 Photo 1: A corner of the Feathery Fern House. |
I spent so much time in the
Greenwich Observatory Museum that I lost Lacy (who had gone in to look for me as I was
exiting). After spending another hour unsuccessfully searching for Lacy, I proceeded into
the town and found the railroad station. I took the train into London Bridge station, and
then the Underground out to Kew Gardens per our original plans. Since it was getting so late, I only had about ½ hour at Kew. This was a tragic shame because its beauty was exceeded only by its immensity. I did make it out to the Feathery Fern House which was properly warm and humid. Apparently they have another fern house for the "non-feathery" kind! |
 Photo 2: Entrance to the Palm House |
The grounds were gorgeous (as one would expect!) Just to the left of this photo (#2) was a flower bed which had been completely dug up and sealed with black plastic. The warning sign said that they were using an herbicide to get rid of some pest or other. |
 Photo 3: Inside the overgrown Palm House Link: Kew Botanical Gardens |
The Great Palm Conservatory is an
immense glass house. My glasses (and camera lens) immediately fogged over because of the
greatly elevated temperature and humidity (compared to the outside autumn London weather).
The trees are really getting overgrown as you can see from this photo (#3). I was really getting hungry on the way out of the gardens and I stopped at a bakery in Kew for some food and got a pretty good cheese roll and a square of caramel cake for dessert. The caramel cake was really great! I must find the recipe and try making it myself. It is baked on a big sheet like brownies or cookie bars. The base is a caramel flavor layer about ¾ inch thick with a consistency like graham cracker crust. Then it has a thin layer of sticky caramel on top, and then a layer of chocolate frosting (of course!) |