Kew

 Another dull day but lots of colour everywhere.

the winter planting hasn't started yet at the Palm House

we headed to the Waterlily house first, this is outside and covered in berries. 

carnivorous plants hanging from the inner door

we were first in there 

still lots of flowers on the waterlilies - they'll be closing for the winter on 3 November, and indeed for next year whilst the renovations take place

despite wiping the lens with my cloth, (as opposed to my top like normal)  the lens kept misting up 

this one was just emerging from under the water and there is a little layer of water in the centre, but you can't see it

this is me, taking .....

.....this little passionflower 

in the lobby between outer and inner door

back outside and the Yoshino cherries that grow round the rose garden were looking amazing

shame the sky is so grey!

taking the path heading towards the lake 

blogger is ordering photos again..

we sat on the bench and Kim threw some seeds for the geese/ducks (and pigeons) 

we both kept missing the greylag spread his wings 

the heron has a trick of appearing from nowhere - suddenly he is there!

loving the patterns on the Canada geese feathers

I thought she was taking pics of the wildlife.....

when you get the heron head on, his beak disappears

he was quite fidgety today

but just then Peter came along and everyone was happy...

cue feeding frenzy

there were some large gulls, love their greyish eyes 

I had my macro 105m lens on it's the wrong focal length for the birds really  but I didn't bring the zoom

chicken dinner 

mayhem in the water 

this one was sat on the top of the bench inches from me 

more goose feathers 

two groups of greylags flew in, but there were tree branches in the way,.... got the last two sliding onto the water 

heading off for our own refreshments 

by the side of the lake

on the island in the lake other side of the crossing... the lower tree loses its leaves fast

Peter's still on the bench

these are the other side of the lake crossing at the water edge 

near the treetop walkway - blogger is at it's tricks again

heading to the treetop walkway!

this fits in round here somewhere I think.... 

underneath one of the supports 

wrong lens, needed the short zoom really 

quick walk through the Davies exploration house - most of the strawflowers have been cut back 

cut through into the Temperate House by one of the Material World displays

fading leaf on Erneste (false banana) 

some kind of succulent 

oh blooming blogger... 

we took the further door out of the Temperate House where there are more cherry trees 

the leaves were beautiful  

this the tree closest the door of the TH

take a left turn past the cherry trees and head tothe Pavilion cafe past these beauties.

Kim brought the mince pies  and I had hot chocolate again.

they are very slow serving at this cafe but you do get proper cups and saucers!!  

totally recommend the mince pies - Waitrose crumble pie with cranberry and orange filling.   

first time I've had the gloves on this autumn!

we sat the other side of the cafe to usual as last week we forgot to come and photograph these read beauties

walked up towards the Pagoda 

large groups of funghi

looking down towards the Palm House in the far distance

we both diverted to the left of the Pagoda drawn by these orange berries

and nearby some red ones

the dragons on the Pagoda are hard to catch in grey skies 

trees by the Japanese Gateway garden 

the large liquidamber tree the other side of the path

we did a lot of scuffling through leaves - they were nice and dry and scrunchy this week, as it's been dry. 

rowan berries 

heading back towards the lake, we wanted to see some of the Halloween trail (even though it's daylight)  so we needed to be back at the lake 

on our way we saw some more funghi 

we found a path that took us through the trail 

they've placed this skeleton by a clump of funghi for good effect! 

I stilhad the macro lens on so time to swap 

this is kind of a venus fly trap monster plant 

you have to imagine it at night in the dark with lights and spooky music... but it was quite effective even in daylight

another venus fly trap monster 

I don't think this fits here but it's going here!  

we came to a gate (complete with skeleton) into a graveyard 

on another path over the way we could see a row (2 rows) of skeletons 

4 each side of the path.  We wondered if they danced at night (they were strung to keep them upright, but no idea...) 

we had also seen the bright pink and purple banners from the other path too..

a hall or mirrors...

gotta love playing with these things as we know from previous events!!

some gave you loooonnnnngggggg legs 

another one turned you upside down.....

there were also some that made you very short.... I didn't take one there 

then some spider webs - bet these glow beautifully in the dark

look away if you don't like spiders 

as we approached the end (or possibly start) of the trail,  you are at the acer garden which is currently out of bounds 

we laughed at this,  poor skelly, obviously didn't get to the fountain for a drink in time!

I decided to head home from here - this is the other part of the yoskino cherry trees at the rose garden this part doesn't seem as brightly coloured as the ones on the other half of the path. 

Kim stayed a bit longer so we parted our ways here. 

looking over the rose garden at the brighter ones 

before I left I took this on my phone, as I had already put the camera away,

should have gone and had a closer look but was running out of energy!

I made it home in good time and now it's time to think about dinner!!  

Thanks for looking - bring your brolly next week, forecast is wet at present!