Kew bonus visit, New Year's Eve Eve

So I decided today would be the bonus trip to Kew -  I arrived  2 minutes after opening time ... already quite a lot of people inside. 

there was even a hint of blue sky!

the bare trees were speaking to me today... there'll be a few!  

I headed round to the POW 

in the arid section they have lots of aloes and lots of them are flowering. 

and not to mention tall!

in the rainforest tropical section the plants had just been watered

close up of  the titan arum -never really looked at the patterns before 

arch in the orchid room

tree in the sun in the rock garden

Kim and I had thought that all the cones on this tree - that remind us of candles dripping wax - had been eaten but I noticed some high up today

alpine house

I liked the shapes of these leaves

I was surprised to see a bee on this hellebore in the rock garden

the everlasting flowers in pots in the vegetable garden are still on display

as on Saturday there wasn't much - colour anyway - in the Evolution garden

took the woodland path back to the Palm House

and some more trees

from the new wild rose garden

I went along Camellia Walk 

to the winter garden

this variety is called Christmas rose 

more of the witch hazels are out now

still flowers on the mahonia

and lots more hellebores flowering

at the top of the path the orange-red ones are more advanced

with the dogwood blurred behind them

edgworthia

euphorbia

glorious dogwood

some of the darker varieties of hellebore are flowering now

I went into the gallery to look at the "big pots" again

I stopped to watch the film that runs showing how Felicity make them.  

the colours and patterns grab you each time you see them

this one reminds me of some of Dina's stencils!

back outside again now

before heading back to the exit - pausing to take photos of the bauble tree 

and then popping into the cafe for hot chocolate and cake - obviously!

the cafe was pretty full but I managed to find a table  -  the spiced apple cake didn't particularly taste of either spice or apple today, but it filled a gap before I headed home.

Thanks once again for looking - that's a wrap on another year's worth of visits to my happy place - but will be back for more on Saturday after returning to work on Thursday!  

Next year, perhaps my own calendar of photos from Kew will finally be put into action.... I started a file of possible images that made it to about April.....which is progress on previous years.