Kew harvest delights

Today, I visited Kew Gardens for the very first time! Before even getting into the gardens, I invested some money in becoming a friend of Kew, as Kat had told me she spent loads of time there, when she lived in London. Now, I can say I see why! We had a gorgeous day for it and despite being there for about 5 hours, we didn't see half of what was in there.

They're having a harvest festival at the moment, which I knew I had to go to. One of the highlights is the gorgeous cranberries growing on one of the lakes in the gardens. When they are ripe, they will be harvested (if the ducks don't eat them all first). There was also a wonderful sculpture of a man made out of all different types of pumpkins and squashes. He was fab! I love pumpkins, I really do. I just think they are such a cheerful looking vegetable. I can't really be sad when there are pumpkins around.

We then visited the Palm House, which was wonderfully tropical inside. It was an amazing jungle of palm trees, ferns and other exotic plants from around the world. There was a papaya tree absolutely loaded with papayas. I hope none of them fall on anyone's head! I also learned that all-spice actually comes from one plant - I thought it was just a mixture of a load of popular spices!

After a while, we got too hot and had to escape back into the cooler open air. We discovered the most beautiful fungi all around the gardens. It was the first time I have seen so many mushrooms and toadstools in the one place. We also found a chestnut tree with a carpet of conkers underneath it. The squirrels were having a field day!

I enjoyed myself thoroughly and can't wait to go back. I don't know if we'll ever manage to see everything in there!