Travels with Dick and Karen
London, Part 5
Further afield:
By train to Reading to see family
By Tube to Kew to see gardens
One of Karen’s nieces works in Reading, so we arranged to meet them there.
We started our Saturday journey to Reading by first taking the bus. After a bit of walking around the block we found the mouth of Paddington station.
After a first-timer’s confusion at the ticket office (at least we knew to request two “day return off-peak” tickets) we board our train and head out of town. English countryside soon appears.
…with occasional intervening stations (which we don’t stop at… we luckily had caught the “first stop: Reading” train).
… a half-hour of watching trees and weekend infrastructure maintenance flying by
Karen’s niece Abbi and her husband Dave picked us up at the station.
(where did he get that T-shirt?)
Dave drives us all to lunch at Bird In Hand in Sonning Common. Dave’s parents met us there. We had so much fun eating and chatting we forgot to take photos (very good food it you happen to be in the area).
After lunch we took a short walking tour of Reading.
First, we start atop a car park with a commanding view of the railroad station’s forecourt and their workplace in the distance (near the white flagpole).
Then we walk with them under the station, following their usual way to work.
A short bit beyond that then brought us to …
… the Thames River’s passage through the town.
Then it’s back to the station (the rear of which looked like this) and an eventual arrival back in London … to an exit from Paddington quite a bit different than our earlier entrance.
There we discovered another segment (Paddington Basin) of the Regent’s Canal south from Little Venice
Little Venice (which we visit in Part 4 of these photos) is on the upper left, we’re now at the bend at the bottom.
But that was another day… we just followed the Basin eastward until we reach Edgware Road and caught the #414 bus back home.
Another day, another train, er, “tube”.
One of the biggest must visit items of our trip was to go out to the gardens at Kew, Mecca for plant fanciers.
We headed a few blocks southwest of home to South Kensington station, where we caught the District Line’s branch service to Kew.
We reached a tiny station in a picturesque village, then walked up the stairs and over the tracks…
…to discover that we were a half-hour early at the gates (guidebooks don’t always match reality) … so we walked down the street to look at (yes, it’s a reappearance of…) the Thames river. At low tide. We’re about 6 miles by crow, or 12 miles by boat, from our usual haunts.
and peeked in at the local church (St. Anne’s)
Once into the gardens we paused at one of their oldest trees, an ancient American Black Locust. Many of their significant plantings had descriptive panels.
Nearby was one of their newest: the recently-discovered Wollemi Pine from a hidden valley in Australia.
The Princess of Wales Conservatory
is one of the new multiple-zone glass houses
The crew was doing the morning tidy-up
They an amazing assemblage of aurums including several corpse flowers (Amorphophallus titanum). Dick is reading the signage.
It has the largest undivided inflorescence in the world.
Luckily we missed it (there’s a reason for its common name).
Instead we got the sweet fragrance of orchids and passion flowers
including several species I had only seen in photos.
Lots of bromeliads in the epiphyte area
Their desert room has cacti, mammillaria and other dry area plants from all over the world
We didn’t get rained (or nibbled) on.
The pool was a big hit with the school groups
especially this member of the insect patrol
Karen was impressed with the healthy mangroves. We had seen them in Florida and they are notoriously difficult to grow in a greenhouse.
We left the conservatory to wander amongst the rock gardens
A very lovely grotto
with little bags over some of the flowers and explanatory signs
The alpine house was in full bloom
the bamboo grove hides a Japanese house.
the espaliered fruit trees created a fun room (with seating)
We were both impressed with this ancient room-shaped wisteria tangle
The Palm House is one of the old style glass houses and a Kew signature landmark
It is very lush
With an arm for each continent
No, not that kind of “pot”. Americans would refer to this show-piece Cycad as a “potted” plant.
The shell ginger was also remarkable: much more impressive than any I’ve seen so far.
A pair of ornamented stairs led to the upper walkway. Since they were very narrow one was designated “up” and the other “down”.
The walkway took us among the crowns and let us look down on palms and cycads
Through the glass we could see the pattern of the adjacent geometric gardens. Being so high let us appreciate their over-all form.
Underneath the Palm House was a small aquarium
with lots of very healthy real plants (instead of the usual plastic) and several unusual fish
Across the way was the Victoria Water Lily house
so pretty you get two photos
Around the periphery were these long gourds. The pink flowers behind the gourds are amaranth (unrelated to the gourds).
Wandering the grounds we encountered a temple-shaped “folly”
many trees much older than Dick
or Karen
Then we took the skywalk
to look at the progress of the Temperate House restoration (currently under wraps). A glass house with twice the space of the Palm House, maybe it will be done by the next time we visit.
At the base of the skywalk’s stairway is the Rhizotron, a more modern installation exploring the web of life related to roots. It was too dark underground for good photos. This is the sculpture in the courtyard of the display
The pagoda
… fields of English daisies, one of Karen’s favorite spring flowers
the lake…
… with swan family
Even a coot with chick
coot feet are an interesting compromise betwen adaptation for walking and swimming.
all to the sounds of jets overhead: Kew is in the flight path for Heathrow.
After a long day, they chase us out the gate. We return to the tiny station to catch the tube back to London
Next: Part 6: Chelsea Gardens