Kew Gardens

This week, I visited Kew Gardens for the first time in 16 years. The only thing I remember of my first visit is falling out with Katie Matheson at the water fountain over who splashed Luke Fisher with water, so I was looking forward to going back and, hopefully, managing to stay well clear of water-related breakdowns!

We were blessed with the most perfect weather: Gloriously sunny but not too hot. It was wonderful!

Our visit began in the Princess of Wales Conservatory. Although I'm not at all green-fingered or outdoorsy, I absolutely love taking photos of plants. I just find them so interesting from an aesthetic point of view and they're the perfect subject for experimenting with, so I was in my element!

Anyone for tequila?

Underneath the conservatories, there's a marine aquarium with tanks and vivariums, where you can see terrapins, piranhas and a poison dart tree frog.

Next, we headed to Treetop Walkway, passing the gorgeous Kew Palace on the way.

Treetop Walkway is pretty tall, to say the least! It's 18 metres high and passes right through the trees. 

It's designed to sway with the wind so that it won't break with high wind speeds. Suffice to say, it's pretty disconcerting walking around at 18 metres, with the ground visible through the holes under your feet, and feeling yourself swaying quite strongly in the breeze.

You can just about make out the arch of Wembley from the north side of the walkway.

After getting our feet back on the ground, we enjoyed a spot of lunch with this rather tame little dude.

Before heading home, we visited the Palm House. It's an absolutely wonderful Victorian glasshouse, built in 1844 and filled to the brim with exotic palms.

Outside the Palm House is a line of mythical being statues, such as unicorns and griffins.

Directly opposite, across the lake, is the beautiful neoclassical museum. It looked amazing with the reflection in the lake.

On the way out, I snapped a quick photo of the treetops. It was only when I got home that I noticed the clouds resembled an almost perfect map of the UK. It's even got Ireland- with Northern Ireland separated, the Isle of Wight and France. Very weird!