Kew - another damp visit

 Once again the heavy rain (for the most part) stayed away .. 

despite the light rain the dogwoods are still looking fabulous

plenty of raindrops down the Broad Walk

the shapes of the branches on the monkey puzzle tree fascinate me, and they make fabulous patterns.

we headed round towards the grass garden

there was a mass of colour as we came round the bend

and as we went past the entrance to the Duke's garden I caught sight of more colour - winter honeysuckle

we popped into the alpine house

teeny narcissus

and irises

outside, bullrushes

pretty tree trunk 

looking rather soggy in the rock garden; love the spikes though

decaying hydrangea flowers in the evolution garden

fading rose hips

euphorbia, the red leaves caught my eye

as we walked round past the POW conservatory we saw a group of visitors watching a tree

there were a couple of green parakeets in the upper branches 

another lady walked past us as we took a photo and said "they're such a nuisance!"  

not sure what this large bird is, cormorant possibly, sitting near the fountain - there were 2 of them

we headed past this large shrub, which has a fabulous scent

(chimonanthus)  there are 2 varieties next to each other, one smells stronger than the other

we headed in to the cafe for elevenses - sausage roll and hot chocolate 

after we came out we headed to the new Winter garden to check out the witch hazel

a red variety is coming out too

as I said last week they've relocated the hellebores here too,

this dark variety is gorgeous

and so is this lighter, speckled one

there are some trees at the bottom of the path round the winter garden, paused for more lichen shots

the paler ones are on the slope of the winter garden (I'll try and take a wide angle shot next week to show what it looks like)

we had to squish across the grass to get to these

we went into the Temperate House next, and blogger has decided to reverse the next set of photos

Kim noticed these purple berries - the label says it is Blue Lily Pilly....

bit blurry, sorry

and on the corner by the stairs up to the viewing platform was a mass of lilac flowers

on the corner by the "back door"  a large yellow shrub, can never normally get successful shots of it

and across the central area on the other side by the main door, some primulas coming into bloom

tree palms

unfurling ferns 

these tiny white flowers always fascinate me but this is the only one that was reasonably focused 

we didn't go up to the viewing platform today, this is better seen from the stairs down as you get a better view, but I love this tall shrub

new life on a plant

weeping cabbage palm   nothing looked like cabbage at this stage....

whilst we were inside the TH we realised we had been incredibly fortunate to come in when we did, as outside there was a sudden torrential downpour. 

so we walked round again, 

I have never noticed how hairy the undersides of these flowers are!

this is on the other side of the path to the one above

it's an erica (member of the heather family)

such tiny delicate flowers

for once, blogger reversing the photos has worked...

this sign wasn't there when I saw the flower last time I was in here, 

and whilst they say it won' t be there for long, it;s lasted a couple of weeks so far!

as we got back to the last path through the glasshouse,

we heard signing - and eventually found the bird responsible, a robin

when we got to the far end we could see that the rain had stopped again so we headed out

the prunus trees are coming into bud

and there were raindrops falling off all the branches from the downpour - we were so lucky with our timing, if we'd been out in the gardens with no shelter, despite umbrellas, we'd have been soaked!

we decided not to venture along this mudbath of a path

as we neared the Japanese garden these branches laden with berries and covered in water drops stopped us

we had to walk onto the soggy grass to get the photos 

but worth it

more lichen on branches 

we headed back along the path past the Mediterranean garden on our way to the exit

there were no chances for shadow pics today, but I did get some puddle pics instead!

this is one of the massive trees they cover in lights for Christmas

on the phone, was able to get more in

and this was an earlier one I took on the phone 

Thanks for looking, hope you enjoyed the walk.

see you next week