Kew - dull but oh so colourful!

 It takes me some weeks to adjust to leaving for Kew at a sensible time after the early opening ends,  but at least today it was dry.

Thanks to the train timetable I was early so had time to walk to my "early" gate so we start ....

at the Palm house

I headed round the far side of the pond..

past the beautiful sculpture nestling in the greenery

past the big trees at the end of the Broad Walk..

into the evolution garden

well, raindrops... gotta be shared 

whilst the flowers are starting to fade, the colours are still vibrant

although they look as if they are faces drooping in sadness at the end of the season...

but raindrops.... gotta be shared!

I walked into one of the central squares to capture these - last week they were dripping with rain

dahlias in the background

but raindrops... gotta be shared....

the leaves of the physalis are dying back (and they've been well battered by rain) but still no webby skeletonising yet

some huge rose hips on one of the roses on the pergola down the central path

the pumpkins and squashes have been harvested and are on display

made me smile to see the "kew" scratched on the biggest one

towards the end of the path that cuts through to the rock garden, a large clump of beautiful nerines, 

the huge acer (under which the snowdrops bloom in spring) 

gorgeous colour

nestling up at the side of the alpine house,  red hot pokers

crocus in the alpine house

love the way the flowers fade upwards

it was hard to  leave anything out...

I walked back along the path at the top of the rock garden, to get back to the entrance tothe Princess of Wales glasshouse...

the acer from the path - it is huge 

agave inside the POW

but not much grabbed my attention today and the contrast of cold outside and humidity inside played havoc with condensation

always stop for the grevillea though, 

back outside...

raindrops,  gotta be shared...

walked up the Broad Walk - lots of colour over to my right...

cut across the grass to see 

at the end of the Broad Walk, I happened to see my friend who I often wait at the gate with, she'd come in a different way today

last week it was dripping with rain - as we stood there, a few drops fell again today,  but didn't last long

I headed into the Waterlily house

where I really struggled with misty lens!  

around the edges, in the raised planted area.  at first I wasn't sure if these were flowers or funghi!

(phone for this, camera just fogged up)  

the cactus in the hanging basket has had more flowers come out

I think this is a passionflower, will check progress next week

ivy hedge

my favourite autumn tree

I don't apologise for including so many,  have to make the most of it

I always share a few photos to FB as I walk round...

even an awful selfie - I have to take one when my hair is so red (Elizabeth it's not darker you see, it's the light that makes it look different colours.)  This is my favourite red I have done.

I'd still got my mask on from the waterlily house... you don't have to keep them on all the time you are in the gardens, only inside the buildings; although some people do. 

I had to take one last one as I walked away... 

before walking up the grass (very wet) to the Temperate House

so many colours!

the flowering cherries from the top of the steps at the entrance

inside,  the path to the left today

I got a bit huffy behind my mask as people were ignoring the one way signs and doubling back ad stuff, so i didn't linger inside much (although there was plenty of room)

these are the trees the other end of the TH, the ones that are underplanted with tulips 

I cut across the grass towards the gallery 

there were even some leaves dry enough to scuff through! 

the funghi from last week have grown

but just wait to see what I found later!

ok, into the gallery now!

I took some general pictures round the room

this is the pattern that is on my scarf, near enough

(which I wore today)

the exhibition is called Paradise Lost, so these are pages from Milton's work of that name, decorated. 

I haven't been able to find what the central installation is called (although it may be Passing Through)  

I got carried away!!

the base,  love the reflections

it was fun taking pictures inside through the  gaps

and from just outside

the hanging on the wall - it's done on black silk 

I love it!  (can you tell?!) 

I headed outside and across the grass again. the other way

where I saw something in the grass...

loads of groups of funghi...

some were slightly concave, 

there were little ones nestling by a tree stump

some were slightly rounded on top

the surface of the tree stump was even pretty

this on the phone shows the scale a bit better.

I decided to head for the lake but on my way...

another clump!

it's all the rain we had recently

there was a couple with a small baby and a toddler having some family photos taken under this tree

poor things they've suffered in the wind and rain

bracket fungus at the bottom of a tree trunk

I diverted up the path to the Japanese landscape to see how the colours were going...

before walking up to the lake

the sky had gone a bit gloomy so not much in the way of reflections

but still plenty of colour in the trees!

this is the tree that the Lockerbie bench sits around

I haven't been this far along this side of the lake for a while so not sure when this branch was lost.

once again I haven't stopped for coffee and cake so I was getting hungry and in need of a sit down...

these trees are so pretty in spring and now in their autumn colours

as I walked round to them, there were some more family photo sessions going on!

a different couple with a not quite so small baby this time!

and also 2 girls - no way would i have sat on the wet muddy ground today 

I headed back

the queue to go inside the Palm House was too long to bother 

so I joined the queue for the ladies loo instead!!

can you see the gull flying across the shot? a white blur, 

to the left just above  the flower bed 

there's a black crow too above the middle of the bed

you can see how big the red tree is that I spoke to my friend by earlier

 I walked along the Broad Walk to go home

thanks for looking, hope you enjoyed today - at least we didn't get wet