Kew - boy what a scorcher!

so, on the hottest day of the year, what do you do... why you go to Kew of course...

 as I crossed Kew Bridge just after 7.30 the river was very low (the Thames is a tidal river of course)

 as I walked past the church on Kew Green I took a photo

 before my normal first pic... beds all fully planted in front of the Palm House and the sky blue, it was already about 24 (scheduled to hit 34 in some parts of the south -- it's currently 32 as I am writing this post)

Summer Sun certainly sparkling today

 red and purple theme

 paintbrushes shimmering

 lilies - these aren't heavily scented

 but were full of pollen as this little hover -type thing came in to feast

scabious

 little patch of poppies

 I love these!  they are so tall

 wildflower meadow

 I sat on the floor of the hive for a few minutes

 rock garden

alstromeria lilies

 they still haven't finished refurbishing the family beds though you can walk down part of it (from behind a barrier)

 lots of water sprinkling going on (very refreshing if you strayed close)

 clematis

artichoke

 these white flowers were huge ( I am sure I know what they are really....)  love the centres

 I took loads of this butterfly but not many of them were fully focused...

another clump of these lovelies (in the bed at the back of the veg garden)

 sweet peas

 another clematis mingling with lavender

 back to the Palm House from behind the pond

 one of the growing goslings, losing their fluff rapidly and starting to develop proper feathers

 walked past the end of the Palm House beds again

 past the rose garden

huge palm

phone shadow selfie down the steps to...

 these (Neodymium reeds and turquoise marlins)

the temple was making a nice backdrop

 and from there round the corner to...

 loving the poppies growing up in the long grass

 the cattails make a great backdrop for the grasses too

 headed for the lake

 where the cygnets were messing about in the water - with mum and dad! 

 I carried on round to the end of the lake (what I think of as the bottom - the nearest end to the main gardens)

where I sat in the shade of this huge tree on the Lockerbie bench for a few minutes

as you can see the benches go all the way round

 I walked back up the other side of the lake so I could walk up Cedar Vista - no sign of peacocks in trees today, (it was a bit later than I was here last week) although I did hear one a few minutes later; no idea where the sound came from though

 lilies in the little pond halfway up

 cutting through a carpet of dandelions towards...

 the now open Temperate House..

was quite restrained today though

 took more of the large tubs of (ox eye daisies?) 

which I love

Ikebana,  from a slightly different angle

 yellow ones...

more white ones, these are in beds not tubs

 leaving the Temperate House headed along the path past Lime Crystal Tower

I love this one in the sun

outside the gallery where the inside Chihuly sculptures are

 I didn't take any inside today, just sat in the room they're showing a film about Dale and his works, on a loop - I've seen most of it now without ever sitting through the whole thing in one go


it was nice and cool in the dark!

I think it was at this point that I had coffee and cake (inside, too hot to sit outside as there was no shade)

today's cake - a new one to try - chocolate ombre cake (appealed to the crafter in me) - light chocolate sponge with a yummy chocolate filling in the middle...

 inside the Princess of Wales glasshouse now




these pretty little pink flowers are

 growing on the top of these spiky cacti things

 and I love how this (think it's an aloe) has pink and mauve flowers

I was looking mainly for Chinese Water Dragons of course, because 30 degree heat outside wasn't hot enough, had to come in for higher temps!

 love these splotchy leaves
they grow rapidly in the humid atmosphere

 this has been planted in the tree trunk thing the jaguar was sitting on from the orchid display in February

I cut through a tunnel under the upper level to the main area (where the sloth was)  and whilst I was taking this, hanging from above somewhere,  I saw....

 yay!!


sitting on a wall of the pond (the mangroves in the background)

 went round to catch him from the other side between the mangroves...

 kept going back and forth to get better sots!

 went up to see if I could see any others anywhere else...

 there weren't any others anywhere, so I came back round.

lotus flower sitting on the water

 he was still there

 I didn't have the longest zoom with me today so this was as close as I could get

 bright pink bottle brush

 out on the Broad Walk again, red hot pokers enjoying the sun (I was struggling!)

 achilliea

 osteospurman (African daisies)

 sat on the grass under the shade of a big tree..

watched the ice cream hut.... yep, had to have one!

Broad Walk




after I had my ice cream, I headed across the grass (in the shade where possible as it was now mid-day plus some and very hot)

 to the waterlily house... can't miss this ever

 large gourd hanging down over the path

 back outside again,   I think Summer Sun goes well with this summer colour scheme

 I knew the red are begonias, but didn't know what the blue/purple were ...  scaevola aemula   none the wiser but now you know

variety is Whirlwind Dark Blue.. fyi!

the taller ones in the middle are I think cannas. 



I had had enough now and was melting so headed for home

walking back across Kew Bridge (just before 1pm)  - tide has come in!



had a faff with the trains due to signalling problems - English transport doesn't cope with extremes of weather of hot/wet/cold/windy! 

but home ok in the end... today's photo count only 192 - the heat got to me - but hope you enjoyed them!