Tara Said So

 My friend Tara recommended I visit Kew Gardens, which I wasn’t consciously aware of (I mean, it shows up in Regency novels on occasion, so I vaguely knew it was a place - but not a NOW place, you know?), so I went. First I had decided to go to Oxford, since I haven’t been (and I was already aware of it as a place), but I woke up all nervy and angsty and did not get out of bed in time for the planned train to Ye Olde University Towne. (The trains run every half hour, but meh.) I was already having A Day, and I kind of just wanted to hole up and do nothing, but also the sun was shining and Sunday it’s supposed to rain and I really should do SOMETHING and Kew Gardens had a student ticket rate and FINE, I’ll GO.

I’m very glad I did.

It’s not as good as Longwood Gardens (someday I’ll come back!) and it probably wasn’t as good as it will be when more of the flowers are out, but it is green and sprawling and the weather was wonderful and boy howdy, did I WALK, and I will recommend that the students go on a weekend (cheaper train fare) when they need to get out of the city. Definite mood booster, and I should sleep well tonight! (Yeah, whatever, Ambien [generic version]. You’re only here because the doctor said so.)

Anyway, 18,000+ steps later:

Kew as in ‘cue’, but with a ‘K’.

There are some pilots out there ALSO enjoying the weather and having a great time.

If you can’t find pyramidal topiaries in a British garden, where can you?

This tree came from China and is a million years old (or a few hundred, give or take), and nobody knows why it started growing sideways like this. But they supported the roots with bricks and keep adding steel poles to hold up the branches, and it keeps right on flowering every year. There’s a lesson here, I’m guessing.

The Hive is an artistic representation of what it’s like to be in a beehive, as the park has this whole thing about bees and pollinators and all that good stuff. This hive hums and buzzes (there are speakers) and it has lights that respond to the vibrations of an actual hive somewhere on the grounds (not pictured). It was trippy, there is video.

This Monkey Puzzle tree looks like velvet from a distance, and feels like cactus IRL. DO NOT TRY TO CLIMB. (Just saying.)

Cupid in the Queen’s Garden behind Kew Palace, which is really just a big house King George III and Queen Charlotte liked to hang out in (at least until he was tortured, er, “treated” for his physical and mental illnesses there, NOT COOL) and it was still too small for the entire family of 15 children. Yeah, you read that right. They have the black horsehair chair Queen Charlotte died in, still draped with a ribbon so no one else will sit in it. Except you know someone HAS, right? Some idiot teenager with their first summer job got bored between tours and totally rebelled and moved the ribbon and sat down and freaked out and did not take a selfie because this was before cell phones. Possibly waaaaay before. Anyway.

The Brits really are surprisingly cool with the whole Hamilton thing.

I just thought this tree was neat.

THEY HAVE A BAMBOO FOREST. Y’all, if they can grow bamboo in the UK they can grow it anywhere - we REALLY need to be using bamboo (and hemp!) for all the things.

Snack break -  first in-country Crunchie bar! It was delicious.

Okay, but going on the treewalk meant going up all those stairs first. I hate stairs.

I talked myself into it. Other people were there, which made it less fun (including other tourists who couldn’t read the signs telling them to stay on the left - Americans!) and it will probably be amazing in 20 years when the elevator they are just now starting to build has been refurbished and all the trees have grown up further and it LEGIT feels like you’re in a massive tree house. It’s been a garden space for a solid 200+ years, what’s another 20? (Yes, the walkway is metal grating, and you can see through to the stuff below. No biggie.)

There’s a tower-style pagoda (because of course there is) and it has dragons (because of course it does). I did not even THINK about talking myself into trying to climb this one.

See? Dragons.

I call this picture “Work in Progress”. The statue/puppet/art piece should be pretty cool when it’s done, at least. (I’m guessing I’ll always be a dork. *shrugs*)

I made a beeline (heh) for the Waterlily House, and then left as quickly as possible. It was muggy in there. But real waterlilies!

There are ten animal statues representing 10 different support factions for Queen Victoria, and there are pretty fascinating. They include a unicorn for Scotland, England’s crowned lion, and even a ‘yale’, which is apparently a legit mythical creature (mythically legit?), for the family of Henry VII’s mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort. They’re lined up along the front of the Palm House, which I did not go into because I decided I didn’t want to be in a sub-tropical space or that close to that many people. (Sunny day in the UK? There were a LOT of people out strolling, picnicking, wrangling screaming children, etc. Good times.) Also, since I didn’t go into either of the massive greenhouses, I have an excuse to go back later. Win!

I got back after 5 hours out in the fresh air and sunshine, picked up groceries, and did nothing else. I was going to watch a movie and/or read for next week’s classes, but, nope. I’m blaming jet lag - which is going quite well, considering - and taking my pill (last one?), and going to sleep. Rain forecast for tomorrow - may sneak in another park (there’s a Japanese park nearish by that I didn’t know about) after church. And then Shakespeare and class prep. For sure.