Hever Castle And Gardens

Kew was Thursday and on Friday (July 21), after the V&A and British Library, Penelope joined the grandparents for a week of travel and camping. We wanted our 5 year old grand-daughter to see a "real" castle while in England, and so we took her first to Hever Castle, south of London. Hever is actually a fortified residence, of note particularly in that Anne Boleyn did some time there in her youth. The Castle has passed through many hands and is now owned by a corporation that maintains it as a family castle and gardens experience. We were there on a warm Saturday at the height of high season, and specifically for the weekly jousting extravaganza (next post).

Walking from the lake to the castle

Very old vines

The usual folly

Gardens in full mid-summer glory

Distant view of the castle complex

But first, a visit to the demonstration areas,
here, dressing up Medieval

In the tent with real medieval weapons, it was
impossible not to reflect that 52% of these
people are certifiable morons

P in the musical demonstration tent

Family portrait

Hever Castle; alas there was a no fotos policy on the interior
tour

But I snagged one anyway

With princesses

Castle close-up; had a double moat; with water

Smelling the roses

In the rose garden

In the ever popular water maze: make the wrong turn and you
get wet

Jousting; she enjoyed Hever greatly; however, the fun was just
beginning

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)