At anchor again, after three weeks of 'tying up' to park docks (very safe) and moorings (very convenient) in Tod Inlet under the old stack and in front of the pilings of an old dock ruin. Tonight that part of sky will light up with fireworks, and the Inlet will reverberate with thunder...
Bluebells on the path from Todd Inlet to The Gardens
Roses, Roses and more Roses.....
Snapdragons et al in bursts of colour
Dahlias of every shape and colour grace Butchard Gardens now, some as large as dinner plates.
The Up-Side of things....
...and the just as intriguing Down-Side of things in Butchard Garden....
Biting off more than can be swallowed in one bite. This gull had a life crab stuck in it's mouth, too far own to spit out, and with a body too large to slip down it's gullet easily. I drifted close inthe dinghy, and the gull eyed me with a baleful eye, as if deciding whether to stick around and wait for the tidbit to go down or to fly off with the front hatch open.
She made a super-gullian effort, and swallowed. The crab made a sizeable double chin in her neck - then she flew off.
Men, their dogs and their kayaks. The dog in the front is a veteran kayaker, the one in the middle is 'in training'...all aboard enjoyed the sun, heat and the stillness of the water.
Martin Houses on old pilings in the Inlet. Humpty Dumpty, the 'empty-your-tank' run-about came around in the evening, loaded with a large ladder and occupied by three people. One leaned the ladder against the piling from the boat (at high tide to reach the houses) and carefully removed hatchlings from the bird houses, one banded their juvenile legs, and a third photographed the whole procedure. Needless to say, that hundreds of Martin parents were in a righteous uproar, and the Inlet resounded with nervous twittering until Humpty Dumpty made its departure, without dumping any of the human occupants from precarious ladder supports.
