"The Definition of Insanity is Doing the Same Thing Over and Over Again and Expecting Different Results" - Albert Einstein

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Views from Kew

Get ready for a blog post about the activities of my day on the ACTUAL day that these activities occurred. I know, I can't handle it either, but try breathing in and out slowly. I don't want to be responsible for any of my avid readers to hyperventilate and pass out from too much excitement; so if you think you might be feeling woozy, sit down, grab yourself a paper bag, and just take a few minutes before you keep reading. However, not under any circumstances are you to stop reading the post completely. Trust me, it's gonna be good, and lets be serious for a second, it's not gonna kill you to finish, but it might kill me.

This morning Alison and I woke up early and trekked all the way out to Kew Gardens. For those of you who are familiar with the Tube, Cutty Sark to Kew Gardens is 31 stops travelled over the DLR and the District Line and involved 3 changes. For those of you who are not familiar with the Tube, it is a long ass trip, and it took about 2 hours.

Luckily, It was totally and completely worth the trip! Kew Gardens is absolutely beautiful!!!! I took some pictures that would make a certain Otolaryngologist turned part time photographer green with envy. And luckily for him and you, I'm gonna post my favorite pictures up here so you can all admire my beautiful photography skills.

Note: You may want to prepare your emergency kit now.

Here we see the amazing Palm House, which is a Greenhouse filled with plants from every continent (except Antarctica) and in the basement is a Marine Life exhibit as well. It is an icon of Kew Gardens (even more so than the snail- bonus points for getting the reference) and was constructed between 1844 and 1849. It is made of 700 panes of glass.


This is the view across from the Palm House of Museum #1. Great Name.

Here are some purple Hydrangeas from the Hydrangea Garden. This is my favorite shot, but just to put this in perspective for you, these Hydrangeas come in blue, pink, purple, white, yellow and lots of color mixing in between.


Here is the Pagoda designed by Sir William Chambers. Did you know that when the Pagoda was complete in 1762 it was the tallest reconstruction of a Chinese building in Europe? I didn't either. Thank Goodness for www.kew.org.


Here is another example of a time where I am showing you my favorite picture from a garden but I have like 30 more excellent shots on my computer. This flower is from the Rose Garden, which was planted to celebrate the Garden's 250th anniversary.


And now on to my favorite stop of the day, the Princess of Wales Conservatory, where I visited the Butterfly room. I couldn't pick just one favorite shot, so here are my favorite four.

Make sure you note the blue butterfly in the top left of the picture above.

This is probably the best shot of the day.

I love the colors in this one.

I took 100 pictures at Kew Gardens and these were only 9 of them, so if you are intrigued by butterflies and flowers or you would like to humor me and be in my good graces, I would be more than delighted to show you the full collection upon my return to the United States.

Until then, you are just gonna have to marvel at these awesome shots.

1 comment:

  1. Jaclyn,

    Your days sound wonderful and your pix are getting awesomer(is that a word, it is now ). The gardens were beautifuland the butterflies really cool.Great job!

    Love DAD

    ReplyDelete