Dateline: Victoria – springtime notes, eh?

A street perfomer who makes balloon animals takes a quick iPhone break, on a sunny weekend day near the Empress Hotel on the Inner Harbour.

I thought I would take a moment to report in from 7 miles away that Victoria had a sunny summer–like weekend just now, just like you. I see it is my purpose in life to report to you what I see in the streets, so here goes:

•  Hockey isn’t going very well. Our beloved Canucks lost their playoff series last night with San Jose, but people will still crowd the bars, taverns, and pizza places, to see the other guys play. Meanwhile, it’s nice to see that the Mariners are playing Victoria native Michael Saunders regularly in the outfield, and using Jason Bay (Trail, BC) a good bit lately.

The music scene is quite diverse in lower-island Vancouver Island, as you can tell from the way this used CD shop is organized.

• Someone asked me 2 months ago if it was a good idea to come see Butchart Gardens, with the rainy late-winter weather and all.

I’ve seen the gardens in all four seasons, and there is no bad time to catch them. However, the next few weeks are a brilliant time to take that short ferry trip from Friday Harbor to Sidney to visit, with all the springtime blooms. Since the twice a day ferry doesn’t start until mid-June, that means you’ll have to spend the night, but I’m pretty sure you’ll be glad you did.

It was fun to run into Princess Leia at a used DVD shop downtown…. photo by NASA photo contributor Josie Byington.

• People asked me what music is like here in the Victoria area, and I can say with assurance that it’s alive and diverse, with Sting, Leo Kottke, Steve Miller, and other famous groups dropping by, while the coffee houses and taverns seem to have someone playing somewhere nearly every night.

It was cool to see 25-year-olds cheering for classic rock band at the Irish Times the other night, older folks at the sky Festival last summer, and a mix of all kinds of music set for the summer program in Beacon Hill Park. Sounds good.

It was cool to run into islanders James Krall (he’s teaching in Alaska these days), Nancy Young (she’s selling real estate on the island), and grandaughter Jenny MacDonald (she’s at the University of Victoria) all getting together to take Nancy & James’ mom Ann to dinner for her 80th a few weeks ago in downtown Victoria – James flew in just for the occasion, and it was great to see a surprised grandmother. Happy birthday, Ann!

• One of the interesting things about living on this side of the water from the island is discovering that folks have concerns about looking after the area, just like islanders do.

Local islander Steve Miller has a date in June in Victoria…..

We’ve attended protests at the legislature addressing forest use, attended lectures that speak to the Kinder Morgan pipeline, heard about what people think about coal trains, and found a number of folks ready to work hard to be good stewards of the province’s resources.

To go with all that, the provincial election is in a week, and presently the NDP (liberal) folks are expected to take control of the legislature from the Liberals (middle-of-the-road), with the Greens hoping to win a few seats (they were only 3 percentage points from winning a by-election in November), and the Conservatives (called the Tories) expected to cut into vote totals, but only a bit…the Tories presently don’t hold a seat in the 85-seat legislature, and so far I haven’t seen one of their signs anywhere, although I’m guessing they’re putting their money into other parts of the province, where they have a better chance.

If that seems unbalanced or something, consider that Alberta next door has 87 seats, and only nine are NDP or Liberal there.

Spotted in Cool Street Village, just a few blocks from downtown….take what you you need!

Travel correspondent Ian Byington’s special reports to the Update are posted whenever the prose is clear, the photos crisp, and the weather nice enough to go out & play in. He & Josie currently live in Victoria, BC after nearly two decades on San Juan Island.

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