Kew - sunshine and a riot of colour

 Bank Holiday weekend, and sun was forecast!  Only one place to start Saturday..

the flowers are starting to fill out in the bedding.

the sun was already out and the sky blue... 

Kim had already been snapping at the gate though...

I've had my hair cut this week! 

new plants in the round beds at either end of the pond, too

after taking this one I changed lens to the macro

for more allium action 

they looked amazing in the early light

beautiful irises - Broad Walk 

patch of euphorbia in between groups of allium

parts of the Broad Walk have automated watering systems and the sprinklers had been on,  so there was some waterdrop action although it was hard to catch it

yay

the phone got some!  

then we headed round to Kew Palace to catch the Laburnum arch

there wasn't as much left as I thought, but what there was, was humming with bees!

from across the other side of the sunken garden

chives flowering  

member of the allium family, obviously 

peony in the sun in the sunken bed

oxeye daisy

more irises,  near the childrens garden

in bud, they were almost black

petals curling to make a viewing hole!

the children's garden was open, and as you no longer have to book, and there was no-one on the gate, we were able to go in and have a look round...

there are all kinds of tunnels and climbing things and areas to play

the light shining through the coloured glass on this tunnel was lovely -  in the picture above you can see the floor "painted" orange

despite not being children, we did walk across the stepping stones!

there were a few families in playing early, but we kept out of their way

we got lost - well, there is one way out and we had trouble finding our way back to it...

blogger is playing games again with the order

hmm, we've been here before...

slides into sandpit.... 

lots of different textures and surfaces for kids 

as we reached the exit a tame squirrel ran up to us - it had been looking for food by the bin at the gate -  

of course it moved as I took this one!

then we headed towards the lake  Palm House across the grass

this is all that's left of the mirror installation.... sad face!!   

this tree and the dappled shade through the blossom was much nicer in reality

yellow irises at the lakeside

on the other bank 

the swan and her babies swam across the lake to our side

duck sunbathing... love the irredescent feathers on his head, look blue from one direction or green from the other! (above) 

today saw the "opening" of their new trails -  a summer thing... we came across the Wanderer trail - having not stopped at the kiosk at the main entrance to find out much about it...

each one has a "theme" and guest artists 

(hopefully you can see it if you click to enlarge)  which are meant to give you thought...   

I think it's designed to get you to explore parts of Kew you may not know... probably safe to say we weren't very impressed but will have a look at more another time and read the "blurb" at the gate!  

pond along Cedar Vista

from the outside looking in 

and the inside looking out

walking past the Temperate House, we noticed a few poppies growing along the top of the slope...

and one of the other trials this one is called the Protectors trail  (we didn't read all of these ones) 

cherry walk - tulips all finished, wild flowers are taking over, mainly grasses really

wispy and beautiful though

we were heading to the Princess of Wales for 10am - more of that in a bit

walking through the Mediterranean garden 

I had the short zoom on for the POW 

but it gave a good view against the sky 

we weren't getting distracted by the roses as we walked round the edge of the rose garden, honest!

or the sign for this "trail"  

outside the POW waiting for the door to unlock... 

we were at the cacti end as you can tell,  but come 10am and the door was still locked... some people came from inside to try and get out... we dashed round to the other door...

Kew's social media pages had posted in mid-week of a nearly flowering Titan but it looked exactly the same as it had on facebook - we thought we'd miss it...

not sure if it will have happened by next weekend, probably!  

so then we went round properly!

this is in the arid section 

lots of almost cactus flowers!

carnivorous room  - fabulous light through these pitchers

the pond

just a couple of flowers left on the jade vine

upstairs now, and hurrah, third time lucky,  one of these was flowering right close to the path

orchid room, the arch has been covered in concrete - a sign says don't touch, wet concrete.  (it was still soft!)  

damn, out of order again  

by the other exit (now unlocked)

up in the ferny bit!

Evolution garden - lots of colour here too now 

poppy time!  

most of them had one, if not more bees in collecting pollen

peonies

saxifrage again 

geranium

huge roses!

such scent! 

alpine house 

rock garden, wisteria 

we came across a large clump of ox eye daisies 

down low...

this low!

someone help me up.... 

then it was up the steps to the top path and the pasqueflower seedheads

lots of colour in the rock garden 

I'd seen this as we dashed round the outside of the POW to get in earlier

down on the floor again!  

heading for something to eat and drink...

muffin and coffee, and water (and I know, plastic)  

then the Temperate House

Aloe

there were loads of bird of paradise flowers out this week, way more than last week 

daisies

protea, side view

grass tree,

silver daisy bush - not as spectacular as last week's! 

then the rose garden 

just half of the rose garden today, on our way to the exit and home - record time today, trains ran on time and connections met!  

Thanks so much for looking.