Kew Gardens Visit – 10 April 2010

Today, my mum and dad and I drove to Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew in London to look at the gardens in Spring. The weather was glorious, and as I enjoyed the beautiful vistas, Dad and I came across a cherry tree, where he taught me a bit of rather poignant, yet beautiful, poetry.

LOVELIEST of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.

Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.

And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
A. E. Housman (1859-1936)

There seemed to be some fighting going on in the duck pond, with some of the male ducks fighting over their potential mates! This was nice to watch at 11 am, while enjoying some elevenses Mum had packed.

The daffodils were like a carpet of yellow, with at least a few hundred in one area. We had a packed lunch which Mum had made, but a drink and ice-cream in the afternoon which we purchased.

The highlight of the day was – perhaps undoubtedly – the ‘Xstrata Treetop Walkway’. Opened in late-May 2008, it is 18 metres high, and 200 metres long, offering unrivalled aerial views of parts of the huge Kew Gardens site.

While I did grumble a bit, telling Mum and Dad how boring it was, actually it was a really nice day out. Thanks to them for taking me.