Kew, Part 3,

after leaving the Palm House,

we started our walk,

along the cherry tree avenue, 

stopping on the way, 

towards the Temperate House,

as it happens we entered the house from the 'wrong' end,

we were walking into the sun,

so every so often we would turn around so that the sun was behind us,

there are rotundas between each part of the house with various plants growing in them,

in this one citrus fruits, 

although we had seen them on a previous visit, Diana still did not believe they were real,

they were huge, and I do mean huge,

they were lemons,

many years ago when I had my leg in plaster due to a motorcycle accident, I grew some of these coleus in the back garden,

the sign says it all, 

and here is one,

into the main block, as can be seen from over the entrance, opened in 1869,

a quick pose as Diana walks into it,

this house has the feature,

of a waterfall,

into another rotunda,

this one featuring aloes, with one in flower,

one of the flower spikes,

looking towards the end of the house,

where we noticed a huge banana plant,

with this strangest of bananas growing on it,

the plant was huge,

as can be seen with Diana beside it to give some idea of scale,

it is actually known as the false banana, (Ensete ventricosum),

we left the Temperate House and started walking to one of the restaurants,

passing another huge bed of crocus,

as before,

it was difficult to convey how many were there with just a camera,

into the restaurant, Steve and Kai ordered,

a burger along with chips and onion rings that we all tucked into,

we walked back to the entrance past this building we had never walked past before,

it was Marianne North Gallery, containing over 800 paintings by the Victorian artist Marianne North, restored in 2009, the paintings depict more than 900 species of plants,

the 'train' that takes visitors around the garden heads for the garage,

we had a quick look at the plants and other items for sale,

if only we had a garden for a green house,

and a few other bits and pieces for a garden,

I could not help but notice these, Wollemi pines, Wollemia nobilis, for sale, in Australia, their native habitat there are less than 100 pines surviving, but these here today, yours for £112.00 each,

we made our way to the exit, 

passing a stand of black bamboo,

and nice they looked too, what a wonderful day, the weather could not have been better, we said our goodbyes to Steve and Kai on the train as their stop is one station before ours,

one more stop to go,

then we were walking home past the snail mail box, arriving home it was feet up for a couple of Lewis from ITVX, one from Have I Got More News For You, before we were off to bed.