I have been looking forward to last weekend for a number of weeks. The Teen had a Girl Guide camp to attend so the Engineer and I decided to do something just for us. In fact, as I have been allowing the Engineer to spend as much time building his workshop as he needs (and I've even been helping on occasion) he suggested we go to Kew gardens. My mum in law, C, had suggested I go to the Marianne North gallery at Kew and had bought me a book on her work for last Christmas, so I was eager to go and thoroughly approved of the Engineer's suggestion.
So, on Friday afternoon we dropped the Teen off at her camp and then drove to London. We had booked a room at a Travel Lodge near Kew Bridge. I have to say although the room was a little tired it was clean and well equipped. We had our evening meal in the hotel and the food was quite good, the bed was very comfortable and we both slept very well.
On Saturday morning it was sunny and bright - a perfect day for a visit to a garden. The view from our hotel window was across to some maisonettes and in the front garden of one was a lady sitting in the morning sun crocheting a blanket; this made a smile for the rest of the day.
Breakfast was good and we were joined by what must have been a school rugby team from Australia, large teenaged boys with voices that cracked. They were all polite and well behaved. There were a lot of other Australian voices too and one family who were from Wales. They were all in London for the Rugby world cup which we had forgotten about until we tried to book a room for the Saturday night and found that the Travel Lodge was the only place that had rooms left.
After breakfast we walked over Kew bridge to the nearest Kew gardens entrance - Elizabeth gate. It was a 10 minute walk which started on a typical city street, crossed the Thames and finished by a village green and cricket pitch and beautiful big houses with gorgeous gardens and huge ornamental gates outside. The whole area near the Elizabeth gate had a nice feel to it.
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| Some Alpines and the dew of early morning |
I thoroughly enjoyed the whole day; we walked and walked, so much that our feet were hurting. The Engineer liked the Alpine house as a piece of engineering, I just liked everything.
We visited the vegetable garden and I got very excited about the kale; it was such a wonderful colour that I wanted to take a leaf and draw it then and there. I pointed out the carrot fence to the Engineer who had not been convinced about the whole concept when I suggested I grow carrots. Next year it will be carrots and courgettes in our garden.
It was a lovely late summer's day and as we had arrived so early the gardens did not seem to get crowded until much later. Just before lunch we went to the Shirley Sherwood gallery of botanical art to look at the works on display; some of it took my breath away, it was so beautiful. The Marianne North Gallery was mind blowing too, not because of her work, which is lovely, but because of the sheer amount of it. Every wall is covered in paintings - there is absolutely no space between them. It really was an overload for the eyes.
I have no photographs of the art works as photography was not allowed in the galleries and I respected that, although some people didn't.
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| Victoria water lilies |
We left the gardens just as they were shutting and went back to the hotel via a shop for some real milk for my cup of tea later that evening. We had an early dinner and watched Dr Who and then the England - Wales rugby match which was nail biting.
The following day, Sunday, we had breakfast early and drove home, stopping off at the Royal Horticultural Society Gardens at Wisley as it was on our way.
Its a very different garden to Kew with some very formal areas which were beautifully kept. There was a sculpture trail in the garden and many were very nice but these two were our favourites: The hare is part of the trail but the bear is a permanent fixture.
After some lunch we drove back to pick up the Teen who had had a good time at camp. I think I would like to revisit Wisley on a week day as it may be a little less crowded.
I am now trying to finish off my pepper as I would like to draw some acorns and conkers, maybe a composition with both.
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