Cherry Blossoms Galore!

I am writing my post today overlooking St. Mary’s Lake on Salt Spring Island.   When my husband first asked me to join him on an MG tour of the island I was a little hesitant.  After consideration though I thought it would be a great opportunity to not only see Salt Spring for the first time, but I would be able to further practice my photography and capture flowers, gardens and whatever else I came across on our travels.  

This was a very spur of the moment trip and we first met the group of MG enthusiasts in Tsawwassen, mainly from Washington, who certainly were a fun crowd and made us feel most welcome.   The trip was very carefully planned out and we were all perfectly lined up with various MG models at the ferry terminal.  You can imagine we caught the attention of many people as there were at least 20 cars.  

Fortunately the weather cooperated the first day and for us coming from the Okanagan area, it was lovely to see the green meadows, blossoming trees and mass groups of daffodils plus herds of sheep on the hillsides. We visited a variety of art and craft studios.  I was most intrigued too at the number of organic vegetable farms.  On each stop before even going into the studio, I would explore the surroundings and take photos of the flowers and I was particularly interested to see the French country house whose owner specialized in sewing a variety of colourful tablecloths, napkins and drapes made of fabric you would typically find in Provence.   I couldn’t help but zoom in on a camellia in bloom with a metal quail perched on the fence beside it.

We all met back at the Habour Inn in Ganges and my husband and I chatted more with the Washington group of all ages and different walks of life (well it was mainly my husband talking exchanging useful information on MGB’s). We had a lovely supper there overlooking the harbour.

We also managed to fit in visiting the Salt Spring Winery and a Beer Brewing business where the men were happy to sample the ales.  Shortly before leaving the island I dropped in the Foxglove Nursery and discovered my favourite alpine plant – lewesia cotyledon.  These plants need very special growing conditions, but I still picked one up and I will shelter it in my greenhouse for a while before transferring it to the rockery.  

LEWESIAS

At one of the galleries, there were some succulent pots for sale that I would have loved to buy but they were a little out of my price range.  Succulents definitely seem to be a trending plant at the moment.  

All in all, it was a successful trip and more importantly the MGB, that my husband has worked on for the past 10 years, made it to Salt Spring and back; quite an accomplishment!  Way to go “Murphy B”.