We Were Up Early And Out,

we had booked a time slot to go around Kew Gardens,

hopefully to see amongst other trees and plants the cherry blossom, so it was glad rags on,

in one hour and ten minutes we were at Kew for a coffee, we decided as it was a Saturday that the restaurant in the gardens itself would be busy, so the Greenhouse Café it was then,

plenty of choice for breakfast,

and this was our choice,

latte and cake for Diana,

latte and a croissant for myself, I am trying desperately not to smile, my teeth did not arrive on Friday, so if I smile it is a spine chilling leer rather than a smile, so it looks like I am not happy, but nothing could be further from the truth,

outside and we are on way to the gardens,

we had pre-booked a slot,

so straight inside, it was a bit busy as it was a Saturday,

but thankfully for us no queuing, past the water tower,

and a quick pose,

we were greeted by this bed of bright red tulips,

but unfortunately the beds in front of the Palm House had well passed their best,

we made our way past the lake that is opposite,

stopping for a pose,

or two on the way,

into the Palm House, inside it was so hot and humid the lens of my camera steamed up straight away,

so it took some time to warm up before it was free from condensation, but I was soon in business,

and this is what Diana was photographing a forest lily, (clivia miniata),

I have to confess I do not know what this plant is,

but it certainly had a bright showy flowers, there were so many people around it taking photographs,

jacket off for Diana,

it was so humid,

after looking around the ground floor, we made a move upstirs to the gantry that goes around the top of the building,

it had become so hot it was jacket off time for myself as well,

and here we are,

time for a pose,

before we started our walk around the gantry,

this palm caught my attention,

I should say the flowers and later the fruit that it was developing,

looking down, not a great idea for myself!

at the other end of the house Diana started down,

stopping for a pose on the way,

it is 30 feet down, but it looks a lot longer

before I went down I took this photograph of the west wing,

I should have counted the steps!

and here I am, ta-dah!

I mentioned the photograph of the west wing, this is it on the ground floor,

the Unicorn of Scotland, which is the counties national animal standing guard outside of the house,

jacket back on, it was remarkably chilly in the wind,

we decided to visit the Waterlily House which we had not seen on our previous visits,

but first we were both captivated,

by the size of these tulips,

we took so many photographs,

the flowers were huge,

a pose,

and we were going inside,

no mistaking where we were going, the sign on the door says it all,

in the entrance there are two small pools on the right,

and left,

then the main pool,

with a number of lilies in flower,

this was the one I was hoping would be in flower, the Amazon waterlily, (Victoria amazonica), named in honour of Queen Victoria,

but the good news was that there were a number of others in flower,

like these, Nymphaea 'Kew's Kabuki,

this is as near as I could get to a leaf of the Amazon lilies leaf unfolding, the underside is full of sharp spines to stop fish from eating it,

a quick pose,

and we were outside,

back with the huge tulips,

well I had to get in on the act as well!

we walked back beside the lake,

and continued to the woodland area,

where the bluebells were putting on a good show,

and a pinkbell!

we decided against the Cactus House as we had been there a number of times before,

so we continued on the woodland walk,

to the top of the hill to the Temple of Aeolus,

looking back towards the Palm House,

the temple was designed by Sir William Chambers, it was first built in the 1760s to Aeolus, the ruler of the winds in Greek mythology,

and that is where we are heading, the kitchen gardens,

past one of the gardeners,

I could not make out the inscription,

looking back to the temple,

we had not visited this area before,

I am guessing in a few months this will be a riot of flowers and colour,

the area is in a walled garden,

we were attracted to this bright yellow ground cover plant, 

called appropriately enough Gold Dust, (Aurinia saxatilis),

it really does look a lot brighter in real life,

we found the kitchen garden, but there was not any of it there, the whole plot was being dug up, just our luck!

but we did see a nice bamboo,

as we headed into the alpine garden,

nicely laid out,

with plants sprouting form crevasse in the rocks,

this cheeky chappie reminded us that we had forgotten the peanuts!

considering it was a Saturday,

there was hardly anyone in the section of Kew,

the flowers although small they were putting on a good show,

like this one,

a rest and a pose,

before walking to the waterfall at the entrance to the Alpine House, I am stopping here as if there are too many photographs on one post it slows editing and writing the blog down, so if you want to see the rest of our day please press the 'Older Posts' button at the bottom right of the page.