Sunday,

and we are off,

to Kew Gardens for the day, we meet Steve, Kai and Phanee at Victoria station and made our way to Kew Garden tube station,

where there were lots of goodies for sale,

more home made cakes than you could shake a stick at,

this is the café we would normally have breakfast at,

but the lockdown is still with us, so we brought our own food and drink with us,

the  girls strike the pose by a forsythia bush, Phanee, Kai and Diana,

no queues today as all visitors are allocated a time slot when tickets are ordered,

we made our way into the garden looking at the spectacular Palm House,

a quick pose by Diana,

as I took a photograph of the mansion on the lake,

every time we visit the display in front of the Palm House changes,

this time the featured plant was a bulb,

a fritillaria, in two colours, this one yellow, Fritillaria imperialis 'Lutea',

and this one, 

the crown imperial aurora, a couple of exotic plants that seem to do well in many gardens,

by the lake and around it, and the Palm House, there were planters with sweet smelling hyacinths planted in them,

Diana just had to have a pose,

the Botanica at the far end of the Lake,

looking back to the tower at the entrance,

and across the beds in front of the Palm House,

the house now unfortunately closed due to the lockdown,

by now we were hungry,

so time for our late breakfast,

or early lunch,

lots of goodies,

and of course a bottle of bubbly,

meal over it was nearly a tiptoe through the tulips,

if you remember Tiny Tim that is, the girls strike the pose,

the tulips putting on a good display,

well I had to have a pose as well,

a few hundred yards away, a grove of cherry blossoms, some trees huge,

whilst others were only a tad taller than Diana,

although looking in full flower, there were still on some of the trees lots of buds still to open,

the weather was kind to us, the blossoms looking spectacular against the blue sky,

and great to be photographed with,

a change of blossom,

this a huge magnolia, 

the sunlight through its branches,

we passed this old tree, known as the Pagoda tree, (Styphnolobium japonicum), one of the original five, 

the legend,

next for us some more magnolias,

this one with huge pink and white flowers,

and big enough to walk under,

this one a lot smaller,

we had originally decided to look at the cherry blossoms, but the magnolias like this one,

were putting on such a display, we just had to stop and look,

they were everywhere,

and like this one only just starting to flower,

a few petals had started to fall from this one,

but it was still so nice to look at,

another beauty, 

the flowers snow white,

or as Diana would say as white as my beard!

looking towards Elizabeth Gate,

we soon came across this delightful van,

selling? you guessed it,

ice cream, Diana was getting in a pickle, holding hers and mine, 

 I was taking photographs as they melted,

it was even worse for Steve who had Kai's, Phanee's and his own to contend with, I am stopping here for today, if you have time please look back tomorrow for the rest of our Sunday Kew Garden visit.