Kew for August

 New month, but Saturday is Kew... 

pleasantly warm, blue skies for August..

going to be one of those blogger upload days... first pics and it's reversing order.  

start as you mean to go on..

the parterre beds are looking fabulous

low level.... 

I really hope they don't empty them for the next planting scheme too soon!

the dark petunias along the pond are beautiful 

sadly you can't get into the middle of the parterre bedding, would love some close ups

the Egyptian geese were by the pond, we've not seen them for a couple of weeks and thought maybe the youngsters had left home... but no. 

along the line of urns...

whilst they're there, I will photograph them...

big bed at top of Broad Walk

I love this colour

I was talking to my hairdresser on Thursday about how Kim and I keep saying we'll walk a different way round... so far, no!

scent of phlox wafting along the Broad Walk 

the red hot pokers were looking glorious

a group of geese flew overhead and round  us.. just got them

now we did deviate, across the grass beside the Broad Walk. through the trees towards the new Carbon Garden

a change of lens was required 

the shapes and patterns of the wood is stunning on the central mushroom feature 

the trouble with sunglasses is you can't see the camera viewfinder.... 

sometimes they end up on top of my head, sometimes down by my chin....

I like the dry river bed they have created 

photo overload of the carbon garden.... well it's new!

carried on round to the grass garden - alpine house far side

there was someone in there watering but it wasn't yet open

so we went past and down the far side of the rock garden

and through into the Evolution garden and veg garden

using arches again this year to grow squashes climbing up

massive marigold underplanting around the place

into the evolution garden, the physalis are growing 

the pink coneflowers looked like someone was painting them white... 

dappled sun light on the asters

we headed to the lake - still looking green!  

by the lake edge

reversing the order again... doh

jackdaw on the top of the bench next to me 

coming for food!

lake crossing

nice clouds!

wild flowers in the grass on our way to breakfast 

free tea offer has ended so we had held on till 10 when the Pavilion cafe opened to enjoy tea in proper cups!

they don't have much cake selection so Kim brought muffins

but it's a nice view!

posing....

the porcelain berries are scrambling over the pergola round the cafe again, they'll be ripening before you know it

next to the cafe is an area set aside for the Australian Shakespeare Company's playing of Macbeth under the stars...

we walked across in front of the stage 

towards the Pagoda 

lovely trees 

the restoration work has finished and the Japanese Gateway is unveiled again 

some of the wood is gloriously beautiful

the acers in the japanese garden seem to be taking on autumnal shades already..... 

close up of one of the decorated panels on the Gateway

heading back towards the Temperate House

rowan berries abounding 

we found some "fluff"  

and then smelled these before we saw them - it's a prunus tree, so some kind of plum, quite small fruit (but too big for damsons)   they did smell fantastic though

there were lots fallen on the floor so I tried one, sour, definitely not ripe yet... left them for the birds.

into the Temperate house

I was trying to take an arty shot of the strcture 

but once again  the sunglasses were in the way

it is still mostly lotus flowers that grab us in the TH

then into the davies exploration house 

then headed back towards the lake 

squirrel came for some monkey nuts

then past (in the distance) a performance of Alice in Wonderland 

headed in a straight line, found ourselves at the edge of the gardens practically in the Thames!

backtracking, came across some funghi

and came across the Oaklore event too 

Kim wanted me to do this....

wove our way through the trees to the waterlily house 

it was hot and packed inside so didn't hang about

but went to the Princess of Wales 

we had a fairly quick stroll through!

this was in the arid section, behind glass, I think it's one of the small smelly plants we tried to find before , there were several flies on them 

couldn't get a decent shot

outside, the leaf sprite sculpture, finally got some flowers through one of the leaf shapes

and then made our way to the palm house

and our way home

thanks for looking, see you next week!