We spent a good deal of today at the Butchart Gardens.  It is quite the place.  There were lots of people but heaps more blooms.  It was really hard to pick out which pictures to post but here’s a sample of what we saw – enjoy (sorry, mountain lovers out there – this is a flower day!).

And in case you were wondering, there is barely a leaf out of place at the gardens and nary a dead head, much less unhealthy plant.  All this perfection takes a lot of work.  I snapped a few candid photos of the working staff.  They all seemed pretty content with their work, mostly you didn’t really see them – they blended in. There must also be some form of night leaf sweep-up crew, to keep everything so beautiful.

We are hanging out here again tomorrow, heading to the city (downtown as they call it here) for more touristic stuff.  Tonight we are heading out to dinner with our hosts and a few of their friends.  It’s nice to have the local knowledge of where to go and we’re really looking forward to talking about life and the universe – I’m sure we’ll have a few travel tales woven in as well.