Emily Carr Statue

Local artist Emily Carr was honoured in 2010 with this statue on the corner of Government Street by the Empress Hotel. Emily Carr was born in Victoria in 1871, lived here most of her life and died here in 1945. She was an accomplished writer as well as a painter. Wikipedia has a good article about her work and life.

Victoria

This is the statue of Queen Victoria as a young monarch. It is located in front of the British Columbia Legislative Assembly Buildings overlooking the Inner Harbour. The statue, somewhat more than life size, stands imposingly atop a high pedestal so that her feet are a good ten feet (about 3 meters) above the ground. I find it interesting to compare this with the modern statue of Sir John A. MacDonald, our first Prime Minister, by the entrance to the Victoria City Hall. He stands only slightly elevated above passersby.

Violinist - Bastion Square

Downtown today to photograph one of Victoria's mechanical street clocks but got sidetracked about three times on the way there. Bastion Square was decked out for spring and this street musician was seated in front of his home at the Lighthouse Gallery. He can be seen in the broader context of Bastion Square at the bottom right of the photo below.
The second digression today was a visit to the Maritime Museum, just visible through the branches of the tree on the left. I was stunned by the range of interesting artifacts and information there AND one can take photographs so....

Bastion Square is not so much a square as a series of pedestrian-only open spaces running from Government Street down to Wharf Street (two blocks). At this time of year craftsmen and artists stalls here mingle with art galleries, sidewalk cafes and bars. It is the site of the original Fort Victoria and is intimately associated with the history and development of the city. We'll be visiting it often over the next months since nearly every building has a story to tell.

Sale!

On Yates Street in downtown Victoria.

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One of my ulterior motives for doing this blog is to hone my photography skills. The photo above is interesting but after posting it I began to think it too busy, too much information...or something. Anyway, here is a second version of the same photo that I prefer. What do you think? I welcome any criticism or suggestions.

Captain Cook

Another statue graces the Inner Harbour, as prominently displayed as Queen Victoria's, facing the Empress Hotel, that of Captain James Cook. Victoria must be excused a bit of shameless name-dropping here. The famed explorer did not actually stop at Victoria. However, in 1778 he must have passed nearby on his way to Nootka Sound, further up the island. He was looking for a western exit to the fabled northwest passage. Not finding it, he turned around and went back to the South Seas, where he met his untimely end. Travelling with Cook on this voyage were two other later-to-be-famous sailors. Midshipman George Vancouver, who later returned to these waters as Captain Vancouver, has the honor of having Vancouver Island named after him as well as two neighbouring cities, one in British Columbia and another in Washington State, USA. The other famous seaman on Cook's last voyage was the Master of one of Cook's two ships, the Resolution, one William Bligh, later captain of the HMS Bounty when her crew mutinied.

I am particularly fond of this period of nautical history and am looking forward to the Tall Ships Festival later in the year (June 26-29), when Victoria will host sailing ships from many parts of the world. This year we have been promised a visit from the replica of HMS Bounty that was commissioned especially for the film, "Mutiny on the Bounty" starring the late Marlon Brando. I am looking forward to photographing it from stem to stern.

Queen Victoria

No blog about Victoria would be complete without some reference to the Queen for whom the city was named, so here is a photo of the statue of Queen Victoria that stands in front of the Legislative Assembly Buildings. This is a young Queen Victoria, quite different from the aged queen we are more used to seeing (below), but when the city was founded in 1843, Victoria had only been 6 years on the throne and, at 24 years old, may have been very like this statue.Below is a photo of the statue overlooking the Inner Harbour with the Empress Hotel on the right. The Empress Hotel, built shortly after her death, was named after the Queen in her role as Empress of India.