Christmas at Butchart Gardens

Every year I try to make it out to Butchart Gardens to see the Christmas lights. Sometimes the weather is too rainy or cold but this year it was perfect–cool but clear.

Here is their poinsettia window:  

Of course, that’s only part of the fun. They also have a very cool diorama with train sets that is extremely popular with little kids and grown-up kids but resulted in blurry pictures. But the best part of the display is the outdoors stuff, because it’s like walking through an after-dark fairyland. It’s possible to imagine all sorts of unearthly adventures in the glittering, secret darkness. After all, isn’t it the delightful trickery of dazzling illusion what the otherlands is all about? Here’s a taste for you (or as good a taste as an iPhone can manage!):