a wet Kew...

 Today started damp and got wetter... 

it just about held off as we first entered 

Kim got me marching to my opening position..

then we headed over the walkway across the pond 

had I not still been a working woman I'd have gone to Kew yesterday, whilst it was freezing cold, it was beautifully sunny and would have been glorious... ah well!  

it was a day for wrapping up well, as much against the forthcoming rain as the cold 

the Broad Walk has some huge lights (and benches under but there was no siting on them today , they were soaking from overnight rain )

this was taken from the end of the walkway over the pond 

they really don't show up well on a gloomy grey day!

we then headed round part of the lights train 

this is a constant, features on the trail somewhere every year 

we came across a giant set of headphones but no clue as to whether they are just for selfies or if they do anything at night. 

we carried along past this Liquidamber tree that is still holding on to some leaves 

on our way to the lake.  it's looking a bit silted up at this end, and a heron was on the other side looking for fish (or possibly Peter with his chicken) 

several crows followed us to the benches and sat waiting 

I did get one of this gull flying closer but needless to say the background was focussed not the gull so you don't get to see it

all of a sudden I noticed a heron close by... it wasn't the one the other side of the lake though, he was still there 

but he didn't hang around long 

what a wingspan! 

I thought Kim was taking the gull on the bench behind me and was trying to get out of her way...

joined by pigeons 

it started to rain so we moved on.

the island is looking quite bare , not much shelter for nests out of danger 

it's a good job there are still some trees with colour to them!  

I still had the long zoom on from the lake when we got to the treetop walkway 

we'd drifted away from the lights trail, but I could see a carousel horse in the distance that didn't look as if it was part of the Christmas funfair

so we tramped over to find them

they were neon, apparently 

there were 4 or 5 of them, with one lying in the grass behind the mechanics, obviously a casualty or a fallen racer!! 

it was starting to rain heavier now so we decided to head for a cup of tea, via the Temperate House 

there wasn't a huge amount to see 

we came to a bit more of the light trail near the Pavilion cafe 

it is called infinite but i am not sure why... maybe at night it looks very different 

the seating under the shelter of the cafe roof has been removed, presumably something to do with Christmas,  so we had to sit inside, the rest of the outside seating was far too wet to use. 

hot chocolate and carrot cake again

we found a few (actually there were quite a lot of these on either side of the path)  more lights.

some kind of flowers - the sign just said Blooms

the callicarpa near the Princess of Wales conservatory also provided a bit of colour

blogger is messing with the spacing, sorry

 

didn't take any photos inside the POW

this is outside near the Carbon Garden

the bark was looking great in the wet,

we went for a look

  

alpine house 

and on our way to the exit, across the pond because, why not!  

and that's it for this week - a shorter than normal visit, and a shorter blog

at least it didn't absolutely pour down! 

thanks for looking - sadly next  Saturday is also forecast wet at the moment, hoping it is going to change!  See you then anyway...