Another good walk in Kew Gardens

Determination got me to Elizabeth Gate spot on 9:30 on a grey Sunday morning just as the garden opened. That is still my favourite time to arrive there as there are fewer people around and so the garden looks even more wild than they usually do.

From there I headed North towards the river and then on towards Kew Palace.

The beauty of the formal gardens comes from the shapes of the hedges and these were undiminished by the Winter or the cloud cover.

I followed the path across the top of the gardens and then dropped down to Rhododendron Dell to see if there was any colour left, and there was.

I like to walk through Rhododendron Dell rather than the main path because well, the main path is the main path and Rhododendron Dell is not. It is, as its name suggests, sunk a little way below the other paths and that changes the environment there completely.

I Emerged back on to the main path and continued West following the route of the river West to the corner of Kew Gardens where there are lots of trees and very few people. For me, this is what Kew Gardens is all about.

Having got myself in to a corner I had no alternative but to head back towards the centre of the garden and that took me past the Japanese Gateway.

This is another structural garden so it looked just as good in December as it does in other months.

Nearby one of the peacocks was preening himself on a bench. He was very used to people and paid us little attention. I was very used to seeing him in that part of the garden too but I was still unable to resist taking photos.

I could have left at Lion Gate but I fancied just a little bit more walking, I had been aiming for ninety minutes and was just a little short of this, so I headed for Victoria Gate instead.

Part of the thinking was to take the path between the two gates that follows the main road as I rarely do this, it might even have been my first time.

The noise of the traffic was a constant companion and my reason for usually avoiding that area. That is a shame as the landscaping is quite nice in that part with some gentle slopes and small trees.

And that was where I found the most spectacular display of Winter colour.

The path curved respectively around this large Acer which could not decide whether to be pink or orange and so settled on both.

Beyond that was the Victoria Gate complex and the illusion of being in the country was suddenly shattered.

One day (possibly) I'll go though this blog to work out how many times I have been to Kew Gardens. I suspect that it has been around eight times a year for the last couple of years that I have been a member and a few more times before that. Let's call it twenty times. And still Kew Gardens is fresh and invigorating.