Victoria BC

This morning we spent some time wandering around the Ross Bay Cemetery.  It has the feel of the cemetery in Ferndale, CA.  “Ross Bay Cemetery has the oldest surviving formal landscape design in BC and is a superb example of a Victorian-era burial ground.”  Many famous Canadians and Americans are buried here.

 An interesting gravesite

 Billy Barker (discoverer of gold at Barkerville)

We were intrigued with what "reluctantly returned imperfect" meant.

 This family plot struck us as particularly poignant.  The writing around the bench reads:  "Here rests a Pacific Family.  They were lovely and pleasant in their lives.  And in their death they were not divided."

Then we drove to the Chinese Cemetery.  An extraordinary spot which was chosen because of its use of the principles of Feng Shui.

"The twin towers of the ceremonial altar, used for burning joss sticks and for offerings of food, stand overlooking magnificient views toward the Olympic Mountains." Of course, this photo is looking in the opposite direction.

“Until the Second World War, when Chinese residents passed away, they were only buried temporarily in Canada. Chinese immigrants believed that after a person died, his or her soul would still hover over the tomb. Individuals who were buried away from their village of origin would be homeless. Chinese residents organized shantang, or charity societies, to collect the bones of deceased members and ship them back to China, so that their souls could rest. A shantang usually included people from the same county in China. In 1887, there were eleven shantang in Victoria. After a person had died and was buried for seven years, his grave would be dug up and his bones cleaned and dried. The bones would then be packed in a crate with the name of the person, birth and death dates, and home village in China.”

We stopped at the Oak Bay Beach Hotel – what a lovely hotel!!  While we’ve been here in Victoria we’ve seen several references to David Foster but didn’t connect them to the David Foster we’re familiar with.  We didn’t know that David Foster we know is a Canadian and in fact, born and bred in Victoria!  How about that?

David Foster

Oak Bay Beach Hotel

Oak Bay Beach Hotel

We walked over to what Norm calls my “mothership.”  This is St. Ann’s Academy which was the mother house for the Sisters of St. Ann.  They had another boarding school in New Westminster whose architecture was remarkably like this, where I lived from 1962 to 1965.  The BC government purchased the building from the Sisters of St. Ann in 1974.  We will be back to see the inside based on the following description from their website.

St. Ann's Academy, a National Historic Site

St. Ann's Academy, a National Historic Site

“Walk through the wrought-iron gate, along the drive, up the grand staircase and in the former school’s formal entrance. View the 1920’s era parlours then enter the chapel. Once Victoria’s first Roman Catholic Cathedral, it was built in 1858 and moved and added to the school in 1886. Like the many rural French Canadian churches it is modeled after, it has ornate altar and ceiling carvings, gold-leaf detailing, original oil paintings, stained glass windows and a 1913 Casavant pipe organ. The resplendent Novitiate garden at the side entrance to the Chapel has a geometric herb bed, perennials and a recreated 1925 summerhouse. The 1910 formal garden at the north-west corner of the property contains rare trees and the remains of a unique fountain.”

We finished our day at the Bengal Lounge with what have to be the absolute best martini’s anywhere!