Victoria (days 58 to 66)

I always enjoy my stays in Victoria and this was no exception.  I write this on the morning of my departure and, as has been usual on this trip, the weather has just turned.  It has been beautiful spring weather all week long and now it’s started to rain.  Pretty much the same happened when I left New Zealand.

I’ve been staying with my brother Bill and his wife Judy and their younger daughter Becky.  Their older daughter, Jenny, has also been around a lot, with her husband, Scott, and their two daughters, Sophia and Juliet.  Sophia is two years old, blond with blue eyes, very articulate for her age and quite adorable, at least when she’s in a good mood.  She is also very photogenic, just like her mother.  Juliet is just two months old, with a ginger tint to her hair and blue eyes.  She’s also adorable, but for me at least, kids become more interesting when they’re a little older.

I shouldn’t forget the dogs.  Bill and Judy have an off-white Labradoodle called Rufus, a cross between a Labrador and a Poodle.  They chose that breed as they are supposed to be quiet and intelligent, not too large and non-shedding.  What they didn’t realise is that it’s the F2 hybrid variety that has those characteristics, not the straight cross.  The F2 is a second generation cross, i.e. a first generation cross crossed back with a poodle, ending up with a dog that is three quarters Poodle and one quarter Labrador.  In their case, they ended up with a very large dog that sheds like crazy, not what they wanted at all.  However, he is quiet and intelligent, they love him to bits and wouldn’t change him for the world.

Jenny’s dog is completely different.  She's called Morley and is a straight cross between a Maltese and a Yorkie, known as a Morkie.  She is tiny puppy, with masses of dark-brown curly hair and runs around the house constantly, often just chasing her tail.  I don’t usually go for small dogs, but she is an absolute winner, so lively and good natured and never making a sound, except when she’s trodden on, which seems to happen quite often.


Surprisingly, the two dogs are very good with each other and they often play together, with never a cross bark.  The dogs are also extremely good with the children and show patience beyond the call of duty.  In Bill’s house, the idea seems to be to use the dogs for the washing up, rather than having to feed them, which often gets forgotten.  He believes that dogs shouldn’t be fed until they’ve earnt their food and so, when he does open the biscuits, he makes Rufus lie down whilst he crosses himself and says the benediction, “Nomine Canis, Felixis, Espirito Santo, Benedictus, Benedicti”.  The trouble now is that whenever Rufus sees the Pope on TV, he starts salivating.

 









Springtime in Victoria is beautiful, especially when the weather has been bright and sunny, as it has been for the last week and we’ve taken advantage of it by visiting several parks.  The first was nearby Playfair Park, where we took Rufus for a walk one evening.  The park was lovely, with many large, spreading Garry Oaks and masses of rhododendrons.  Rufus loved the chance to run free, picking up sticks and chasing imaginary rabbits.  Unfortunately for him, he’s never let free to run on the University of Victoria (UVic) campus grounds, where rabbits sit around on the grass everywhere.  It seems that they are breeding like crazy and will soon have to be culled.

Pretty as Playfair Park is, in my opinion it’s outdone by the nearby Finnerty Gardens. These gardens are owned and maintained by UVic, but are open to the public at all times.  The gardens are packed with rhododendrons and azaleas, which were in a perfect state of bloom when we were there.  As well as the flowers, there is a splendid array of trees, including Douglas-Fir, Maple, Cedar, Hemlock and many ornamental trees.  I’d never heard of the Hemlock tree, but it is a type of pine, not poisonous, despite its name.  The trees grow very tall and are virtually straight, soaring to the sky.

One day we decided to have fish for dinner and so Bill and I went down to Fisherman’s wharf to see what we could buy.  The wharf is on the Inner Harbour and is always interesting as there’s forever something happening, with small water taxis ferrying people backwards and forwards and seaplanes taking off for Vancouver and other nearby islands.  There’s also a cluster of houseboats, often decorated in an interesting, if rather twee, style and a range of boats from small dinghies to fancy yachts and large cruise ships.  Across the water, we could see Spinnaker’s, a large pub where we were to lunch the day before I left.











We were rather disappointed with the selection of fish at the quayside, or, more particularly, by the level of service, so we found another shop a short distance away that was more accommodating.  There we bought a frozen tuna, weighing in at about four pounds.  The shopkeeper cut it into steaks for us, leaving the head separate.  He said that it would make great crab bait, but Bill had other ideas and that night he decided to use it for stock.  He proceeded to boil the thing for hours, stinking the house out for days.  It reminded us both of when our Mum used to boil fish heads for the cat and Dad would always complain like hell.  Nevertheless, the steaks were delicious and there were plenty left over for the freezer.

On the subject of seafood, on another evening, Scott, a one-time professional chef, cooked us very tasty Dungeness crab for dinner at his and Jenny’s house.  We ate on their deck, overlooking the gardens, where we saw a wild deer standing on next door’s lawn.  Apparently the deer are a real problem, as they can jump over very high fences and eat anything new that is growing in the garden.

On the previous evening, Bill and I played poker with a group of his friends.  Much as we do at home, he has a regular poker school, although they only meet monthly, rather than once a week.  Like us, the host serves food, but always at 9:30pm sharp and, for some reason, not known even to themselves, always referred to as lunch.  The game is always dealer’s choice and they include a whole range of variants, most of which were new to me.  They only play for small stakes and it is very unusual for anyone to win or lose more than $20.  With so many new versions, I thought I might be taken to the cleaners, but they always explained each new game and I got confused only once, when I should have split the pot with Bill but, because of my mistake, lost the whole lot.  I ended up losing $3.30, which wasn’t bad for an excellent evening’s entertainment.  ‘Lucky cards’ Bill ended up as the biggest (only?) winner, pocketing $13.

If I get time, I'll post another blog, giving the details of each of the poker variants so that I have it available for future reference.

Towards the end of the week we took a ferry to the nearby Salt Spring Island.  This is only forty minutes away, but is quite different from Victoria.  It is quite hilly and has a very rural feel, being heavily forested and having narrow roads.  The island is only about three miles long, although it seems larger when you’re on it, probably because the narrow, windy roads make travelling slow.  There are about five thousand people living on the island, many in the only real town, named Ganges after the HMS Ganges, which landed there some time in the eighteenth century.  Whilst we there, we spent a couple of very pleasant hours at Beaver Point, which overlooks a large sound.  There’s not much of a beach, but it’s a lovely setting, with a rocky shore and a lot of washed up timber.  The children enjoyed playing in the rock-pools, where we found starfish, anemones and hermit crabs, as well as some small fish.

Yesterday, the day before my departure for Las Vegas, we went to Spinnaker’s pub for lunch.  It was a very enjoyable lunch, including some quite tasty IPA beer.  I was surprised to be told by the waitress that I could not have my burger cooked medium, as I’d requested.  Apparently, there have been a number of cases of salmonella poisoning from burgers and so it is now mandatory for them to be well-cooked.  Bill says that it is also common in the States, too.  It doesn’t exactly instil confidence in the kitchen, but it tasted fine and I’ve had no after effects. 

My stay here has now come to an end and I’m rather sad to be leaving.  But it was a very enjoyable trip and great to see my family again.  We’ve now arranged for Bill and Judy to stay with me in Portugal, in September, so it will good to see them again so soon.  The rest of the mob won’t be with them so who knows when I’ll next see them.