Meeting at Minter

Canadian Adventure Day Three: Minter Gardens, two weddings, a B&B and a feast.

(You can read Lovella's take on the day here,
Julie's take here,
My initial post from when I was in Canada here
Becky hasn't posted anything about the day yet...maybe she has had laundry issues again.
Just kidding...more likely she is facing back to school teaching time crunch!
I do hope she will post her shots from the day sometimes in the near future.

One thing about visiting someplace new, everything looks picture worthy. I enjoyed riding along rubbernecking as Lovella drove me to Minter Gardens. Above: The road to the garden, lovely in itself.

Mighty friendly of them to hang not only the setting sun BC flag and the Maple Leaf, but the Stars and Stripes as well.
(Guess there really wasn't any room for the Texas flag....most Texans would wonder how that could possibly be, but I was OK with just having the US flag flying.)

A palm near the gate. I had never seen a palm with such gorgeous color shading!

Minter Gardens is a 32 acre garden in British Columbia, with eleven theme gardens. It is only about a 90 minute drive from Vancouver, so if you are in the area, and chose not to do all the Victoria gardens (what? are you crazy? DON'T miss the Victoria gardens!) then at least head over to Minter.

On second thought, do both the Victoria gardens and Minter.
Do ALL the Canadian gardens.
You won't be sorry.
Trust me!

Minter is a relatively new garden; it opened in 1980 yet incorporated so much mature natural botanical materials that it appears to be a much more established garden. It's claim to fame is it's tulip show, which I missed, but there apparently are spectacular plantings each season. Someday I would like to visit all the great North American gardens four times each, so I can see each of them in every season.

Becky from Random Pondering met us there. The three of us went to the restaurant and waited for Lovella's cousin Julie from Pearls in a Nutshell. She had gotten lost on the way to the garden so we were very relieved when she arrived and could settle in still in time for lunch.

Julie brought me a welcome to Canada gift of a candle, and topped the present with a rose from her own beautiful garden. I wish I could have seen all of her garden, as I really enjoy all her garden pictures on her blog.

Just moments into visiting the garden I knew this place was going to be special!

The weather looked threatening, but the temperature was mild and the rain held off as we hiked along the garden paths.

Four Bloggers!
Left to right: Lovella, Becky, me, and Julie.
Lovella is wearing a hat from my Houston Hat Net friend Marie.

Marie had decided to de-acquisition some of her hat collection, specifically hats that were too small for her to wear.

Lucky Lovella has a 21 inch head, which is a typical size for many vintage hats, so I brought a few choice hats from Marie along with me to give to Lovella.

The straw on that hat was simply divine!

Striped and speckled roses always catch my eye.

We all spent quite a bit of time photographing the roses in the rose garden.
Sadly we just can seem to capture the fragrance.
This one was lovely in every sense.

The cousins enjoyed posing together in the cute gazebo.

They are a little over ten years apart in age, and really didn't know each other very well until they both began to blog, even thought they lived near to each other.

What a treat to have family ties develop into friendship so much later in life.

You can see how delicate and special the straw hat was. The band is a pale blue that matched Lovella's outfit perfectly.

Marie: Your hat got to go to a good home! It's having a great life and having lots of fun!

I was interested in the interesting planting combinations along the pathways, and the imaginative way that the boxwood was pruned.

Who says freckles aren't pretty?

It was fun to watch as each of us had our camera at the ready, and often took the exact same pictures.
This bright eyed bunch had all of us snapping away.

I was noting ideas of plant combinations for flower beds. I don't think I would have thought of this one.

Lovella and I both were charmed by this dahlia.

I think it looks like it should be the flower in a clown's buttonhole. Adorable, yet funny too!

Heliotrope, dahlia, and marigold. What a great combination!

Marigolds, dusty miller and geranium. Another uncommon combination that just works great!

The dahlias were really strutting their stuff. This was one of the ones that actually hurt to look at; the points seemed to pulse as I studied it. What visual vibration!

Ordinarily I am not overly fond of cabbage moths, but this white on white bit of camouflage was rather charming.

More eye popping wow!
Try staring at this for a moment. Couldn't you just swear the petals are spinning?

Even snails look pretty in Minter Garden.

All the flowers photographed above were in this garden area.

There had been a very strong windstorm last year that knocked down quite a few trees in the garden. Here's a picture of one of the stumps.
They are using the stumps to create sculptures now.
A very clever way to make something good out of a bad situation.

Of course Mother Nature doesn't really need all that much help to turn a bad situation into good. This stump already had a new tree growing out of its top.

The tiny chapel was locked so I couldn't see inside, but it was fun to imagine a romantic proposal, followed by a surprise wedding with just the couple's dearest friends and relatives in attendance.
Imagine everyone gathered around as the couple would say vows inside, perhaps as rain drummed on the rooftop.
Sigh.
I just love small intimate weddings!

We had lots of laughs about Julie getting lost on her way to the gardens, especially since the garden is just minutes from her home. I can totally relate, I can get lost for an hour while heading somewhere only fifteen minutes away. Becky and Lovella challenged Julie and I to try to find our way through the hedge maze, and amazingly, Julie and I made it through in record time.

Now why can't that happen when we are trying to find someplace when it really matters?

The fence at the base of the tall trees in this picture is actually just water.

How cool is that? (Pun intended...)

Having columns with piping over head and the curtain of falling water served several purposes. It did cool the area, but the sound of the water also masked the road noises from the edge of the garden. Looking at my friends through the water curtains was so beautiful.
It was a very romantic feature in the garden.

Lovella heading down the path.

Yup, it's romantic alright. And as if on cue, along came a bridal party.
Bridesmaids in brown: I guess even in Canada brown is the "in" color for weddings!
(The last five wedding I have heard about or been to have had brown and one other color as the wedding colors. Wonder what ever happened to assorted pastels?)

A calendar worthy setting. My mind suggested "Living waters" as a title.

It did rain a little. Just enough to keep everything sparkling.

We kept walking through the garden and at the top of one path, there was the bride, standing alone, waiting to walk to her wedding.
She was wiping tears from her eyes, and I felt rather sorry for her, standing there all alone as the rest of the wedding party gathered further on around the bend of the path.
Becky and stopped and prayed for her and her marriage, wondering why she didn't have her father there to offer her his strength and protection.

(OK, and I also thought a hat would have been lovely instead of a veil in a garden...)

Becky and I had quite a discussion about this plant.
Was it two varieties of kind of plant, or one plant with various colors of leaves?

Garden sculpture made from plants. A topiary!

More garden sculpture. Lovella got a great series of Becky giving Mr. Gardener a seductive smooch, Julie engaging him in an eyebatting flirtation, and me giving him a hug. Maybe I'll snitch those from her and post those later....

This cottage was a bit of a mystery to me; it had no way to get inside.

Another mystery. I have never seen this kind of succulent before, it didn't seem real, but oh so interesting.

This plant solved Becky and my "random ponderings." The plant we were wondering about before actually does produce green leaves and purple leaves, and even a green AND purple leaf!

The japanese area of the garden had displays of Shanghai Penjing. Since that was something Bernie is interested in, I took the time to get a couple of shots of some of the displays. Essentially they are natural stones that are grouped to create a scene. Sometime plants are also used, but in this case, the rocks and sand gave the feeling of islands in the ocean.

I was missing Bernie as I looked at the bonsai. He has a pretty neat collection of bonsai that he is nurturing.

(Bernie has bonsai nicer than this...)

Eventually we had to leave the garden. It had been so much fun, and I got so many new gardening ideas.
I wasn't expecting a new idea from the parking lot though.
Yet there it was: How to decorate wedding cars Canadian style.

Usually cars in the USA are decorated with a washable paint, and streamers, and maybe some tin cans tied to the bumper. Lovella tells me that the plastic flowers are sold in Canada just for this purpose, and all newly married couples leave their wedding in cars decorated in this manner.

So much more classy than the painted slogans of our cars.
Although it is nice to have the couple's name and wedding date written on the rear window so you know what names to shout out to when you see the newlyweds passing by.

We had barely said our goodbyes to Julie and Becky, and had just begun to drive out of the parking lot when the rain just cut loose, big time.
Perfect timing!

The rain really was quite heavy, and the sky quite dark. The temperature was still very pleasant though.

Lovella next wanted to take me to see her friend's oh so elegant bed and breakfast.
Imagine our surprise when we drove up front and found this mob clustered about the front door.

Yes I do mean mob, as in mobster.
A pistol packing bride, and her revolver aimed right at us!
Yipes!
A mobster/ganstster wedding...who woulda thunk of such a thing happening in conservative old British Columbia?

Be sure to enlarge the picture below to see all the "heat" the girls are carrying.

(Imagine the bride's discussion with the florist: "I'd like my bouquet to have white and red roses, and a snub nosed pistol. So maybe gun metal gray ribbon accents would be good?")

Once we made it safely inside I met Lovella's friends and got to see a few of the fine counted cross stitch angels that the owner had created in her spare time, between her job as a nurse and owner of a B&B. Each room has one, and a few have two.
Maybe I should try a different kind of vitamin.
That girl is a powerhouse!

I think Bernie and I need to make a trip together to stay in this room. It overlooks a golf course.

A stay in the room with a clawfoot bath tub facing a fireplace next to a window overlooking the garden would be nice too...

After we looked around and took a guided tour by the innkeepers, we carefully eased our way out of the B&B, being careful not to stir up the wedding party...

I loved the groomsmen's fedoras, and pinstriped suits. Enough with the tuxedos already.

Actually, the wedding party was just there for a photography session on the gorgeous staircase inside the entryway.

I wonder what the actual wedding will be like. One of the guys was actually packing a gatlin gun.

I was a little surprised that the bride didn't take the trouble to find a pearl handled gun. Many elderly southern widows have pearl handled revolvers in their nightstands, so if they should need to fend off an intruder, they can do so while still being fashionably elegant.

If you haven't already figured out that Lovella is simply an amazing hostess, try thinking about this:
After our day at Minter Garden, and various look-see drive bys of assorted sons and brother's homes, we returned to our nest and Lovella dished up dinner for five.
Becky and Ray had been invited to join us for dinner that night.

Lovella had previously concocted an unbelievably delicious dish that took all day to make. I believe the recipe filled seven pages of instructions, so don't hold you breath waiting for her to post that one!
(Any chance of a link to the recipe, Lovella?)

(Note the chicken themed napkins! How cute!)
The meal was delicious, the salad was so good, and she let us guess what the secret ingredient was.
Papaya seeds, ground up and added to the dressing.
Again...who woulda thunk such a thing would be so delicious.

I hope she was smart enough to triple the recipe for the spagetti dish so she can have it again really soon.
The sauce was SO good, but cooking all day long?
It was one of those recipes that tastes better the next day anyway. She had cooked it up two weeks earlier and frozen it.
All she had to do after a day at the gardens was simply boil up the pasta and heat up the sauce, broil some garlic bread and toss the salad.

What a clever hostess is she!