England Nov 2024, day 6: Nature
Nov. 12th, 2024 08:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serindeBoth of us slept much better last night, so much so that we only woke up close to 8 (which, in theory, was our breakfast seating). We finally rolled in about twenty to nine, but no one seemed to care, so that was OK. I thought it imprudent to do another museum day, so after considering some possibilities, we opted to go to Kew Gardens[1], where I have never been, and where S. had spent a lot of happy time but not for several decades when he lived in the area.
You might say, a garden in November[2]? but any fool can make a spring or summer riot of flowers look good. If the skills are present, a fall garden can be beautiful and soul-stirring; and it should be to no one's surprise that Kew is full of these skills We didn't have time, or indeed the meat-sack capability, to see the whole thing - particularly I regret not making it to the far corner to the woodland walk - but I did at least get to visit their "Treetop Walkway", which is a circular path sixty feet (!) in the air. We had a warm-up at the cafe and I stimulated the gift shop economy, and then we took the bus into Richmond, which you might think of as Montclair but historical. (It is also the setting for Ted Lasso, for the Gentle Readers on that particular wagon.) We ambled through the high street, went down to the riverside, had a pint at a pub right on the Thames, and then back up to get dinner at a brasserie which was good enough, though overpriced (see? Montclair!). Back to the hotel about quarter past eight for a cup of herbal tea and a telly program on Brunelleschi's dome.
[1] I am deeply chagrined that there are several ways you can take a boat to Kew, none of which were available today.
[2] Had we been a week later, the gardens would have had their apparently extensive nighttime holiday stuff on; which staff were busy as beavers working to set up during our visit. That seems to be a theme for this trip.
You might say, a garden in November[2]? but any fool can make a spring or summer riot of flowers look good. If the skills are present, a fall garden can be beautiful and soul-stirring; and it should be to no one's surprise that Kew is full of these skills We didn't have time, or indeed the meat-sack capability, to see the whole thing - particularly I regret not making it to the far corner to the woodland walk - but I did at least get to visit their "Treetop Walkway", which is a circular path sixty feet (!) in the air. We had a warm-up at the cafe and I stimulated the gift shop economy, and then we took the bus into Richmond, which you might think of as Montclair but historical. (It is also the setting for Ted Lasso, for the Gentle Readers on that particular wagon.) We ambled through the high street, went down to the riverside, had a pint at a pub right on the Thames, and then back up to get dinner at a brasserie which was good enough, though overpriced (see? Montclair!). Back to the hotel about quarter past eight for a cup of herbal tea and a telly program on Brunelleschi's dome.
[1] I am deeply chagrined that there are several ways you can take a boat to Kew, none of which were available today.
[2] Had we been a week later, the gardens would have had their apparently extensive nighttime holiday stuff on; which staff were busy as beavers working to set up during our visit. That seems to be a theme for this trip.
