December, as always, provides a lot of opportunities to shoot holiday lights, so large part of this collection will be about those. There are a few more themes to this month though, so you won't get tired of the festive illumination alone.

Let's start with some birds: 

Empress Hotel built a skating rink this year. Here is daylight shot of it, night time ones will follow 

Now, some illumination in Sidney

Star trail over Christmas tree

Downtown lights. Promised skating rink in the night:

December post can't omit Butchart Gardens and their stunning display. There are no iconic shots of Sunken gardens etc, but they are pretty much the same from year to year, so I tried to get some other views and angles. 

These are a few shots from the Lochside drive, just south of Sidney, our usual walking route

 Even inhabitants of the Butterfly Gardens enjoy festive lights:

Now somewhat different views, so your eyes get some rest from all the lights. Fort Rodd Hill:

Swans at the Esquimalt Lagoon:

Got some rest? Back to festivities. Holiday store windows in Sidney:

Enough of winter views. Spring is coming. In Sidney...

...and downtown. Yes, first cherry blooms!

That was rather large post but it was rather eventful month!

Magical autumn light is always generous to photographers. A few cold clear nights offered some new opportunities, but we will get to it at the end of this post. For now, more traditional fall images.

These guys enjoy the fall too

...and cross the road in a very disciplined fashion:

That's a whole lot of leaves to clean!

Walk along the Ross Bay during nice sunset yielded this series, ending at the Clover Point: 

Beacon Hill Park as always offers a lot of opportunities. Let's start with these willing models, as they climb the branches of a giant sequoia:

Magic of last sun rays:

My favorite bridge

... and a peacock from the previous post, reaching the end of his runway and walking around me as I rudely block his path with my intrusive camera. I swear he murmured something like "darn paparazzi..."

Finally, about those clear cold nights. They bring bright stars, and I got to do what I always wanted to try: star trails. My first three shots at it (pardon the pun), two from Sidney and one from downtown, with majestic Empress Hotel: 

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” ― Albert Camus.

October brought in abundance of the fall colors, as it well should. Both sunny and rainy days provided enough of photo opportunities. So, without further ado...

Some flowers (but of course)

Buddha with Angel's Trumpets 

To have flowers and not the butterflies? What kind of disorder would that be!

My favorite bird, posing as always. The name's Little E.

In case you haven't guessed the season - PUMPKINS!

Forest. Trail. Stump. Black and white.

Goldstream

Full Moon rising

Elk Lake, 10 K loop - my favorite treadmill  

 Fall colors at The Butchart Gardens, always amazing spectacle 

 This kid gives seal of approval.

Oak Bay Marina

Back to Butchart in 10 days

Steller's Jay.

Beacon Hill Park - another gem of the season

And to conclude, my favorite of the month - model on the Fall Fashion Show catwalk! 

Let go over the rest of September catch, to be done with it and move to real fall colors. Sample will be shown here as well though :)

Butchart Gardens at night, magical spectacle

Mount Doug. Meditation:

On the edge:

Recording the view:

Cattle Point.

 Well, can't do a blog post without my favorite town, Sidney!

Butterfly Gardens, never a dull moment

Back to Butchart

Now, this was hilarious. Looked closer into the rose (actually a friend I was with did), and found rose guardian:

Elk Lake, fall colors start making appearance:

Breakwater yielded a few shots of Fried Egg Jellyfish - totally looks like floating, well, fried egg: 

Inner Harbor with first fall colors:

Sidney again, this time in black and white: 

And to finish the post, real fall colors, preview of what next month is likely to be about:

It's just 10 days of a new month but images start accumulating so I better post some, to keep the size manageable, right? Let's start with flowers, shall we?

Torch!

Night view of this dancing fountain, always enchanting

Ogden Point (as if you haven't guessed)

New guy in the jungles!

This red-footed tortoise went for a jailbreak. Climbed onto rocky border,

crossed it,

came out on another side,

climbed down (all with blistering speed as you can imagine),

and went for FREEDOM! 

Flamingos tend to create symmetry:

Butterflies is not a traditional subject for B&W, but this one seemed fitting:

... as did this forest trail:

Meditation in Beacon Hill Park

Last Supermoon of 2014 yielded a few nice moonscapes and sunset shots 

After spending weekend in beautiful Parksville, yield of photos is enough for the whole blog post. Or two. Let's break it by parts, so it's easier to digest. First, there is this annual sand sculpting competition. Here are samples of these amazing creations by the artists from all over the world.

Very cute one, with title to match

So is this... see the ear? :)

Something about this one, "On the final note..." Was returning to it a few times, to see it again.

Very intricate

This one won first prize. Well deserved!

 In the groove :)

OK, moving on - Community Park, beach volleyball:

Nice beach with a cozy boardwalk. A lot of summer fun for families. And look at those vistas!

Skating park

At the end of the second day we were treated to the spectacular sunset. Same beach, same boardwalk, same vistas.

Golden hour:

The sun is setting

...and it's down

Is this total serenity or what?

Some romance of course - such setting just calls for it!

Next day, Rathtrevor Beach - what trip to Parksville can omit that treasure?

This majestic Bald Eagle felt particularly royal that day, sitting in the crown of the sun rays

And, to finish, forest trails along the beach:

Ready for a soup of everything? With surprise at the end? Let us begin. 

First of all of course supermoon - full Moon at the time when it's the closest to the Earth, so it's unusually large. We will have two more in August and September, so here is my first, umm, shot at it.

Romance under the full moon. Aww.

One shot from Sidney

 and one from Beacon Hill Park. I call it "Supervisor."

Ogden Point and breakwater, favorite sights in the night

... and in the day. 

Teeming life at the Fisherman's Wharf

Some downtown fun

Blue Monster invasion

Butchart Gardens, roses in full bloom 

(something else is blooming - who know their botany, determine what it is).

 Willows Beach

Spooky tree at the sunset at the Island View Beach

Same tree, more birds. Hitchcock. 

  Beautiful views at the East Sooke 

 And now, the promised surprise. Whale watching trip with Eagle Wing Whale Watching, done at the sunset time yielded much more than your usual back-dorsal fin orca images. Full breach lit by golden light of the sunset, whales cruising in the sun reflection... judge for yourself:

Weird name for a post, right? The thing is, as I go through the themes or months, there are some images that get post-processed later, or get forgotten somehow. They collect in the folder "to be posted yet" instead of being moved into their theme folders. To clean up this clutter, now and then I have to go over that folder and do a sweeping and mopping job. So, here goes my summer cleaning.

Brave look, ain't it?

 Some say flamingo has a wise look here, some - ominous. You decide.   

The name's Rose.

Something ancient-Greek looking. Or Rome. 

This tulip has a  bad hair day. Looking gorgeous anyway.

Beacon Hill Park.

Rose Garden at the Butchart

UVIC grounds.

Sidney marina

Something.

The tackiest shot I've made this year. And possibly last two years. Or ever. Sorry. No, come to think of it, I had a rose on a guitar shot 5 years ago, probably beats this. 

The title says it all actually. Not much is needed in comments department, aside of indication of a place. Let's start with Sidney where cormorants love to pose with Mt. Baker in the background:

Moving to Butchart for a min:

This waterfall in Japanese Garden I photographed countless times but these shots are probably first that I am happy with:

Art! (right?)

These are flamingos (just so you don't confuse them for tulips):

Some are so lucky to be born this brightly colored...

Breakwater

Been a while since we did night time theme, plus full Moon as a bonus

Back downtown, Darth Vader the Fiddler!

Meanwhile, Butchart is now decorated with roses

And there are some irises elsewhere:

... and calla lilies

...and ducks in the bog:

Quiet evening with amazing soft light at the Central Saanich shore:

Several shots from the Governor's House: 

And, to finish, in honor of Canada Day, Queen Victoria strolling the Legislative grounds 

I hope you took some rest from tulips because more of them is coming. I will mix them with other things because however difficult it is to believe but yeah, one can get tired of too many tulips.

Let's start with a single one, then proceed to the fields and flowerbeds, with some single mixed in again.

Not a tulip!

Some tulips are black and white...

This yellow beauty is laburnum.

OK, decisively not a tulip. Himalayan blue poppy.

Let's move away from the gardens and flowers (as if it were so easy to do in Victoria!) Downtown, Inner Harbor causeway.

Beacon Hill Park

Quick dash into the world of butterflies and turtles

This cutie was about an inch and a half long!

Sidney Pier

Cruise ship terminal

Fisherman's Wharf

Ogden Point

Don't you feel as though you did a tour all over the city? And guess what... there are many tulips still to see in the future posts, like it or not.

Far from running out of tulip shots, I'll break them by some other sights lest you get sick and tired of those endless flowers. 

Let's start with some waterfowl, ever so cute:

Some beaches:

Some from Beacon Hill Park:

Sidney sunset:

And finally, some from around downtown and Inner Harbor

No spring collection of photos is ever complete without tulips, in all their variety of colors and shapes. There are actually so many of those that I'll have to break the collection down by a few posts. First one is somewhat unusual in that it's entirely shot during the rain, unlike most such photoshoots done in fine weather. Diffused lighting and raindrops make the difference. Judge for yourself.

That not a tulip as you guessed... Primula, Golden Lace.

We need one Black and White, right?

Daffodil interruption. Very brief.

Back to main programming.

See? Rain.

Not a tulip. Sorry. 

One of the most gracious:

 One more non-tulip.

Something wedding-like quality to this one:

Just for variety sake, tulips and palm tree.

Now get some rest from tulips because there is more... Stay tuned.

Opening images are not exactly limited to spring but for some reason have that feel... or maybe it's just me. Anyway, the first shot took a lot of patience as it wasn't really easy to catch just the right moment. With quite a few of "almost" shots, finally got the right one when a butterfly landed on the flamingo's back under the right angle, opened her wings a tad to let through that iridescent blue, flamingo moved to chase her away... and shutter was clicked right then. Took about an hour of waiting and a bunch of unsuccessful attempts. I think it was worth it:

Meanwhile, there was also butterflies sitting pretty on pretty flowers, so I snapped some:

A photoblog post without a sunset, nah. Can't do that. Sunset on Sidney Fishing Pier, Mt. Baker in the background:

Absolutely hilarious interaction between a cormorant and seagulls:

Oops, I promised you spring! Here it is:

This couple, out for a walk, is it spring or what?

And finally, what's in the air during spring? Right, love. Mating rituals are in full force: