Mom-Day Adventure: Heritage Acres in Orange and Green, Plus a Short Thrift

With a weekend heatwave looming, Mom and I took the opportunity to visit a new place for our Mom-Day Adventure: Heritage Acres, an indoor/outdoor museum "that houses, restores, displays and demonstrates artifacts telling a story of early life including farming, country living and industry on Vancouver Island BC and adjoining areas" (source here).

A good review of it here, pre-pandemic. We were the only visitors there, aside from a rowdy group of kids earlier on. 

I dressed for anything. I didn't find out until Mom was about to pick me up where we were going - she likes to surprise me! 

I have layers on to make up for not having a jacket - and since it was "only" supposed to go to 18 today, I risked being overly warm

• Sweater - Banana Republic, thrifted; last worn here in September 2021 with yellow and brollys
• Skirt - Hooper, vintage 70s, thrifted; last seen here in May 2021 for a Mental Health Shop
• Shoes - Propaganda, consignment; last worn here in May with zebra and brown

I let my hair air-dry, which is why it's shaggy today. It's a shag, baby! 

I have only worn this skirt a few times, but it's such a fun piece - I've done orange, green and black with it so far and didn't vary that here. 

My arms are sunblocked up - I appreciate the longer sleeves of this silk blend thin sweater.

The skirt is superb quality - it's made in Austria! 

It's fully lined in red, and there are snap fasteners at the top 

It's a thick double-knit polyester. 

I layered a full vintage slip as well as my shorts underneath. 

I was actually chilly at points. 

Hat as sunblock. 

I actually wore my scarf the whole day. 

I liked the extra silky warmth. 

I liked it trailing behind me, wafting in the breeze. 

Masked up. 

I had to hold my hat a few times when it got too windy. 

Accoutrements: 

I always forget about my hats. 

• Purse - Banana Republic, consignment
• Hat - thrifted
• Scarf - Metropolitan Museum of Art gift shop, thrifted
• Mask - by Mom

The stuff: 

I dug out my silicon toe covers and went barefoot. Aside from the slingbacks slipping off every so often (the bane of skinny-heeled people), these were great. I walked home from downtown in them too. 

Green and orange bling:

No surprises here. 

• Necklace - vintage 70s, Mom's
• Hinged enamel bangles - thrifted
• Glass bangle - thrifted
• Orange bracelet/ring - Italian, vintage 60s, vintage mall
• Silver/aventurine ring - consignment
• Earrings - vintage 1920s, vintage fair

Mom wore a pink and white striped top I'd bought her for her birthday. 

Looking snappy, Mom! 

We drove out to the Saanich Peninsula along the Pat Bay Highway and turned off here. 

Michel's Farms are famous - a great place to buy locally grown fruit and veggies. 

Turn at the tractors! 

I hope you like old farm equipment. I do! 

That might surprise you, but I've been to dozens of agricultural fairs growing up here. 

A handy map. I outlined our route with red dots: along the train area, circling the duck pond and walking around the perimeter, with a jaunt down the main "street".

The local model engineer club operates trains here that you can ride on. 

There weren't any in operation today. 

We passed this house with a sign outside, "Private home."

I wouldn't want to live in the middle of this, but Mom said she thought it was the caretakers' residence. 

"Mom, take my picture!"

I love trains. This little one is so cute! 

As we neared the duck pond, we spotted a windmill. 

The structure is a waterwheel! 

There are tracks near the path. 

Railway tracks evoke a lot of memories of visiting my great uncle and great-grandmother in Saskatchewan in the 70s. He ran a train station, which we all stayed at. 

The pond! 

We didn't see a single duck. 

But we saw a ton of water lilies, all different kinds. 

Yellow irises too. 

The windmill. 

So cool. 

The pond surface was nearly overgrown. 

The building on the other side is the boathouse. 

Lilies. 

So pretty! 

The air hummed with dragonflies.

Birds flitted around, peeping at us.

White lily.

Pink lily. 

I can't choose, I love them both. 

This piece of art caught me by surprise.

It's a heron! 

More tracks. 

The lure to follow them...

Looking back at the windmill. 

See the heron's head? 

BUNNY!

He was listening to us.

Then we saw this one.

They both bounded away as we got closer. 

Another lily.

I can't help it. 

Mom under the willows as we finished our circuit. 

Dappled light. 

The waterwheel in operation. 

The boathouse. 

I popped in quickly. 

Boats, as suspected. 

Mom had made good progress along the tractor gauntlet. 

I was itching to climb on them. 

More rusting farm equipment. 

This is very much what the paths and layout is: wide and ambling. It invites exploration. 

I spotted this vintage Peek Frean cookie tin in a repair shed. 

The jar of nails made me nostalgic for my dad's workshop. 

This is the Tilikum Building. 

There's a horse in it! 

There he is! 

The room was full of carriages, sleds and other horse-drawn contraptions. 

Meet Peanuts. 

One of Dad's friends was a Kersey, of the Kersey Peanut Butter family. 

I like the Doctor's Wagon. 

It reminds me that we own a vintage doctor's bag from this era that belonged to L's grandfather. 

Mom beside this awesome contraption. 

I don't know what it is, but I want to sit on that seat and ride the rails! 

I swooned over this classic car. 

Mom egged me to ask to sit in it, but I couldn't. A gentleman did spot us walking past and offered to walk us over to a building he said we'd like. 

Thank you, Rob (president of the society that runs the place!).

I left the SmartCar in the picture because it amuses me how big it looks beside the miniature barn. 

Here's our destination, an early "flat pack" house.

We had a quick peek inside! 

This painting was only a couple inches across. 

What a cool frame. 

This is the exhibit Rob wanted us to see - I guess my outfit tipped him off that I'd appreciate it. And he was right! 

All of these dolls are made from corn husk with painted papier-mache faces, and there are male and female dolls in period clothing. It was overwhelming. 

This case had some Barbies (?) on it, plus corn husk hats made by the same woman who did the dolls, Theresa Knowlson. 

She apparently started doing these dolls and hats in her 80s! Amazing. 

There were two wedding dresses in this room too. 

You can see a bit more of the corn husk dolls there.

This dress had a picture of the bride with it. 

Fancy! 

A recreated antique kitchen. 

This reminded me of my great-grandmother's home in rural Saskatchewan. She had a water pump on her counter! 

Two more buildings. 

We didn't actually go into the main museum, but we left a donation.

This building was all about the trolleys that used to operate in Victoria. 

I liked the sign of all the neighbourhoods. Hillside is now one word, no idea where "Car Barn" was. 

Amazing flowers. 

Everything was so green. 

An old schoolroom set up. 

My mom remembered desks like this ("good for making other kids' writing skip when you bumped them" - what a scamp!). 

I liked the watering can sculpture in front of the log cabin. 

It was really fun looking around at all the old buildings, machinery and equipment. 

And the gardens are left very natural - wild roses were everywhere. 

Mom held this one for me so I could smell it and photograph it. Of course, she matches perfectly. 

The little chapel is lovely. 

You can actual hold events there, like weddings. 

We wandered around for about an hour and a half and then headed to Floyds for lunch. 

Thanks so much for sharing this cool place with me, Mom! Love you!

I bussed back to town and popped quickly into the WIN store on Pandora for a flip through the racks. 

I found a caftan set - this is the underneath dress. 

Kitty approved! 

This is the over-layer. 

Uh-oh, he's going in for a lick! 

Check out the amazing sleeves! 

"Yes, the tasty, tasty sleeves."

The floral design on the front has glitter on it and feels painted. 

I suspect this is a tourist set, possibly from Thailand. It's very soft and the labels are worn, indicating age. The brand is Basic, which is impossible to search for. 

It unfortunately is too big for me, so I've offered it to a friend. 

I only paid $11.95 for it, so not that big of a deal. Vizzini was far too interested in it! 

Aside from that fail, I did really well on my quick go-through of the racks. I only whipped through a few sections, and found treasures in every one! The caftan was in the dress section, and although I'm not keeping it, it was still a winner. 

This gorgeous pink skirt was in the vintage section. 

It's a two-button wrap (plus one hook and eye), and it fit me perfectly. 

It's vintage Gianni Versace. 

For $18.95? Are you kidding me? This is from the 1980s (it's nearly identical to one of the labels here at the Vintage Fashion Guild's site).

It's 100% linen and was made in Italy. It's in perfect condition - so excited to wear it. 

This blazer was also in the vintage section. Cobalt blue 100% silk? YES. 

The pockets are real. the sleeves are bracelet-length. Note all the seaming/tailoring on the front - this is a very fitted blazer, likely from the late 90s or early 00s. It has light shoulder pads.

The shell button at the front has a spare in the pocket, and matches the buttons on the sleeves - that sleeve is missing a button - looks like it broke off - as the other sleeve has five.

It was only $14.95. It has no brand label but it was made in Canada. I couldn't get any further in my detective work, but $14.95 seemed like a bargain! 

This blouse caught my hand - it's cotton and linen and all eyelet. No boring white tops for me! 

It's very well constructed, with that nice V in front and adjustable sleeves, which are either 2-button cuff or roll-up/tab on the sides. 

Fully washable and a spare button! So thoughtful! 

Christian Siriano! Made in India! Only $12.95! This is one of his TJ Maxx tops - how do I know this? I looked up the RN number and it told me. I'd guess sold for around $50.00 new. It's good quality.

And now, my friends, I'm going to be off for the weekend. I'll be back on Sunday with Fancy Friday and tales of adventure. 

"Just go, already."

I wish you all long snoozy naps in the sun.