okay, so i am realizing that updates that are 3 months behind aren't really updates. i'll try to be more up-to-date, and i'll fill in the missing parts later.

justin was just visiting me in victoria for 2.5 weeks, but he left yesterday morning. boo. (either i am terrible at using blogspot, or it is a terrible program; in either case, i always have trouble getting my photos to line up the way i want them to, so i am going to separate my justin-visit post into several different posts so that i can put the pictures in easier.)

we have both been feeling sort of sluggish and out of shape lately - he has been spending most of his time working at the studio and not messengering, and i have been spending most of my time sitting and reading or writing inside, so one of the first things justin did when he got here was exercise by doing handstands.

the second day he was here, we went to the butchart gardens. my parents had taken me there when they came to visit over thanksgiving, and although i am pretty disinterested in gardens in general, the butchart gardens were amazing. i told my mom that justin would love seeing them (he has a fondness for flowers), and so she offered to give us a trip to the gardens as an early christmas present to us. so, we rented a car from the car share cooperative i just joined (!) and drove out to the gardens. the weather was sunny and warm and amazing.

(<---this picture is of justin with his rose thorn horn)

in case you don't know much about the gardens, here's the important information. the gardens used to be a limestone quarry and cement factory owned by a guy named robert butchart. once the good limestone had been quarried, his wife, jennie butchart, decided to turn the whole thing into a garden. the picture at the bottom of this post is of me and justin with the sunken garden in the background. the mound in the middle is a giant lump of limestone that wasn't a high enough quality to be quarried, apparently. this was my favourite garden, followed closely by the japanese garden - lots of bamboo and moss! anyway, if you happen to find yourself in victoria at some point, even if you are ambivalent to gardens/flowers like i am, you should totally visit the butchart gardens.