Also considering...

Besides the pink fawn lilies at Annie's house,

(you can read about that here)

I also went out to have a look at an incredible display which happens

every year at Old St Mary's church in Metchosin under the sheltering Garry Oaks...

The grounds are a flood of tiny white bells...

 What a restful place to lay...

 Carefully mown paths are cut just wide enough to stroll amongst the multitude of beauty

Joining the lilies are throngs of bluebells, pink bells, camus and native bleeding heart...

During this time there is a fibre arts show inside the little church

called 'Consider the Lilies' and I always wondered why they called it this.

So I went to Goo U (google university / aka the internet ) and found 

this verse from the bible...

 "Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."

  

The next day on my walk down the road, I also considered the hawthorn and the crab apple...

 What a plethora of blossoms there are that whirl about in the spring breeze

 these promising first weeks of spring!

Oh, and don't forget...always fun to find a good rusty bit of an old truck in the bush!!

Lilies of the Fields...

There's a magical place about a half hour drive from here...

Down Kangaroo Road, to Happy Valley Rd (sounds pretty good already?)...

Take a right on Metchosin, just past the country store...

Next to the garage...

...sits the most beautiful little church.

St Mary the Virgin.

Not only is this a pretty little churchyard, rimmed with a white picket fence, 

but something special happens on it's grounds this time of year...

  The dog tooth violets come out in all their glory!

Just about every inch of the 2 acres is covered in these little 'Easter lilies'.

One of our most delicate native wild flowers.

This church was established in 1873 with 2 acres of land which was donated by John Witty.

He was the first pioneer buried here.

Many local frontiers people are laid to rest amongst the lilies...

Their worn and faded headstones, scattered between the flowers...

Some names look familiar...

Sharing namesakes with the rich and famous.

Others are only names on simple crosses...

It's such a peaceful place to spend some time, questioning history, contemplating...

Communing with the cows...

Watching spring, finally bursting forth...

In a week or so, these flowers will have started to fade, giving way to summer meadow grass.

But for 2 fine weeks around Easter, we are treated to witness a lovely little miracle of spring.

Rejoice!

Guess what we were doing?

Yesterday there was a definite feel of spring in the air.

After cleaning up in the garden, I met my friend for a walk on the beach...

This is Taylor beach in Metchosin. 

It's west of Victoria and east of where I live...

That's Victoria from where we stood.

It was a good day to collect little bits of beach glass and look at all the pretty bits of seaweed that had washed up with the spring tides...

Everything seemed to be full of fun...Clams sticking their tongues out at me...

Even the shackiest of shacks had their doors flung open to the new air...

There were heart hoof prints in the sand...

This region is home to some beautiful farms and fields.

On the road down to the beach we visited with some curious Norwegian Fjord horses...

They still have their fuzzy winter coats on.

I love how their manes grow, thick and standing straight up like that...

Imagine living in this big farmhouse on a wild and windy night by the sea!

A lot of sheep are raised in the open fields around Metchosin and right now is lambing season...

Lot's of baby noises going on all around us...

Some of these are maybe a day or two new to this world...

Look! There's some cute little black ones...

I wonder what kind of trouble they'll get up to?

This mama kept her eye on us the whole time...you can see her in just about every photo I took...

There she is again!
The eyes and ears of the flock...

So, at one point, Norene says to me
"Why do they have numbers painted on them?"
I came up with a few ideas...
keeping the right lamb with the right mom, identifying certain farms,etc
and then it came to me as I was looking at the pictures...
So, can you guess what we were doing?!

Why, counting sheep, of course!
That's what the numbers are for!