The Second Part Of Our Day In Kew,

starts with our visit,

to the Alpine House,

and very futuristic it looks too,

a last look at the waterfall,

before going inside,

it was all so well laid out,

with huge numbers of different species,

on both sides of the house,

some like this one looking so nice,

Diana taking lots of photographs,

we made our way outside,

to the ornamental grass area,

a few years ago we had a picnic in this area,

as we left the spectacularly designed Alpine House behind,

I am guessing, but this could be the biggest Christmas tree in the park,

it had lots of new spring growth,

like this,

and what appeared to be a couple of cones,

next a huge tree Turner's Oak,

and it was huge,

well I just had to!

next The Hive,

which was pretty spectacular,

we now knew where we were when we saw The Pagoda Tree,

amazing that it is still growing after being around for about 270 years,

we were nearing the magnolia section,

and here they were,

along with some white cherry blossom,

looking forward,

and behind us not a soul in sight,

the Skywalk,

we decided against it,

then a disappointment, 

we were to late for the cherry blossom, but the good news was that 6,000 tulip bulbs under the trees were in bloom,

Diana had her telephone out in no time,

it was even nicer as the sun had come out,

Diana getting up close,

so I did as well,

the main flowers were red,

very dark purple,

pink,

and white,

a pose from Diana,

and one from myself,

we walked to the end of the avenue,

and out into the main part of the garden,

we stopped,

to take a couple of panoramas, this one on my camera,

this one on Diana's telephone,

the clouds were clearing,

and apart from the cool wind it was a nice afternoon,

a last look at this side of the Palm House,

every bench was taken, they all must have walked as much as we did!

a last look at the tulips that welcomed us,

one of myself,

and a last look at the Palm House,

we decided to look around the garden shop,

so many plants to choose from,

and you could even buy a greenhouse!

well I should of said ordered one from Alitex Greenhouses,

so many plants to choose from,

many varieties we could have been looking at on our way around the gardens,

and no garden would be complete without a potting shed,

we went inside,

and there they were,

bats!

they were quite detailed,

and nicely coloured,

as were the plants on display,

every time we see something about bees,

we think of Steve and Kai's new venture with their hive,

we had never seen a metal magpie, until now,

another bat,

into the main shopping area,

and yes,

I was tempted!

our visit over,

we stopped off at the Tap on the Line,

next to Kew station,

'Cheers!', from Diana,

and myself,

selfie!

one more and we were on our way home,

the wisteria on Foxgrove Lodge putting on a good show,

especially on the righthand side,

as were the bluebells,

they seem a lot larger than the ones in the parks woodland, a different variety I guess,

now not a cloud in the sky, in the evening our meal, but first a little bit about our walk, Diana has an application on her telephone that counts the number of steps that we took, from door to door 10,712 steps using up 1,632 kcal 

'Cheers!',

after a sherry and a read, avocado prawn for our starters,

eyes down and tuck in,

for our main course,

roast pork with gravy for Diana, sans gravy for myself, then feet up for the evenings film,

The Adventures of Tintin, what a treat, there was really nothing to fault about the movie, we both thoroughly enjoyed it, we rounded off the evening with another Silent Witness before we were off to bed.