Spring came to Kew today

 Wow, today at Kew was just gorgeous... I arrived way early but as it was dry I could sit on the pavement and wait for Kim and opening... Chatted to a lovely lady who was also very early!

it was a sunglasses day for sure (although they kept getting moved to the top of my head for taking the photos...

this is me sat on the pavement outside waiting for 10am lol  

and this was Kim's pre pre opening shot (to quote her). me hiding in the shadows

the dogwoods round the pond have been cut back so there wasn't much colour

but the palm house beds are flourishing 

round bed at the top of the Broad Walk

after a month of heading straight to the Orchids which are now over, we headed down the Broad Walk

not huge amounts of colour yet, but the hellebores (above) were fab and the euphorbia are coming out.

we took a left path from the Broad Walk 

I nearly laid on the path to take some photos...

the Glory of the Snow are just coming through but there were lots of crocus in the grass around them

a bit further along opposite the children's playground were loads of daffodils

dancing in the breeze enjoying the sunshine 

the magnolias are late this year, my FB memories have been full of the big dell at Kew in flower for some days....but we headed that way anyway.

won't be long....

at the top of the slope near the magnolias are loads of crocus

the ground underfoot was, for once, not boggy and squishy,  and the pink magnolia was starting to come out - high up in the canopy against the blue sky...

and one of the huge white ones won't be too long either 

it was a pleasure to be able to scuffle through dry leaves rather than try to keep your footing... luckily it's been a dry week!

a little to the left of the magnolias are some cherry trees which are coming into flower - the sun had brought out loads of bees, (and parakeets eating the blossom)

we carefully picked our way through another drift of crocus

and headed across to the lake 

musk willow by the lake crossing

we'd been hearing a load of geese making a racket from a way off... they're pairing off into couples ......

on the other side, we were approached by some Egyptian geese looking for food

had to walk through the Davies Exploration House for my daisy fix!

Kim got me standing on the wall again! 

the sun was picking out the petals nicely

then into the Temperate House

before heading to the Pavilion cafe for a cup of tea 

although I had hot chocolate.... 

there were only croissants on the counter so I had a wagon wheel that I'd brought with me, and hot chocolate.

sitting outside in the sun, coat off, and sunglassses on.  a beautiful Spring day

from there we went to the winter garden

loads of hellebores there

and at the top of the slope, edgworthia in orange 

and yellow varieties - smelling as good as they looked!

the witch hazel also still looking good

skimmia

more hellebores

iris

then made our way back along Camellia walk

tubs near the exit

Kim decided she'd stay a bit longer, but I headed out to catch my bus/trains home 

Thanks for looking - let's hope for another similarly beautiful warm sunny week next time.... see you then!