Just As We Left The Dark Of The Forest,

where the rhododendrons and camellias were growing,

the sun came out,

making these ferns look really bright in the sunlight,

we retraced our steps,

looking for the fountain,

as landmark,

going past it Steve went to find out if the girls had stayed sitting by the alpines,

I took a different route,

I made my way down by one of the houses in the gardens,

what a fabulous place to live, by the side of it a waterfall,

that emptied into this pool, 

with its bronze maiden,

the water continued downstream,

past stands of bamboo,

continuing under bridges,

and down more falls,

until it reached the lower level,

which was landscaped,

with more rhododendrons and acers,

and a huge sculpture of a bear with a fish,

the stream meandering past the shrubs,

looking back at the bear,

and then to this huge mass  of flowers,

the steam now hardly moving,

then disappearing under the path,

the sides of which were so colourful,

I recognized this yellow skunk cabbage from working in the shop many years ago,

to give it its full name it is Lysichiton americanus, 

the water now appearing on my left hand side,

with lots of bridges,

along the way,

as I neared the rockery,

a few water lilies in some of the pools,

and a genuine Gunnera manicata, I did not get fooled again!

nearing the rockery,

the bridges became closer together,

I tiptoed past the ducks,

it would be a shame to wake them,

a small waterfall with a pathway over it,

looking up to the top of the rockery,

and a little further along,

who was this I could see though the stand of bamboo? Diana of course, I had caught them up,

lots of bamboo here,

well we were in the bamboo section,

and lots of different varieties to look at,

I particularly like,

the ones with yellow,

or green and yellow stems,

as well as the darker or black stemmed varieties,

all so nice,

some bamboos can reach incredible heights, 

although not here the giant bamboo or dragon bamboo, (Dendrocalamus giganteus), can reach heights of up to 35 meters!

which makes it amazing to think that bamboos are actually grass!

Steve was explaining to Diana that all bamboos do not look the same,

and as it happens Steve and Kai just happen to have this exact one growing in their garden, Thamnocalamus crassinodus 'Kew Beauty',

we carried on walking,

past more bamboos,

until we reached the end of this section,

and found ourselves walking back towards one of the heads,

although we had been here for some time there was still so much we had not seen,

we made our way back past the pagoda,

and main lake,

to the garden centre where plants are for sales,

Phanee along with Steve and Kai,

wanted to buy some plants,

these were just a few from outside of the centre,

gong inside it was huge,

with so many bits and pieces for indoor gardening,

if only we had more window sills,

we would be coming home with boxes of plants,

so much,

and so many to choose from,

there seemed to be no end to the displays for sale in sight,

I looked at air plants,

succulents, 

and cactus,

lots of cactus!

but surprisingly few orchids,

just these few,

but they did look nice,

these were what Steve an Kai were after, tomato plants,

whilst they were buying them,

I made a move,

towards the outdoor section,

and again what a choice,

the shelves of plants,

seemed to be endless, these just the alpine collection,

so many of them,

and yes I am going to say it,

if only we had a garden!

 I arrived at the car first and waited for the others to catch up, Steve and Kai then kindly dropped off Phanee and then us, many thanks indeed for a lovely day to to Steve and Kai who not only took us there and back, but did all of the booking of tickets for us all as well,

in the evening we had a shank of lamb each, we were both so hungry, I also learnt from Steve that we had walked 5 miles today,

'Cheers!', in the evening we watched television, a couple from Columbo, finishing the evening with one from Lewis, with the end of that we were off to bed.