Orchids at Kew - week 2

 It was a damp - then wet - trip to Kew today for week 2 of the orchids...

I had to start here though,

before hurrying on to the POW for the orchids - time slot of 10am and the gates only opening at 10am 

I caught Kim up at the bag check outside and we went inside

I decided to keep the short zoom on for a fair bit of today's walk round the display so you can see a bit more of the scale 

hope you will be able to read the boards I photographed today

into the main rainforest room

got a better shot of the butterfly nearest the door, today

alhtough this is a bit fogged up!

approaching the main display

the animal is based on an ancestor of the alpaca according to a FB clip I saw about the display

I really like the airplants over the pond

from the side

flamingoes

we were lucky, 2 or 3 people just moved through the arch and the door into the next part, to leave us a clear path...

although I was allowed to photo-bomb one of Kim's! 

close ups (though not in macro mode) on the arch

it was hard to keep the lights out of shot 

I think these birds in the corridor are some of my favourites this year 

a small child behind us was very excited to see them!

long shot

was able to get  a better view of this bird today too 

it definitely pays to visit more than once!

I don't think I saw this one nestling in the ferns last week either 

looking back at the arch

we don't think they'd turned on the blue light on this tree last week.  I didn't get a picture of the board explaining about it..

the allium seedheads (from the gardens) were to represent a starry sky)

wasn't quite so lucky with an empty arch going through to the orchid rooms...

I really like the red butterfly on the other side of the stairs, as i said last week,sadly out of bounds...

as we went through to the second orchid room I did put the macro lens on to get closer to these purple ones which were lovely

going out of the second orchid room into the other side of the rainforest section I changed lens back

as I wanted to capture the size of the huge pillars (pineapples)

the big stinky is growing too, the leafy bit is starting to peak through

I was also able to get some pics of the bear

he looked soft, but wasn't!  

looking up the stairs to the upper level , currently out of bounds

wider shot of the area

peruvian spectacled bear

the final arch - we were both surprised that there were so few people , given that the 10-11 member time slot is very popular (when we got to the exit there were lots of people waiting to to through the cacti section so perhaps they were all just late! 

back to macro action

on the arch

these next half dozen or so are out of order....

into the dry area  (this should have been the first one) 

blogger is re-ordering these too

the corn cob..... "leafy" bit

then it was back out into the rain that had started and round to the alpine house

raindrops and berries... 

edgworthia

signs of spring!  

we headed round past the pond at the Palm House

to go down the Broad Walk

where there wasn't a lot to see - much has been cut back before Spring starts re-growth

before having cake and hot chocolate in the Orangery restaurant 

it was too wet to sit outside 

so we sat inside

swapped lens before going back out into the rain as the short zoom is easier to keep dry 

walking past Kew Palace

bare trees....

this is the temporary glasshouse they're building for when they renovate the Palm House

this is for their "decant" area as they're calling it

crocus coming through in lots of places..

there were a load of gees on the other side of the path walking through them (ignoring the signs that say, don't tread on me I'm trying to grow"! ) 

cypress trees in the mediterranean garden 

Treetop walkway

however we headed into the Davies Exploration house first to check out the daisies

lens change called for

and a higher perspective

they  were of course, gorgeous

from across the room you get a better idea of how tall they are

then into the Temperate House

some tubs of narcissus inside the side entrance 

definite signs of Spring!

back outside we headed back past the treetop walkway - swathes of snowdrops

to the lake - not a lot of action on the water and it was still raining

but there was a lot of water in the lake - that bench shouldn't be under water!

as we came off the lake crossing we saw one of the foxes - he was obviously looking for Peter who normally feeds him chicken legs!

he came hopefully up to us...sorry! nothing doing...

we headed past the bench by the lakeside on our squelchy way back to the exit...

thanks for looking again, hope you enjoyed.

week 3 next week... hoping for sun (although Kim says at present the forecast is wet again....)