Wednesday 24 January 2018

Kew Gardens in January: Calm Waters & Bare Rocks

Time for another batch of photos from my visits to Kew Gardens! In my first blog post I wrote about visiting the Mediterranean garden, crossing the lake, and walking through the treetops... but that was actually how I spent my first afternoon at Kew.

I arrived rather late in the morning having convinced myself that I was too busy to go, then changed my mind and finally got on a train mid-morning. I was still feeling rather stressed but instantly felt happy and relaxed when I walked through the gates and saw this view.


The famous Palm House looked so splendid, and the light on the water so lovely... and the gardens stretching out beyond so full of possibilities! I honestly feel relaxed just looking at these photos again, the memory of that feeling is so strong.


I'd decided to "save" the Palm House for a future visit, so I strolled around the pond instead and headed for another of Kew's glasshouses: the Princess of Wales Conservatory. 

One of the nicest ways to walk to the Conservatory is via the rock garden. You get to enjoy the quiet charms of the rock garden itself - subtle planting amidst rocks, pools and little waterfalls - against the backdrop of the architecture of the Conservatory which runs along side it.


The Conservatory itself is a joy. It's made up of ten different climate zones, with a huge variety of different plants on display.


Kew's annual Orchids Festival is held in the Conservatory each February - if you visit in late January, like I did, you get a sneak peek at the displays as they're slowly assembled.

 

Just a hint of the riot of colour to come, but a very tantalising one!

More Kew updates (including lots of orchids, of course) sometime soon...

Click here to read my first blog post about Kew Gardens in January.

5 comments:

Kate said...

Absolutely beautiful - thank you!!

Kay said...

I have only ever been to Kew once but would love to visit it every month for a year to see all the changes. Thank you for sharing this beautiful post. x

Unknown said...

Hi Laura, I am loving all the Kew photos, my son and daughter in law visit Kew regularly, they will be visiting us in NZ soon, cant wait to show them your photos, they were surprised I had seen so many photos of yours. Thank you, love the mobile too. Carolyn. Also I have an instagram page now, just starting and learning. I am following you, carocaft20.

Bugs and Fishes said...

Kate - Glad you enjoyed the photos! xx

Carolyn - It's amazing how the internet lets us be familiar with places so far away from us, isn't it? Thanks for following my page on Instagram! There's so much crafty goodness to discover on Insta, I hope you'll enjoy exploring it all :)

Bugs and Fishes said...

Kay - somehow I managed to miss your comment earlier and only just found it, sorry! I didn't manage to visit Kew once a month (that would have been amazing) but it was still a joy to see it change during the seasons, I hope you'll enjoy following along this year :)