There's My Kew--Day 37

I'll warn you before I start that, because I visited a garden today, there will be quite a few photos in this post. I'm kidding about warning you, of course. Who doesn't enjoy more photos? In all honesty, though, I had a great time at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew (Kew Gardens) today. I really, really enjoyed taking these pictures, and I hope that my pleasure in taking them comes through. With that little introduction laid down, let's hear a little bit about some plants, shall we?

Our program leader Josh gave us a tour around the perimeter for most of the time. He told us that he was not a professional tour guide, so please forgive me if my historical details leave a little to be desired. He said that the gardens were started in the late 18th century. Because they are botanic gardens, I think it is safe to assume that they were established mainly for the study of plants and for the enjoyment of the reigning monarch (who I believe would have been King George III or his predecessor). Kew Gardens have so much to offer visitors! I saw so many great things on our relatively short tour.

First, we walked past the Palm House, which as the largest palm tree in the world (with leaves over 20 meters long!). Right across from the Palm House is a museum simply called Museum No. 1. The museum has a nice little pond in front of it.

We then walked through various "regions" of plants--Australia and New Zealand, Alpine, South America, etc. There is a cool greenhouse called the Davies Alpine House that has a lot of cooler weather plants. Right outside the greenhouse is a field full of all kinds of grains--wheat, sorghum, barely, you name it. The other side of the greenhouse has a lovely little waterfall, which I just couldn't resist taking a picture of (I've noticed that there are a lot of pictures I "can't resist taking a picture of"). I guess I've just got the heart of a photographer in me somewhere! Being a botanic garden, Kew also has order beds, similar to those I saw at the Chelsea Physic Garden a couple of weeks ago. I really loved the vegetable plots and the roses.

The avenue down the center of the Order boxes.

Some roses hanging over the walkway.

The waterfall next to the Davies Alpine House.

Wheat from the field of grains.

Kew is one of the most interesting gardens I have visited because it has a whole forest in it. One minute, we were strolling through an open space with lots of trees, and the next thing I knew, we were completely enclosed by trees. I liked this part of the tour a lot because I like forests. We stopped and saw a real Japanese house made almost completely of bamboo that had been dismantled in Japan, flown to England, and reassembled in Kew. But Kew is also pretty typical for its time in that it has a lot of sham ruins--often called "Follies." These are purposely constructed for decoration, but they are supposed to look like they serve another purpose. One of my favorite Follies was the Aeolus Temple. Josh says that in the spring, the entire hill is covered in bluebells. That is a sight I would definitely love to see! Back in the woods we also went to see the 11th Wonder of the World, otherwise known as the world's largest compost pile. That was actually pretty unimpressive, but we got a big kick out of the nickname and all that.

Aeolus Temple, a sham ruin.

One of the biggest draws of Kew Gardens is Kew Palace, where King George III was taken when he went mad to keep him out of the public sphere and out of harm's way. Apparently, it features pretty prominently in the movie The Madness of King George. I think I will have to see this movie sometime. I just liked the color of the palace and its neatly trimmed topiary. I think the spiral tree is really fun.

Yeah, if I were crazy, I think I would like to stay in as calm a place as this, too.

To my surprise and delight, there are many different kinds of birds in Kew Gardens. We saw a large variety of ducks as we crossed the lake in Kew Gardens, and I just thought this little guy was so precious!

The water is so clear that you can see his little blue-tinted feet paddling through the water. :)

I also thought these chickens and roosters having their lunch were pretty adorable.

There ain't nobody here but us chickens...having a snack and ignoring the photographer. (Except for that rooster...he looks pretty peeved off, yeah?)

But I probably got the biggest thrill from seeing the peacocks. Yes, you read right. Peacocks. In England. Will wonders never cease?

The peacock in his not-so-natural habitat.

The stately peacock promenades along the path, strutting his stuff for an admiring Canada goose.

And, well, this guy isn't really wildlife, but I think he's kinda cute. He reminds me of Buddy, the carved bear we keep on our front porch with a welcome sign in his paws.

"I love Kew Gardens!"

And if seeing wildlife wasn't enough, we got to act like wildlife, too! The gardens have many attractions for children, and one of the best is an enlarged badger den. Well, since college students are like big kids anyway, we all decided to give it a go. It was pretty cramped, I'll tell you that. Definitely for the young at heart and small in body. But we made it through okay.

Sarah and Kayla are excited that they get to act like badgers! I mean, who wouldn't be?

But going underground wasn't enough. We wanted to soar through the trees, as well. Kew Gardens has a great treetop walkway that put us up above the canopy and gave us some great views of the gardens (including another view of the world's largest compost heap. I'm telling you, that thing's like a dirty penny).

Wow, there's a picture of actual human beings on my camera! (Taken by Josh.)

The view from the treetop walkway, where you can see out across the gardens and down to another greenhouse (my map says it's the Temperate House).

There were many signs like this in the treetop walkway. I thought this was an interesting fact: "Treeroots are twice as wide as the tree is tall but only a metre deep."

I thought you would enjoy seeing what the actual walkway looks like situated among the trees.

Further along in the woods was Queen Charlotte's Cottage. It was her summer home when she was alive. I think it would be a rather nice place to stay, don't you? I love the thatched roofing, exposed timbers, and English brick (very typical of the time since the Great Fire of 1666 basically put the kabosh on building with wood and plaster).

Another great spot in the woods was a little glen of American redwood trees. I learned that they have spongy bark as a way to enable more moisture to seep into their fibers. If you have never smelled a redwood, you should definitely try it sometime. They have a fantastic aroma. It reminds me very strongly of a wood cabin warmed by a crackling fire. After seeing the redwoods, I really want to go to California to visit Redwood National Park.

If I could bottle the lovely fragrance of the California redwood, I would (I'd probably be rich, too).

Walking around the gardens gave us quite the appetite, so we stopped at a little cafe on the grounds for a small lunch. Josh was so nice and gave us each 5 pounds to pay for our lunches! I bought a curry chicken sandwich and some Aranciata from San Pellegrino. I was really tempted to keep the can because it was all in Italian! But I don't know if it would make it home, plus I would feel kind of silly keeping an empty orange soda can. The cafe itself was cool because right outside the building are grape vines. Some of the vines are bright red or yellow this time of year, and I even found a few branches with grapes still growing on them. They looked delicious!

I believe these are black eating grapes.

After lunch, we visited the well-renowned gift shop. I wasn't really intending to buy anything, but then I saw a sign in the book section about buy-one-get-one-free cookbooks. They had this great collection of cookbooks containing 200 recipes in categories like Budget Meals, Cupcakes, and Rice, but the two that caught my eye were Italian Favorites and Veggie Feasts. The best part? The going price for one book was 4.99! That's right: I got TWO cookbooks for about $8. Not half bad when you're a poor college student and a cook who aspires to rival her mother one day (not in a bad way). I am very excited to try some of these recipes. Now I have some cookbooks to call my own. :)

I'm shamelessly proud of my heritage. And I love the British spelling!

I'm not a vegetarian; I just love vegetables.

So, as you can tell, it was a pretty good day. I took some good notes for my paper and had a great time with my friends. Tomorrow is our trip to Portobello Road to go antique shopping. Wish me luck!