The Palm House

During the winter of 2009, my family and I found ourselves in the darkest of London. We woke up one morning to discover that the clouds had overstayed their welcome and on hearing the weather channel announce the possibility of snow, we felt particularly hard done by. Still, we didn't want to waste an entire day during our holiday and decided to throw caution to the wind, some scarves on, and head off for a day with nature at Kew Gardens. As it turned out, it didn't snow that day and the clouds eventually gave way a little for the sun to shine through, making our visit quite pleasant.

The Kew Gardens, in my view, is a grossly under-rated attraction. But then I've always liked anything to do with gardens and there being as few people as possible so I suppose it is understandable that the average tourist might give it a miss. This garden has been in existence for hundreds of years, lovingly cared for and presided over by generations of kings and queens who were themselves botanical enthusiasts.

One of the main attractions was the Palm House, a multi-domed glass building in the middle of Kew Gardens that houses a variety of temperate climate vegetation under controlled temperature and humidity. First of all, it was an interesting feeling walking in from the dry and freezing weather outside to the sauna like environment inside. According to their website, the building was built between 1844 and 1848, but somehow the architecture has transcended its time. It is both contemporary and classic given its clean lines and almost all glass exterior save for the white wrought iron grills that form the skeleton of the building.

On the internal canopy level, you can see out from the building into a great portion of the gardens outside. One angle I found was the view of Museum No. 1 that sat across a modest pond from the Palm House. That's where I took this picture, this week's Photo of the Week.

I can almost imagine the ladies and gentlemen of the day walking in from their English environment into a more exotic one, gazing in awe at banana trees, oil palms and orchids. Treasures from exploits of English travelers who have circled the globe many times over in search of knowledge and riches, and no doubt, tales of exotic tropical lands where such strange and foreign horticulture wonders grow and thrive.

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Meanwhile, further travelling awaits. Life is good this year.

Coming up next month!