Day Two

The second day in Victoria started off with a long walk and then a delightful breakfast in Murchies, we then walked over to Cook Street Village and had a beer at the Beagle, although the digital QR code for our vaccinations seemed to be a tad wonky, but we managed to convince the manager that we were not a pair of Typhoid Marys.

We decided to go to Smiths pub after that, but it was closed, well, it had a small patio open, but we rapidly moved on. The temptation was to visit one of the Thursday pubs, but we stuck to our initial idea of different bars on the Friday and venue number two was Garrick's Head pub for lunch.

One of the larger, and oldest, of the many breweries in Victoria is Vancouver Island Brewing and we strolled up there after lunch and enjoyed what they do best.

The onboard beer calculator indicated the flight of five beers was the way to go, so we each had a nice selection of beers and spent the afternoon people watching and talking about stuff and nonsense. It was a relaxing, happy time.

The stroll back into town was intended to take us for dinner somewhere, but there were issues with restaurants being either fully booked, or not having enough staff due to covid, so we about turned and walked up to Romeos for pizza and beer. 

After that, we both agreed that we were quite done with it all.

Victoria Pub Crawl

On Thursday and Friday we stayed in Victoria at the James Bay Inn, and for the first time in around 18 months or more we enjoyed a beer at "The Churchill" a bar that has been particularly challenged during covid due to it's narrow shape.  

Here in British Columbia we need to carry proof that we have been vaccinated and bars like this can now serve, as long as their customers have had the jabs.

A large selection of local draft beers available, we both enjoyed a Bomber brewery ESB before moving on to the next venue. 

Thursday crawl was Churchills, Yate's Taphouse, Swans Brewery, Herald Street Brewery, Phillips Brewery and then we ended up in the Local Pub. 

Well, that's what I rememeber....

Sunday Brunch

We were up very early on Sunday, off to the Western Speedway for their "swap and shop" and some great times, bargaining, talking to people, being normal, remember all that?

It was to be a simple lunch, or brunch based on the time we got back to the ranch, some chopped, cooked vegetables fried up in a pan and a couple of chuckie eggs dropped in and poached under a lid. 

In the tradition of old people taking pictures of their food and posting them on the interweb, here it be :

   

Progress, Slow, but Steady

The front garden progress continues, slow but steady, and if you have been a watcher of the blog you will maybe remember the very first steps of the 'to the right" part of the front garden, which we now consider to be finished.

Here is a photo of that part :

When we first moved in, that was just a patch of dormant grass, a sad piece of lawn, and our efforts over almost five years have resulted in the above.

The other side of the front garden is also a long term project, and again, if you followed our progress, 100% grass became 90% grass, then 60% and here we are, years later, continuing in developing a mature piece of garden, and in September, we are focused on the path project.

The shade change of the newer pathway will fade as we get rainfall, a lot of the lighter colour is dust, and the path should be all the same shade at some point. The right hand side of the photo is another patch that needs to be developed, so there are many years to go. 

We discussed this today, and 2019 was not a good year for progress for a number of reasons, and 2020, the first covid year, gave us more reason to attempt to socialize, than garden. The progress has been slow, but it is worth it, and we think this month, and next month, will be very good for the new garden.