we soon found the dinghy dock and were rowing back to Braesail, who was guiding us via the anchor light at the top of her mast, while I held up the dinghy light in Coracle’s stern and Walt plied the oars.

By 7 pm we were back in the boat’s cabin, catching up on German and email while sharing tea and cookies. I edited the photos I’d taken during our garden explorations and prepared them for posting, and, having thoroughly thawed out after our chilly excursion, we found our way to our cozy bed. What a marvelous time I’d had!