I have become an apiarist (a beekeeper).  The bee on the left is a bee from one of the two colonies I purchased. 

Fascinating and industrious, the bees are enjoying the many flowers around here.  Many were checking out our gladiolus patch.  

Some more photos of our many gladiolus are available here.

Our gladiolus are have started to bloom at the farm.  We have thousands of them! Many are baby plants, but quite a few grown specimens are producing a lot of flowers in a wide variety of colours.

The bulbs were left behind by the previous owners of the farm we recently purchased.  The plants came up in what we were going to make our vegetable garden, but we decided to keep the gladiolus to see what they would do.  Very glad we did as many are very interesting varieties.  Now we need to decide where we will expand them to so the baby gladiolus plants have room to grow.

To see all the Gladiolus pictures click here

This year the Victoria Orchid Society's Orchid show was held at the Student Union Building (the sub) at UVic.  The place has changed quite a bit!  While the show was small there were still some interesting specimens, and many temptations for sale.  One day when I have a greenhouse...

Click here for the rest of the photos from the show.

Got to visit Los Angeles to escape the winter here. Definately sunny there but it gets cool when the sun goes down. Visited LA Arboretum and Huntington Gardens to see the aloes in bloom. Took a drive to Hollywood and Beverly Hills to see the sites. Beverly Hills has large roads with gorgeous palms lining the street and the famous Rodeo Drive. The last day we went to The Getty Center which sits atop of the Santa Monica Mountains and overlooks the whole city.

Click here to see all the Los Angeles shots.

Decided to take a trip to see the Christmas lights at Butchart Gardens. It had snowed which made it spectacular! Butchart hired ice skaters to perform and carolers to sing. It really feels like Christmas.

More  photos can be found here.