Kew Gardens in March: the Orchids Festival (and a Very Lucky Lizard)

Sitting down to write this blog post I've realised how terribly timed it is - here I am blogging about the annual Orchids Festival at Kew Gardens when this year's festival has literally just finished and you'll have to wait a whole year to see it for yourself. I am a bad, mean blogger and I apologise.

Hopefully enough of the sheer joy of the TROPICAL COLOUR EXPLOSION that is the Orchid Festival will seep out of these photos for you to enjoy in the meantime!

The annual festival runs from mid-February to mid-March in Kew's Princess of Wales Conservatory and is a wonderful burst of warmth and colour. I visited in 2015 (regular readers will know I'm sloooowly blogging about my year's membership of the gardens in 2015, which is one of the best things I think I've ever spent money on) and absolutely adored it.

 

The Conservatory is already a gorgeous space to explore, but the addition of the orchid-filled displays is the icing on the botanical cake.

I got a peek at the preparations for the festival when I visited the gardens in January, but I was entirely unprepared for the sheer volume and variety of the orchids that would be on display.

I don't even like orchids that much (I don't dislike them, don't get me wrong, they're just nowhere near being my fave flower or my top choice for a houseplant) but en masse like this they made my heart positively sing.

You can learn all about orchids and their habitats at the festival, of course. Kew is never short of opportunities to learn some fascinating plant facts. But I mostly just wandered about gazing at the displays, trying not to repeatedly say "wow" out loud or let my jaw drop open in front of passing strangers.

All that and I encountered one of the Conservatory's resident pest controllers - a very chilled out Chinese Water Dragon who wandered across one of the paths to everyone's great delight. I'm not sure if lizards care about orchids (I'm guessing probably not), but a massive glass house has got to be a pretty great space for a lizard to live!

More Kew adventures soon!

You'll find all my Kew posts here, and you can read about all of my travels in the UK here.

You might also enjoy reading about my visit to the Camellia Festival at Chiswick House & Gardens. 

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.

365 / 237 - Success and Failure

My bracelet experiments were a success last night - hurrah!
The elastic makes it slightly adjustable, and easy to take on and off. I tweaked the orchid design a little, too, and accidentally used the wrong shade of pink for the background so this bracelet has a different look to it than the last white one. I think I prefer the delicacy of a softer pink, but we shall see.

Unfortunately, I went babysitting last night and had to take a small kit of sewing with me so I had no materials with me for making new designs... so yet again I have failed in the "design a day" stakes. Tsk tsk. I really need to get my act together with this!

365 / 236 - Experiments with Bracelets

I've been wanting to make felt bracelets for a while now, and yesterday I finally sat down and made some prototypes....
I thought first of all to try using a snap fastener to, er, fasten the bracelet and with a bit of wishful thinking dreamt of using some of my inherited supplies for them. Unfortunately the vintage snaps won't even un-snap from their cards - I shall just have to keep them in their packaging and frame them or something: oh well :) - and a modern snap fastener is still a little too stiff to work well with the softness of the felt. I was rather pleased with the look of the thing though! I think the orchids are so sweet and romantic-looking, I can't wait to wear one of these during the summer ...
Then I tried using velcro - softer fastening, slightly adjustable, great, right? Unfortunately it turned out to be a bit chunkier than the look I was going for (more a solid cuff than a delicate floral bracelet).
So today (day 237) I am trying out more ideas (this time experimenting with elastic) and my two "not quite right" prototypes will get listed in the shop at bargain prices... I just wish my hands didn't look so rough at the moment! All this decorating, etc, has made them so dry. Note to self: moisturise like crazy and keep my fingers crossed my skin becomes baby soft and lovely looking in time for the next bracelet-modelling session...

Oh, and late last night I made a quick attempt at a viola, in the same sort of style as my orchids. I didn't have time to turn it into a brooch, but here it is anyway:It's about 1 1/2 inches high. Here are the violas which inspired it. There are even more of them now than when I took that picture and they make me smile every time I see them!

365 / 235 - Orchids

The lovely x-stitcher suggested making orchids as part of my design-a-day challenge and after much pouring over photos, and sketching feverishly I eventually worked out how to make them:
I couldn't decide whether to make a pink one or a white one so I made both. Much more fun to make two, I reckon! They're about 7cms (2 3/4 inches) across, so quite a nice size.

As with the day before, I didn't have time to get them quite finished (no brooch backs etc yet) and the photos are rather grey... we went to IKEA today and missed the decent light in the process (oh well). I will try to get all these new designs finished, properly photographed and listed over on Etsy by the end of the weekend: so keep an eye out if you're interested. It will be lovely to freshen up my shop a little! I have rather been neglecting it with all this decorating, etc. Must try harder...