Butchart Gardens: Part III

As the shadows lengthened we wound our way back through the gardens toward the amphitheater for the evening's free concert by the Victoria (BC) Symphony.  I still had enough energy for a few more pictures.  The light was brightening and sharpening everything.

We passed a kind of orange coneflower (echinacea) I'd never seen before:

Lilies:

Scotsman's purse (empty is what I believe the name implies):

Another great pairing of a drooping grass and begonias:

Salpiglossis (a new one for me):

Multicolored sweet peas:

Fuchsia (It grows into shrubs here):

The concert is held in an outdoor bandshell with a large, gently sloping lawn for seating. Many people come to the park in the evening just for the concert, and bring lawn chairs, blankets and picnics. 

We went back to the car and got the two foldable chairs that we always carry with us. While we waited for the concert to start we each explored the nearby grounds a little and found things we hadn't seen yet, like the fountain where they set off the fireworks on Saturday nights, a totem pole or two, more perennial beds, and a mixed menagerie carousel.

Check out the cat with the mouse in its mouth.

The theme of the concert was Paris, starting with something Mozart wrote there and ending with a selection of more contemporary works. 

After awhile Rick and I got restless and wanted to see what the gardens looked like illuminated.  There are little lamps placed throughout the gardens to allow for safe and interesting evening strolling.

We discovered that the fountain at one end of the Sunken Gardens was also lit up at night, and was dancing like a little Las Vegas Bellagio.

We ended up at Butchart Cove for one last look in the long northern twilight before heading home.

The following day we headed back to the USA. We loved Canada and had a lot of fun there. It was like visiting a parallel universe where everything is really familiar, but yet new and just a little bit different.  It was frankly, a little spendy, especially gas and groceries, our two major expenses.  Our next few weeks we will be working our way east through Washington state, toward Idaho for most of August.