Have you been to Kew?

When I mentioned I had spent the day at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, everyone's response was  "Oh i've never been there".  Well I highly recommend you pay it a visit.  The first thing that struck me was just how vast it is.  If you are not that mobile or have little ones you can get the Kew Explorer which is a hop on hop off land train that takes you around the gardens whilst giving you an informative talk.  We opted instead to just wander through the different sections of the gardens and although it was grey the rain thankfully stayed away.

A selection of the flowers in bloom now.

Even on the greyest of days there were some beautiful colours in Kew. *The picture bottom right is looking across the lake to The Botanical restaurant.  Just behind us was the Palm House.

The Victorian Palm House has all the 'tropical' plants from the Americas, Australia and Africa.   You can actually climb the stairs and view from the top if you prefer.  I had already been on the treetop walk earlier which as a vertigo sufferer was a little difficult due to the fact you could see through the floor and it flexed as you walked on it.  This looked a little more solid at least.

You can be transported to Japan's beautiful gardens.  There is also a spectacular Chinese Pagoda at Kew but it is currently closed for refurbishments.

Just some of the different sections of garden.

The Princess of Wales Conservatory was one of my favourite places.  I loved the different Cacti and the really unusual plants.  The following pictures I will simply call "I don't know what they are but I like them!"

 Beautiful bird but oh so noisy.

Isn't nature amazing?

A Monkey Puzzle tree, so called because even the monkey cannot figure out how to climb it!

My newest obsession - This little beauty was actually an iron gazebo with seating that the Wisteria had been trained to climb and twist around.  It was a lovely place to take a rest for a few minutes and ponder...

A mural in the Victoria Plaza cafe made from trees felled during the "great storm of 1987"

Kew Palace is open until October 2017 for those of you who like a bit of history with your nature.
(It looks like its tipping over but actually it was me who was tipping over..this was the last picture I took of the day and had walked about 10km).

This was just some of the gardens, there are a lot more to explore and I recommend you check out the Kew website for details.