Sunken splendour.

Today has been hot! I mean get the sun cream out hot rather than just pleasant and warm.

Or it was until about 5.00pm. A cold front has come in and although there are still blue skies we are sitting on the patio with a rug and portable heater whilst we have a pre dinner drink!

Any way back to the hot day. A beautiful morning over the Inner harbour and even though it is Sunday there was a buzz of people as we took breakfast overlooking the boats.

We then went to The British Columbia Museum recommended by NannaK and it was indeed excellent. We didn't have time for it all but concentrated on the anthropology floor. With displays on the aboriginal First People who inhabited this area before colonisation. There was a special display about language and lots of First Nations Art work. Fascinating it went on to look at how the area was changed by the coming of European fur trappers, fishers and finally gold diggers. Many of the native people had there land taken from them and died of diseases for which they had no immunity.

We then took the bus to then Butchart Gardens. Everyone says you must go but no one tells you how far away it is! We felt the tours were pricey so looked at taking the local bus (well we are from Yorkshire). This we did and it saved us over $50 on a coach tour!

This is the Sunken Garden and although all the gardens were lovely, especially the shady Japanese garden, this,says a lot about the origin of the gardens. Jennifer Butchart was the wife of a wealthy cement manufacturer and she decided to make the unsightly quarry created by the process into a landscaped garden and plant areas that would hide the cement works from their house. A very good job she has done too.

Not much wildlife today though we did see a small green tree frog in the gardens, something I've never seen before but my pictures weren't very well focused.