The days that followed...

Well, db and I are coping.
We're grieving. The day after we took Svetlana to the vet was my birthday. I know, I know it's a lousy birthday gift, but actually we had made plans to go to the UBC botanical gardens a couple of weeks ago and I still wanted to go.

It felt good to be out and it was a beautiful day.

The gardens are so peaceful and lovely. They are very well tended to as research and display gardens, but the south gardens are very wild looking and the areas flow from one to the other in a woodland setting that feels as one.


























The north gardens (this above photo is the entrance way that trails under the roadway to the north garden) is a little more delineated which makes sense since parts of it are vegetable garden. The food from the veg gardens are donated to local charities which is fantastic. The alpine gardens are also a little more marked off, divided into the different continents and their natural plants.

There is also a Physic garden that is "enclosed by a traditional yew hedge (...) to showcase traditional medicinal plants."










The photos posted are mostly from the south gardens since by the time we reached the north side it was just about closing time.



We have to go back and in a couple of weeks the rest of the lilies should be all in bloom.








The giant lilies happened to be in bloom. At first I read the note that spoke of the variety (Cardiocrinum giganteum) and described them as potentially taking seven years to bloom. The blooms themselves can be 35 cm long! I think these ones were. They can also grow up to 4 m in height. I would love to have such a creature in my garden. One day.







As you may know I love lilies.

They are perhaps my favorite flower. Some of the lilies in the back have bloomed and there are more on the way.

After the botanical gardens we went to another part of town and wandered a little before happening on an Ethiopian restaurant that was just what I had hoped for. The menu outside highlighted the fact that all of their vegetarian dishes are vegan. It was a delicious meal. db was a little disappointed to learn that there was no liquor license, but it really didn't matter in the end. We loved the food.

At home db iced the cake and we had a little Italian bubbly and some cake to celebrate my birthday and toast Svetlana's life.




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Canada day we spent the day on Granwhoville island. It was packed of course, but just to wander around and spend some time looking at the local artists works was a nice change. I have to say that I didn't feel celebratory or part of the festive group, but I was with db and we were just taking it easy, wandering around with no plan, just enjoying the weather. We did end our visit with a walk through a park/garden that was quite lovely. There really is such pleasure in a garden.