Q-Trip part II

So yeah, when the sun wasn’t out it rained pretty heavily, which meant that we’d spend some time in the various buildings at Kew. This fern in the Temperate House was well pretty.

Look at that sky! That sort of sky means business. After the Temperate House we ducked into the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Arts close by.

There was an exhibition on there called ‘Naturally Brilliant Colour’, which sounded really interesting, but in reality was quite underwhelming. It was about pure structural colour, which exists in both plants and animals that have microscopic structures reflecting the sun’s light in a particularly bright way. For the first time ever they’ve managed to recreate structural paint, but the painting painted with it just looked like it had some glitter on it, and I didn’t even deem it picture worthy - it was that bad. Nature does it much better, as you can clearly see here in these butterflies.

We rested our legs on this veranda for a bit (we walked over 15 000 steps again) and agreed that this country needs more of them. Why are they not part of the architectural vernacular here? I’m sure it’s weather related but they kind of make sense; shelter from the rain and shade when it’s sunny. Conservatories are just not as cosy, and besides, it would be so nice to still be outside regardless of the weather.

We tried to figure out if it was something that could be added to my house. YEAH IN MY DREAMS

Next stop - The Palm House. So steamy, so tropical.

It’s funny, apart from the pandemic, long distance travel just isn’t on my radar anymore, so the mere concept of being somewhere where these plants grow naturally is quite strange. I wonder when and if we’ll (as in my family) ever travel that far again.

Some staff not being very busy. Imagine working here! Dream job alert.

Sigh, so pretty. And look, the sun is out again. Best get out.

On our way to the Waterlily House we stopped to look at these goslings that looked freshly baked. They were so ungainly and kept falling over as they tried to walk out on the grass. Awwwww.

Wanted to show D the waterlilies and was so surprised how large the leaves had gotten since I was last there in October.

Apparently they’re strong enough to support the weight of a child. Crazy.

I love the different planting styles in the gardens, from the formal

to the less so.

Seeing this made me very happy. It also made me realise how quickly the past few years have gone. Oomoo would probably just walk past this puddle now rather than through it.

And speaking of years, we found a gum tree that is exactly the same age as Mr Famapa. I took this for him to show him that if he was one he’d be this big now.

This purple relative to cow parsley also caught my eye. Might get some one day. My plant border looks like green cement at the moment; the tulips/daffodils and hyacinths are long gone and the only plants flowering right now are two blood elders. My acanthus, lavender, astrantia and achillea are all budding and getting ready to flower, but in June there really is no colour in our garden. I was all for changing things up a few months ago, but I don’t feel like I have the energy or the headspace to do it right now. There’s always next year, eh? Or maybe it’s a good autumn project?

In the garden behind Kew Palace. Haven’t properly explored it before.

It’s such a beautiful and tranquil walled garden. This laburnum walkway was stunning. You could really imagine royals walking under it with their courtiers gossiping about this and that. We on the other hand were walking around rather quickly, with me panicking about whether the car had been locked-in in the car park or not, as it was really close to closing time. Alas it wasn’t, and we drove home, buzzing from another day out well spent.