Kew Gardens, 2

Our tour of Kew Gardens continues.... I should mention that we did visit Wakehurst Place, Kew's southern outpost, back in 2013.

Borders and parterres all over; including the
longest double border

At the Hive, listening to bee music/conversation/whatever; you
do this with a wooden stick in your mouth, which transmits the
"sound"; did not taste like honey

Water feature in a lily pad area

Carnivores

Cactus/succulent building

In the very warm and humid lily pad building; largest pads ever,
so far

Sausage tree

Seats four

Big old tree and admirer

Kew is not without its flaws, and one a major flaw; it is on the
landing path for Heathrow, and every 30 seconds or so one of
these thunders overhead; the 2PM complex was particularly
annoying; as one of the guides observed, at least they no longer
dump fuel on the plants....

The tree-top walk

Henry Moore was here; hey, it's green!

In the very large Japanese garden

The very famous pagoda

Kew Gardens, 1

In all our visits to London, we had never seen Kew Gardens, on anybody's list one of the 2 or 3 greatest of all gardens. As a botanical garden and research center, it encompasses many garden types and, of course, gazillions of species. And it is old. historic, and huge, befitting the Empire. We spent an entire day there, taking the train from Walton on Thames, and leaving London to Penelope and her parents.

Even Kew has its follies

Major botanical garden building; the temperate zone building
was closed for renovation

Huge, yes

Hundreds of specimen trees

Color

Newer, specialized buildings

Kew also has its share of sculpture

An empire can never have too many follies, right?

Over behind the lavender is where the Kew bees live; much
interest in bees at Kew...(we were on the pollination tour)

In the drier, warmer areas; it was quite a warm day

More specialized buildings, statements

Fir

Color everywhere

And more giant specimens

The Hive...sculpture, bee concert hall (see
next post)

Tate Britain

As a Turner fan, I have been to the Tate Britain several times (just search "Turner" for previous posts). We saw all the Turners, again, and also breezed through the historical collection and a couple of the special collections, and, of course, the superb gift shoppe. But it was the Rex Whistler Restaurant and its 360 degrees of Whistler murals that got my attention this time.

Cute Reynolds

The Victorians were big on moralistic art... this from a series
entitled Woman's Mission: Companion of Manhood, George
Elgar Hicks

My personal favorite, Comfort of Old Age

P honing her interpretive skills

Don't remember what Hockney was doing at the Tate, but I admire his early
dabbling in acrylics and later use of a Mac

Under the big top at the Tate

Now in the Rex Whistler Restaurant at the Tate; students of this blog will recall
our last Whistler encounter, at Plas Newydd (http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/
2016/07/plas-newydd-2016.html)

This is a similar but much larger version...

A few views

An attempt at a 360...

Whistler's bill for materials

Must eat there next time...

With Penelope Among The Britons

While we were touring Hampton Court, grand-daughter Penelope and her parents were arriving and setting up housekeeping in central London. We spent most of the next few days with them, visiting old and new sites in the big city before taking P with us for more camping and touring in England and then across the Channel.

First stop was the Eye and a ride P had been promised

We carried on up the river to the Tate Britain
(later post)

Construction cranes dotting the horizon

Nice literary tribute

Really loves her Grandma

Interesting sculpture at the British Library (see the forthcoming
British out-takes post)

Three generations of readers...

Street scene

The British Library

P with one of the more interesting Tube buskers

Victoria and Albert probably didn't plan it this way, but the
major use of the pool and fountains, especially on warm days,
is entertainment for the kids

Now aboard Le Duc and ready to carry on
carrying on