Kew Gardens 17th Smile – Japanese Festival

As the seasons change – Kew Garden does too. We went to the Japanese Festival in Kew.

Japanese Gateway

God's beauty never ends.
We just need to take time to open our eyes to see it,
to feel it and to experience all it can be. 

Laura D Field

In the Temperate house we saw Art work

‘A thousand Springs’ from Chiharu Shiota.

5000 Haikus – in Japanese – referencing nature – suspended on red threads

while listening to beautiful music by a Japanese composer.

5000 Haiku suspended in a web of red threads

The Chalk Garden was a mixture of chalky English limestone and beautiful Japanese planting.

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We saw colours with Bonsai Trees

I’ll leave you with a Japanese proverb

One who smiles 
rather than rages 
is always stronger.

Wishing everyone a great weekend !

Kew Gardens 16th Smile – shapes

Another trip to Kew Gardens – this time I found lovely different shapes in the plants. We walked through the rainforest, grasses and admired another beautiful open waterlily.

Never lose an opportunity
of seeing something beautiful,
for beauty is God's handwriting.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

God was very creative making wonderful shapes for us to admire.

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  Aloe – spiral

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  soft long thin grass in the wind

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  long – titan arum

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  just amazing….

We saw a fruit in different stages

God gave us eyes
to see the beauty of nature
and hearts 
to see the beauty in each other.

Kew Gardens 15th Smile

This time in Kew Gardens I admired the flowers and learnt some Photography tips from my Photographer friend I went with.

I learnt to focus on the flower with a blurry background. This was even possible with my Mobile phone camera and I was so happy that this worked well.

Please click on the individual picture to enlarge it. I’m proud how the pictures came out.

This little fellow fell on my trousers while we had lunch under an Oak tree.

He was not even 1 cm long.

We passed a fascinating tree, a Maritime Pine which did not grow straight. The bark was smoother on one side and really rugged on the other.

Maritime Pine not growing straight, and view up

We stayed so long we nearly needed a lantern home….

A sweet friendship refreshes the soul. Proverbs 27:9

Every leaf is unique

Looking closer at an Agave at Kew Gardens, you can see clearly that every leaf has a unique pattern of the way it has grown from the inside.

The leaves have similar patterns but evey one is unique to its’ unfolding.

We are unique creatures, every one of us.

Be YOU.
Don't be someone else.
YOU are a unique individual.
Be proud... rock it loud.

Apolo Ohno

Kew Gardens 14th Smile

A new day – a new visit to my favourite Kew Gardens

A walk with a friend through Kew, drinking in the many beautiful colours of plants, I don’t remember the names of.

Here a collage of the beautiful mix.

There are some Eucalytus trees, it fascinated me that there are blooms, fruits and unripe fruits on the same tree at the same time.

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  blooms

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  fruits

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  unripe fruits

Kew surprises me every time.

Sometimes …. just spending some quality time with good friends is the only therapy you need.

Norwich Break – back in the cyber world

Norwich is a very old city in Norfolk with a beautiful Cathedral, a castle and a lovely towncentre with a market.

We had a house close to the citycentre to our disposal and discovered Norwich by foot daily.

We found a beautiful little garden ‘Plantation Garden‘ also called the Secret garden which was built at the site of a Chalk Quarry. Henry Trevor shaped the garden in 1855. It is an oasis for tranquility, we loved it every day!

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Click on the individual picture to enlarge.

Norwich Cathedral

In the Cathedral there was Dippy, the famous skeleton of the Diplodocus which is usually in London in the Natural History Museum. He is on tour and currently in Norwich.

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It was very impressive.

Norwich has plenty of churches, we discovered though that many are not for worship. We found an art centre in a church, a bookshop with coffee shop and one was full of antiques for sale.

Norwich is a University city too, the – some cobbled- streets a lovely, the market beautiful and the little narrow lanes in between have old houses with quirky shops.

We have been in Norwich before (2017) and saw the Castle , blog post here

We bought some plants as a souvenir for the garden.

Let us find magic in all the little things in life. 

Outing in nature – part four – Rye

Our next stop was Rye a small English town by the coast in East Sussex. In the centre, cobbled lanes like Mermaid Street are lined with medieval, half-timbered houses. Mermaid Street is most famous where the Mermaid Inn is located which was used by smugglers. The historic houses date back from 15th century – many are 500 and 600 years old. You find also a Castle and the Ypres Tower.

Ypres Tower

Castle

Many of the old houses in the centre have lovely names above the door:

The house with two doors

The house with the seat

The house oppsite

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  The house opposite

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  Mermaid Street

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  The Mermaid Inn, rebuilt 1420

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  The house with two front doors

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Every house is made up beautifully with flowers in the front. I can imagine they are rather quirky inside.

Outer beauty is what the eyes can see,
inner beauty can only be seen through the heart.
~ Cagla Bicer ~ 

Kew Gardens 13th Smile

The Waterlily house is open again, hurray, of course with limited amount of people going in at a time.

Some close ups:

The Rose Garden was amazing, all roses blooming and giving their wonderful scent to us.

I found some beautiful coloured flowers, which I thought need a bit of ironing…only joking 🙂 The crumbly look made them even more special, they were rather delicate in both colours.

A special playful large scale bench waited for us to simply sit, relax and smell the planted circle of rock roses in the middle and enjoy nature.

New growth coming form every tree, and plant. I always love to see growth.

Every time I visit I find different plants, flowers and enjoy nature more than ever. It pushes happiness button every time and makes me grateful to live in such a wonderful world.

Heaven is under our feet as well as over our head.

Outing in nature – part three – Bateman’s House

We went along to Bateman's, which was Rudyard Kipling's house for 34 years and were he died in 1936. It is a 17th century house, beautiful with vast land around as Rudyard Kipling bought more land during his time there.

Rudyard Kipling's most famous fiction is the Jungle book.

Rudyard Kipling was the most famous author in England,and was earning £5,000 per year; the cost of Bateman's, £9,300, was thus entirely affordable. ( A secretary earned around £80 a year). 
He wrote many stories in this house, his American wife made sure he would not be disturbed uncessessay. 

Bateman’s built 1634

Garden

Outer beauty is what the eyes can see,
inner beauty can only be seen through the heart.
~ Cagla Bicer ~ 

His rather large blue Rolls Royce from the 1920’s was displayed in the garage. He loved that car. It was behind glass and the picture did not come out.

Outings in nature – Part two – Scotney Castle

Next we went to see Scotney Castle with its vast garden and old Castle.

The old Castle is very picturesque, featuring the ruins of a medieval moated manor house – it is on an island on a small lake. The lake is surrounded by sloping gardens with a wonderful collection of Rhodoendrons, Azaleas, Wisterias and Roses.

I have never seen so many blooming Rhododendrons together, it was the perfect time to visit.

There is nothing quite like the pleasure you get from plants and flowers,
they certainly cheer you up.
~Charmain Hussey~