Kew, from 10

 We're back to 10 am opening until May now... Kim and I managed to get first spot in the queue though...

as for the last several weeks it was dull and cloudy, but luckily not wet, or too cold. 

the big circles have been moved out into the pond ready for the Christmas lights. 

the reflections are good, I bet when the lights are on  it will be fabulous.  I assume there'll be some kind of display set to music

the beds have been replanted, the little flowers round the edges are pansies

I went down the steps at the side of the pond

to look from the side

the fountain won't be on now till January after the lights go as it would interfere with the display

the dogwood stems are gorgeous 

the only plus side of not getting in till 10 is the glasshouses are open straight away

so we went round to the POW first

the titan arum is growing 

up in the fern room

little bananas

down near the exit

cyclamen leaves in the alpine house

and some in the rock garden (the flash insisted on firing)

mushrooms in a vegetable bed in the veg garden

mahonia in the evolution garden

the physalis are good this year but the camera didn't like photographing them

there are some seedheads left but most of the beds have been cut back 

apart from a few michaelmas daisies

the berries are good in the EG 

walking along salvia border 

no bees today

but so many beautiful salvias still flowering 

heading back by the end of the rock garden and POW

leaf spirit looking good as ever in the beds

crossing the Broad Walk, we couldn't get onto the grass under this tree as several paths are closed for them to finish installing Christmas

the tree was beautiful though

grasses  

we walked across to near the children's playground

this tree is often lit beautifully for Christmas

I found a camera setting that allowed the lights to show up in daylight 

the path we were going to take to the lake was out of bounds so

we headed a different way 

which was good, as we found some fabulous trees

and plenty of leaves to scuffle through

this tree was covered in lichen (see above)

we headed across the grass towards the lake

looking to the Palm House in the distance

we walked up the grass heading the the Pagoda

past the small pond where the trees were so colourful (finally)

it would have been better with a blue sky backdrop

but the colours still showed up 

gingko

as we moved away the colours were definitely more prominent

beautiful

over the other side of the path we took a cut through, through the hydrangeas

were some of the flowers were skeletonising better than the physalis!

there wasn't a lot of colour in the davies exploration house opposite the temperate house as the strawflowers have been cut back

but these are still going strong

we walked through the middle of the TH without stopping...

outside we crossed to the Pavilion cafe for tea and cake.

unusally they had "proper" cake not just danish pastries so we both had spiced apple cake 

still ok to sit outside

then walked along towards the galley 

more Christmas 

just outside the gallery we were taken by this - we'd stop to examine it more after we'd been inside

I'm including lots of the pots as they are fabulous

including some close ups of the decoration, they are stunning

there are some smaller ones along a wall

before you go into the main room where the biggest ones are

I only had the standard zoom lens on but was able to get into some of the patterns

Kim got one of me taking a cross-room photo from the corner..

outside again we looked closer at this

it was changing colour

and even in daylight looked great

and then walked along Camellia Walk which is a main part of this year's trail

they don't show up that well in daylight (we were surprised to see them lit already)

the start (or possibly end) of the trail near the Victoria Gate

from the other side

on our way out we paused at the bauble tree on your way in

i'd taken this on my phone through the gates as we were waiting to get in.

Thanks for looking, see you again next week.