Blossom City

The second item on my list of things I like about living in Victoria (this is a list in installments) must be the bluebells.







Those were taken yesterday evening on the way to Brownies. Something about bluebells at dusk. (Blame Merchant Ivory). I should be going on about the tree blossoms. We have had a full month of nonstop crazy beauty. In our own backyard we are treated to this:



And here's one I shot at the Inner Harbour:



It seems that we are coming to the end of the sakura (Japanese cherry blossom - that's what we were told is in our back yard), and there are great drifts of blossoms covering streets, sidewalks and gardens. (I have photos, but perhaps that's enough of that for now...)

I meant to start off with hello again! And apologies for my lengthy hiatus! What can I say, but having finished up the book, and the BA, I was a little burned out. Of writing. (Can you tell?) And computers. And then it seemed like so long, with so much to report on, that the simple task seemed daunting. But the bluebells brought me back.

So a few quick highlights from April, to bring us back up to speed:

Easter with the Vancouver cousins:



The photo credit goes to my brother-in-law Tony. It was taken in the final leg of the Easter Rabbit hunt at the Butchart gardens, just before the children's efforts were rewarded with a Roger's chocolate egg (only ceramic rabbits were hunted). We had such a lovely weekend together, we're hoping to make it a new tradition.

Strangely, the following Friday was a professional development day (making it a three day week), so Grace, Amelia and I enjoyed a walk along West Song way with our neighbours Julie, Lucy and Jonathan:



Two of the girls playing on a rather unique driftwood structure protesting the proposed mega-yacht marina. Speaking of the neighbours, I must thank Mike for restoring the title to this blog. We were invited across the street for a delicious waffle breakfast last month, and our host kindly took a few minutes (or more) to work some techno magic. We feel incredibly fortunate to have lucked out in the neighbour department again (and not just because they invite us over for splendid brunches and fix blogs).

Last but not least, we had a visit from Uncle Joe:



I'll admit, I felt some pressure being sandwiched between the Caribbean and South Africa... what could Victoria offer my globe-trotting brother? Luckily all he wanted was to hang out, which we are quite skilled at.