Kew

Time for another visit to Kew!  No fog today, or rain either!! 

 I walked round the other side of the pond first today

 great reflections  -  ripply ones

  still ones!

 a quick walk down part of the Broad Walk

 and round to the Hive

 still lots of leaves on trees and colour on the leaves

 this beauty is the one I saw through the structure of the Hive

 I just love the patterns on it's leaves

 next to it, the huge Maidenhair tree (gingko)  is stunning

 shedding a little yellow carpet!

 into the Princess of Wales glasshouse early on today

 and I struck lucky

the water dragon was again sitting in the water on the rock

 and another one, on the through in the next part

fabulous!

 I took the steps up to the upper level and disturbed a third water dragon sat on the path, but it shot off into the undergrowth and disappeared... so 3 today!

 as I walked back down towards the exit, I stopped to look at this, that I'd seen on Kew's FB page yesterday

I'll let the sign tell you about them

 the alpine house from the evolution garden

echinacea seed pods

 I love how the flowers of the physalis decay

 these grass seedheads were bright in the sun

 the strawberry tree

is still looking pretty

 back at the top of the Broad Walk, loved how the sun was shining through the remaining leaves

 a pair of swans (and two large cygnets) were sailing across the pond

 creating nice reflections







I headed for something to eat

which I managed to eat outside, as it wasn't too cold, although most of the seats were quite wet from the overnight rain.


hot chocolate, (my latest favourite drink, they make it very well at Kew)  and a blueberry muffin.   they seem to have a limited selection in the Victoria Gate cafe at the moment....

 the smokewood tree still beautiful

I decided to head down the route of the Christmas at Kew trail...

 where one of the trees whose leaves are still golden, are now full of golden balls! 

 the trees in the distance were sparkly in the sun, like the lights in the foreground

 looking back at the tree with the balls  I suppose I should call them baubles really!


they were too high up for selfies! 

 behind me the sky was quite grey, but it did make the leaves pop

 turning back round again, the sun was shining through these leaves

 and behind me glistening on the lights

 outside the gallery, the acers were brilliant!

inside the gallery, a new display has gone up, the rooms are full of botanical drawings and paintings. 

I only took one photo today, of my favourite (or part of it )

from an artist who paints on the reverse of the glass,  and I just loved it and the shadows it created on the back of the painting



you know how I love teasels!  and shadows...

 walking along the path towards the Temperate House, the sky was looking quite ominous but again, the colours popped against the grey

 climbed the stairs to the platform

 the palms were translucent in the sunshine

 so I took loads

 and then down at ground level again

there were some new flowers around the ledges in the intersections

 this one is called Paint Brush... anyone would think it's a Chihuly piece!

 spotted this at the foot of a plant in one of the beds

 as I went out of the door, I took this because the sun was shining on it.  I only just saw the cobweb!

 they were putting the finishing touches to the lights on the trees

 they work!  they'll be pretty at night

 I walked up the path towards the Japanese Garden

 walking through the grass and the heavy leaf litter, I saw a little clump of funghi

 the rowan was still smothered

 and I love this pink-y berries

 still neatly raked!

 I turned to head across the grass to the lake

 the trees along the walk towards the lake were stunning

 but the sun was going - should have come her first!

I decided to head home before it rained

 walking past the Palm House a large flock of gulls were flying around the other end







I decided to detour to see if the water dragons were still out.....

 loved the sky over the Princess of Wales glasshouse!



the water dragons had all gone, though

 so I headed off to the Orangery cafe (for the loo) 

and home... beating the rain, as it happened, luckily.


thanks for looking