Last Sunday the weather hit a balmy 18C, so I set out to take advantage of the early-spring sun and warmth to do one of my favourite walks, from my apartment down through Beacon Hill Park to Dallas Rd and then over to Clover Point before doubling back via Cook St Village.
This is one my favourite walks, during my favourite time of year, so I thought I’d share some of the (many) photos I took along the way, kind of bring you with me, as it were 😊
This is something I still get giddy over about living in Victoria. I’ll be walking along a regular busy street, glance off to the side, and be stopped in my tracks by a street like this one, lined with cherry trees on both sides, all in bloom. It makes Spring feel kind of magical around here, like there’s beauty just waiting around every corner for me to discover.
More surprise blossoms. This just a little ways into Beacon Hill Park, where it seemed every tree had these flowers gathered around the base of their trunks.
A late winter storm felled one of the younger trees at the top of a hill in the park, so it fell across the trail. I caught a glimpse this web, evidence of a spider that had already made its home there. Wasn’t sure the photo would come out, to get the angle right I had to hold my phone at an angle where I couldn’t see the screen anymore.
The pond at the centre of the park always feel serene to me, no matter how many geese and ducks might be swimming in it at the time. Here I thought the colours in the tree to the right were too brilliant to pass up.
I’ve been through the park on previous springs and seen signs about Blue Herons nesting in the trees above (and warning pedestrians to be quiet and cautious), but never seen them, until this walk. There were a handful of them above me in the trees this time, coming and going with material to build their nests (and sometimes squabbling over the best real estate). Just amazing to see such large birds way up there, in the topmost branches.
At the edge of the park, happened to turn my head and spot this Platonic ideal of a tree in bloom. I thought the framing with the trees in the foreground was a lovely way to put it in context, so I went with this shot, rather than one where the tree looked like it stood alone.
Just look at those mountains.
Another shot of the Olympic Mountains across the Strait, with a ship just barely visible back there, for scale. This is on the way out of the park, towards the Dallas Road trails. Takes my breath away, every time, coming out of the trees and shade into the wide-open view of the sea.
Along Dallas Road. Clover Point is visible as the curving spit of land there, with the beach below and driftwood piling up on the shore.
On the way home now, coming up through Cook St Village, and spotting another one of those side streets all in bloom. A fitting end to a gorgeous day and a lovely walk around my new home, on the Island.
