Back to Kew 10 January 2016

Back to Kew on a very chilly day but the sky was blue - you have to get out on days like this.  Kew in winter is still surprisingly beautiful with lots of greenery and even some flowers in the gardens.  I like to see the bare bones of the trees.  This Black Pine tree though is apparently the unluckiest one around - it's been struck by lightening twice and was hit by a small plane back in the early 1900s.

I headed towards the Princess of Wales Conservatory where it was so warm I was discarding clothing as I went.  Winter clothing in the UK is a whole new vocabulary to me - you just wear so much of everything.  Somedays it's just the cheekbones that are exposed to the elements, but I've been told by a friend that balaclavas' are out of the question, I'm pretty tempted though some mornings. Can you just picture me in a balaclava? Snort ..

I took a lot of pictures.  So many so that it took hours to go through all of them.  Stick with me, I've edited them heavily and done a bunch of collages.

In February Kew are hosting an Orchid festival, but all the orchids are there anyway so no need to get into another queue.

They are just spectacular.  I've never seen so many and so many different ones.

Not only orchids though, Bromeliads and others whose names I cannot remember.

Gorgeous.

Moving through the conservatory takes you through various habitats and you end up in semi desert and desert conditions with plants like agave, cacti and aloe.

I really like this Spoon Flower which is growing at such a rate that they have had to remove part of the roof to accommodate it.

Time for lunch, so get dressed again - it's all very time consuming this taking off and putting on of layers of clothing.  Chicken pie - very tasty.

Then out into the cold again.

And into the Palm House which was built in 1848.  It's full of rainforest plants and hot and humid as you would imagine.

Late afternoon - which is actually only at about 2.30pm but the sun is low in the sky so I thought I'd catch the last of the rays but it was really cold - enough for a hat and scarf and gloves but here was a wedding party and the bride had on a sleeveless strapless dress!  I wonder what her memories of the day will be.  There were a lot of ducks,

The Temperate House is closed for renovations - thank goodness,  I couldn't deal with more disrobing today.  In the summertime perhaps?

The Japanese Gardens though - these are beautiful - calm and peaceful and very structured.

By this time the weather was changing.

Heading back towards the tea room - yes, tea was urgently required - there was this copse of snowdrops.

But tea was calling