Autumn Colour at Kew

Well , the sky was grey but the trees and bushes made up for that! The wind and rain of the last week or so have made a lot of the trees drop their leaves, but there was still plenty of colour!  A good walk round Kew again this morning, I'll leave the photos to (mostly) do the talking...

 whilst it was too damp to lie down, I did lots of crouching!

love these mossy steps outside the Princess of Wales conservatory!

and reflections in the lily pond inside

and mossy stones

 and bright Bromeliads!

 the waterlily house was empty of people (like it best like that!)
this is from the doorway

 Used to love scuffing through leaves as a kid - and as a big girl it's no different!!

 no sun, but still lots of reflections..

 went up the Treetop Walkway for the first time in ages (no wonder my legs ache!)

lots of fallen conkers from the trees that grow all around the Walkway

















love how the handrail is weathering!

I was about to leave to come home, when I realised I hadn't gone back to see the Henry Moore sculpture - luckily on my way I saw this fabulous colour!











 and love it out of focus behind these purple flowers. (which I don't know what they are)

and through this branch

keep your eye on the hole between her body and arm..

more crouching to get the trees behind!

and a final look at my favourite fountain, before taking my weary legs home!

Shame the sky wasn't blue, as backdrops to these photos (I don't know how to adjust the colour, so I've left them as they come off the camera!!

Port Sunlight - the photogenic bit!

So, if you've come from stampingbyh, you'll have seen the crafty bit of the story, if not it's here;  This is the beautiful bit!

Port Sunlight is a fabulous village on the Wirral in Merseyside, set up by William Lever for his factory workers. We (Sam, Emma Lin and I) were there for the Happy Stampers stamp show, this last weekend.  We arrived on Friday afternoon and once we'd settled into the hotel, set off for a look round.

How pretty is this?  Well done for Sam for finding it.

Lin and my room

 Hulme Hall, where the stamp show is held.

 Leaning on a lamppost... memories of our Paris trip! Thanks to a passerby for taking one with all of us in it!

 and here we have another signpost, all rusty and rustic!

beautifully kept bowling greens

 we spied this pretty archway...

 and found the Hillsborough Memorial Garden (for a Liverpool fan this is especially poignant)

 and a little further along, a war memorial.

 Liverpool was like so many major cities, and especially as a port, hit particularly hard in the war. The bronzes were so beautiful.

 Shame the sun wasn't shining, the hotel manager told me this morning as we were leaving, it looks so beautiful with the sun shining on the water.

 the Port Sunlight museum, which if it had been open, we'd have loved to have visited... maybe next time!

and we walked round the Church ...the graveyard was beautifully tended,

and lovely carvings on the walls

Wish we could have spent more time exploring Port Sunlight (and Liverpool itself) - like I say, maybe next time!!