It's a Kew, Kew summer

Quite soon after the school summer holidays started, me and Oomoo went with friends to Kew Gardens. I’m guessing it won’t be long before he’ll pass on the offer of going there though. We’re almost exactly a year away from him turning into to a teenager (gasp), and I’m sure he’ll rather do something less walk-y by then. But then he might surprise me. Let’s hope so.

There’s still enough interesting stuff there for an almost 12 year old.

Like cool sound installations hanging in trees.

You had to stand underneath the sound domes to hear the amplified recordings of the inner workings of a tree, including the rumble that can be heard under the bark (no, I didn't know there was such a thing either) or the popping sound of water as it travels from the trunk towards the leaves - mixed with music.

We then finally made our way to Queen Charlotte’s Cottage, one of the last places within the gardens that I’ve not yet been to, but sadly it was shut. But L was happy anyway, as you can see here. In fact, maybe she was happy because it was shut… The cottage was used by King George III and Queen Charlotte in the late 1700’s, as a pit stop for a cup of tea and a rest when they went for walks in the grounds of Kew Palace, their summer holiday home. In spring the cottage is surrounded by blue bells and I hope I time it right one year, so I can see it in all its blue glory.

There were also unusual planting installations dotted around the gardens.

Noice.

And one really comfy continuous bench.

Seeing as green is going to fade away in nature’s winter palette, let’s take some in now. Delicately, like this

or layered, like that

or bright and punchy, like here

or curly and swirly, like there.

And I’ll add some nice orange and white too - before I say “Hasta la vista Kew”.

Finally, no visit is complete without a picture like this from the Hive. Standing underneath it I initially couldn’t make out if this was Oomoo or not, but then I noticed the undone shoelace. That’s him alright.

While typing in the post title I had Bananarama going round in my head, so here’s a link to Cruel Summer, from 37 years ago (OMG!). I love how their outfits are so in fashion again (like seriously), and after watching the music video I’ve got a serious girl crush on Siobhan Fahey. How could you not?!

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.

Q-Trip part I

When I heard that my friend D hadn’t been to Kew Gardens in 21 years I booked us in for a day there pronto. I mean, that’s just not right. I’ve never experienced it as quiet as the day we went, and we all know why that is. The weather that day was all over the place too, one minute blazing sun and then heavy rain the next, which didn’t deter us as the plan was always to duck indoors when needed.

D saw a group of people carrying in a bench under this tree, which I missed, but we could hear their music playing loudly. We later saw them somewhere else and they looked like they were in a band or something. One of the guys wore a headdress, and there was definitely an otherworldly vibe about them (either that or they were just very stoned). It’s so ironic that I have no pictures of them. Were they just a dream?

Can’t remember what this tree is, but it has obviously evolved a way of defending itself. Ouch.

This greenhouse had lots of plants from Australia in it, which D recognised as she’s been there a couple of times.

Looooove cow parsley aka queen Anne’s lace. The scent reminds me so much of my childhood and how it back then meant that summer and the school holidays were just around the corner.

There’s something about concentric circles that really appeal to me at the moment and I can’t tell you why.

As we were standing on the Sackler bridge (boo hiss) we heard this gal/guy making an awful racket (can geese fly silently? In all my times of swimming in the Ladies Pond and having them fly overhead, they’ve always been honking like mad). Was s/he saying ‘Hey ladies, check this out - I’m gonna blow your miiiiinds!’

Because that’s what s/he did. I’ve never seen a goose up a tree before - have you? We stood and watched for a while wondering what would happen next, but gave up after a few minutes.

Something so strange and very funny kept happening the whole time we were in the gardens. I’d suggest the next place to walk to, look at the map and then get us lost. What the hell was going on? I’ve been to Kew like, I don’t know, at least 15 times and I know it pretty well, but for some reason I just couldn’t get my bearings this time. I guess it might have had something to do with us never sticking to the paths?!

I eventually took D to see my favourite tree, which she immediately recognised as a maritime pine.

Here she is looking at the label just to be doubly sure.

‘Cheers!’ We were surprised to see these in the café where we had lunch and had to try them out. Tunnock’s Caramel Wafers (BEST BEST BEST) and Tea Cakes are the like the best comfort treats there are, but the Caramel Log was not as good. Great packaging though, don’t you think?

Part II coming up!

Closer up

Can you guess where these are from (don’t look at the tags!)? I’m sure you can. The last picture definitely gives it away… Yes, you guessed it. Good ol’ Kew Gardens. Went there a couple of weeks ago and took too many pictures as usual, so I’ll probably have to split them into three posts. This is the more arty textural one. More to come!