a sunny Kew..

 Luckily, Storm Eowyn didn't affect my part of the UK yesterday apart from a bit of rain and blustery conditions first thing, and so there was no problem with Kew today..... and, we had blue skies and sun!

big shadows over the beds at the Palm House

we decided to head a different direction first today, so after my opening shot, headed past the Palm House....

before deciding as our hands had got cold waiting outside Kew, we'd go inside to warm up. 

of course the lens misted up immediately.

there are empty beds (on the left) where they are starting to prep for the relocation to temporary glasshouses when the start work on restoration of the palm house later this year 

Kim couldn't remember going up to the platform so we decided to 

normally it is incredibly humid up there, but it was ok today, no doubt the cold outside makes a difference

the definitely need to do some rust removal!

looking down

the sky through the glass remains blue

I took some as we descended the stairs

before heading to the end of the palm house and outside 

we walked round the outside of the back of the palm house

walking round the rose garden

to take the way to the lake

before we got there we could hear a great deal of noise, so we knew that it would probably be Peter there feeding them

we were right

we kept missing the birds landing in the water 

it's approaching mating season so there was a fair bit of chasing going on

for a while all was calm on the water...

I had the wrong lens (short zoom) for close ups but the mandarin duck is beautiful.  Normally we see them in a pair, but there was only one today

one of the foxes, (Peter and Dave (squirrel man) call him Checko) came along - Peter had some chicken thighs for him....

these are the little red blossoms I got covered in frost a couple of weeks ago

we headed off to the bird feeder area

were we were rewarded by Goldie - Dave feeding him

next we headed through the woodland walk 

quite a lot of snowdrops around,  glistening in the sun, but too far off the path to capture

a huge pile of logs to one side of the walk,  no doubt from fallen trees in the recent storms

the "bear" tree.... wrong lens on of course

not sure what I was looking at so intently!

up into the branches of a stone pine tree

heading back towards the Temperate House

the snowdrops under the trees are between the TH and the treetop walkway

of course  I had to check out the daisies. 

then into the Temperate House

these leaves are so satiny-soft, I love them

more nice shadows

signs of work in here too

jasmine, from last week, smelling still gorgeous

we cut across the grass to the Winter Garden

as we knew, in the sunshine, it would be stunning

blossom 

hellebores at the foot of the slope

the foot of the slope of the winter garden is now full of colour, snowdrops, and the yellow is winter aconite

there were a few bees about

at the top of the slope, the witch hazel 

pond in front of hte palm house

we looked in the cafe but there was a long queue (it was 12.30 - we'd been chatting a lot when we stopped at the lake and the bird feeder!)

so we left it

and walked round the pond towards the evolution garden

but first walking up to the temple of Aeolus

where Kim took the panoramic photo with me walking round the temple ...it looks as weird as I thought it would!

the Princess of Wales house behind trees

walking through the Evolution garden

daphne

agapanthas seed heads against a hedge backdrop

snowdrops under the acer

I liked the light through the hellebore leaves 

alpine house

aloes outside the alpine house have survived the frost from 2 weeks ago without any protection other than the shelter of the base of the alpine house

grass garden

I headed home at this point whilst Kim stayed a little longer.

Next week is the opening of the Orchid display, time slots are booked, can't wait!

hope to see you then  - till then, thanks for looking.