© Richard HuangAs soon as we got off the ferry, we headed straight for the renowned Butchart Gardens.
© Richard Huang
© Richard HuangThe gardens are beautiful, and it is easy to take any number of lovely photographs there. There is no shortage of them online, either—if pretty pictures are what you want, a quick search will do 😁. This time, I concentrated on scenes one rarely gets to see.
© Richard HuangTake this older Indian gentleman, for instance. Determined to secure the best vantage point, he planted himself right between a couple who were having their picture taken—a rather startling intrusion. The whole scene felt slightly surreal.
© Richard HuangA garden during the pandemic naturally had its own peculiar features. Hand-sanitizer stations were everywhere; even decorated with flowers and foliage, they could not quite blend into the beauty of the gardens and looked distinctly out of place.
© Richard HuangThen there were the signs reminding visitors to keep their distance.
© Richard HuangSome of the tighter spaces were simply closed off. And what could be more readily enlisted to block the way than yet more flowers and greenery…
© Richard HuangFlowers bloomed throughout the gardens…
© Richard HuangPrinted on clothing, too—and imprinted on the heart…
© Richard Huang
© Richard Huang
© Richard Huang
© Richard Huang
© Richard Huang
© Richard HuangVisitors were still thick on the ground, though their numbers were far lower than before the pandemic.
© Richard Huang
© Richard Huang
© Richard Huang
© Richard HuangAfter feasting our eyes, the time inevitably came to leave. We found the sign marking our parking area, then set off to have a look around the city…