AUTUMN IN VICTORIA

Usually, fall colors in Victoria are a very 'fleeting' thing. For one thing, the Pacific North-West has far more evergreen than deciduous trees. But what also happens is that the leaves start to turn, and within a week or two gales will blow in off the Juan de Fuca, and the trees will be bare before we've had a chance to appreciate them.

Not this year. There's only been one sort-of serious wind storm this fall, and it was before most of the leaves had turned. So, while we certainly have our share of this...

 

... we also have this ....

... and I, for one, am just delighted! (What can I say? I grew up in the prairies where autumn is always much more 'pronounced)!

On my walk yesterday I also saw this...

 ... and this ...

 ... and this...

(I'm calling this last one 'The Rebel' ... can you see  why?)

It was a lovely fall day, and we seem to be having another one today. Tomorrow Michael and I are cruising to Galiano Island to help our friend Mike take his new (old wooden) boat home to Whaler Bay. We hope to leave with the outgoing tide at about 9:00 a.m. and be in Whaler Bay by 4:00 pm. I'll post tomorrow morning before we leave, and then not again until we're home sometime on Tuesday. I'm looking forward to lots of knitting time while these two old f____ do most of the steering.

(Want to hear something funny? Mike is 73 and has worked on tugboats off and on for years, my Michael is 60, and has grown up on this coast and on pleasure boats of all kinds -- and I'll be the only one on board with a skipper's license)!