I Am Only Making One Post Today,

for 2 reasons, firstly it was Diana's day off so we were out,

so I took way too many photographs, and secondly as it is Wednesday as soon as I post this I will be off to see Duncan, back to Tuesday. warm clothes on, 

and down to the station for the train to Victoria and then the tube to Kew Gardens, as many readers will know we have visited the gardens many times before, 

we soon arrived, so first thing, 

time for a look around the shop,

whilst Diana grabbed the coffees,

and cakes,

back to the shop, a nice couple of orchids,

I looked along the shelves, 

and found a number of small vivarium's, 

some I guess medium sized, 

some quite small,

these no more than 4" tall,

when ever I see bees, 

I always think of Steve and his 3 bee hives, these all made from tin,

this one really looked nice,

back to the orchids for sale,

this one exceptionally nice,

I browsed along the book shelves, 

and then saw some more bee related products,

the bees of Kew Gardens poster,

as well as bee mead,

outside a jackdaw, 

was on top of a weeping tree, 

Diana took a photograph of me taking a photograph of the jackdaw,

in the distance between the trees the Palm House,

we have never taken the ride around the gardens, 

but today we thought we would give it a try,

all aboard,

a quick pose from Diana,

well I just had to!

we both did as it happens,

there is a ride every hour, with 5 or 6 stops on the circuit where you can get off, or re-join the ride, 

so long as you have one of these, the ride is £6.50 each, 

any minute now, 

this is the starting point,

we were soon passing camellias, 

taking photographs on the way, 

now is the time of years for them,

at anytime of the year,

work is always ongoing, 

as we were driven around, 

one of the staff kept up a commentary, 

pointing out buildings and trees of interest,

also the stops where you could leave or join the ride,

our first look at the Great Pagoda, 

well I just had to!

we continue around the garden,

past one of the lesser used gates,

nearing the pagoda, 

it was looking a tad overcast in the distance,

back to the pagoda, one of many things of interest the guide mentioned was that during the war dummy bombs were tested here, inside the building by the RAF through holes in the floor, they were dropped from the top,

through the centre,

to the ground, who would have thought that Kew Gardens helped the war effort!

then something we had not seen before,

 

the Japanese Garden,

the Christmas tree signifies the start of the pine collection,

so many of them, literally hundreds of species here,

perhaps the most famous the redwoods, 

the ride stopped here, the guide saying the the circle we were in represents a cross section of a redwood when grown, 

and here is one, but only 160 or so years old,

a young whippersnapper! some coastal redwoods have been known to be as old as 2,200 years old, and giant redwoods can live to over 3,000 years,

something else we had not visited before, a small pool, 

with snowdrops nearby,

apparently it is favoured by coots to nest in,

we continued through the pine abortorium,

stopping at another drop of point,

and next passed the smallest 'folly' in the gardens,

and there in the distance, 

the River Thames, 

on the other side of it, Syon House, a blue light flashing by the side of it, so one of the following were in attendance, police, fire or ambulance, and as I looked on the web I found this:

"Syon House will be hosting a Salvage Drill on Tuesday 5th March with the local fire brigade. This will include a number of fire engines responding as if it were an emergency, as a building of historic significance Syon has an Emergency Response Plan and these drills are key in making sure that we are prepared, although we ultimately all hope we never have to use it"

so that's all right then,

we continued the tour, looking at so many crocuses and other spring flowers,

like these daffodils in the distance, 

near to Kew Palace, as it happens this is the rear of the building, 

turn right, 

past the orangery, 

and start on our way back,

the 'Hive' on the left, 

the waterlily house on the right,

then turning, 

past the Palm House with its spring flowers in front of it,

on my left Diana,

on my right the entrance to the Palm house,

as you might imagine, Kew is a very popular day out for school visits,

and here we are back at the start of our ride around the gardens,

we started on our way home,

past the black bamboo at the exit,

just a tad too chilly for a ice cream today, 

I noticed this beauty on the way back, 

it is a Fiat Autobianchi, a 500cc Italian mini car from the 1960s,  

but the right hand drive one that my mother owned was even smaller than this!

with a 479 cc engine, how I wish I still had it now, really I drove that thing for miles going fishing when I was still in the UK. As it happens it was one of only three imported into the UK that was righthand drive, 

photograph flickr.com and this is it, except for the left hand drive, the colour scheme was exactly the same as Mums,

we made our way towards the station,

but first a slight detour, 

to look in the butchers,

and the flower stall outside, 

selling these, kumquats, 

which we grew whilst in Thailand, but they were a tad less expensive there, in case it is not clear these are £70.00 a pot, arriving home it was feet up for a coffee and I made a start on the blog, as I would not have enough time in the morning to finish it, 

back to Kew we made a couple of videos, this one made with Diana's telephone, 

 the above one I made in the Panasonic Lumix DMC GX8 camera I use on days out, 

in the evening we fancied a change, a meal we had not eaten for so long, 

fish and chips! so we walked to the Big Catch, 

I do not normally have alcohol on a Tuesday, but I weakened and had a San Miguel with a touch of lime cordial, Diana had a coke,

our meal arrived, a large cod and chips each with a gherkin, 

'Cheers!',

eyes down and tuck in, it was all delicious, the bill came to £37.45, we made our way home where it was feet up for a coffee,

 and a double helping of Ripping Yarns, it was not until the titles started that Diana realised what it was, since I bought the double DVD Diana misheard me or I mispronounce the title, Diana though we were going to watch Ripping Arms!, well I thought it was funny!, 

we followed that with Mortdecai, great fun as an upper class art dealer deals himself into a high stakes art fraud, the main character Lord Charlie Mortdecai is an absolute double of that well liked British actor Terry Thomas, both playing identical roles, both supporting a moustache, (neither would be seen dead without it), both having a gap between their front teeth, both cads of the first degree and both like the film, thoroughly likeable, we rounded the evening off with a Have I Got More News For You, before we were off to bed.