
There’s lots of funfairs and markets around at the moment for the holiday season, and it’s always fun to have a ride, take in the bright colours, lights and smells as you whirl.
Tag Archives: green
Purple tissue
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Kew Gardens – Autumn visit
I recently went to Kew Gardens in West London; the last time I went was in school and I’d been meaning to go back ever since, especially as over the last couple of years there’s been some changes. For some reason or another I just wasn’t able to go, so a couple of weeks ago I decided not to wait anymore and just go. Initially I was a bit apprehensive about going in late autumn, as I imagined that most of the trees would have shed their leaves and there wouldn’t be much to look at, as well as the point that I always imagined going in late spring/early summer to see nature blossoming. In the end I decided to go anyway and see what there was to see, and learn from the experience.
I packed my DSLR camera to take with me and got there by mid morning. I was really lucky with the weather as it was nice and bright, and not grey and cloudy like it had been in previous days. I was also pleased to see that as we’ve had a mild autumn in London so far, most of the trees still had their leaves, and many were in now in brilliant shades of yellow, red and orange, which in the bright sun looked even more magnificent.
Here are a few of the photos that I was able to take whilst there, but what I didn’t realise was just how big the Gardens were- that after walking around for about 5 hours I still hadn’t managed to see all of it!
Seeing as I managed to take lots of photos and because there’s was so much to see I’ve decided to do separate posts on different parts of Kew Gardens, this one being about the Palm House which houses plants from tropical and subtropical climates all over the world
Here’s a banana tree with bananas growing from it, with leaves so big you could place two grown ups end to end and the leaves would still be bigger! There was also a pineapple plant – these pineapples were so tiny – the size of walnuts
The walkways were full of leaves growing over it, giving you a an idea of how they would grow in their natural habitat
There was a strange looking plant growing in the Palm House too called a Cycad, that is known as a living fossil. These plants have been around before dinosaurs, living up to 2500 years long!
There is so much more to see but I don’t want to post too many photos of one area in case you want to visit the Gardens soon. I will hopefully be able to do another post soon on another part of Kew gardens
Hydrangea peaking
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Candy canes
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Water drops
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I really like how the drops of water are clinging to the leaf, tempting you to give it a shake!
Sparkly crystals
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I love the colours of these bracelets and how the crystal beads shine in the light.
Rainbow cake
It was my brother’s birthday recently so his wife and my sister decided to make him a cake, but not just any cake; a rainbow cake. (and I did my bit of course – babysitting!). They took inspiration from the Hummingbord rainbow cake which looks amazing.
First they made the batter like normal (sorry not a great photo)
Then they mixed the batter with various colours of food colouring, adding more or less depending on how rich they wanted the colours to come out
Then putting them in the baking tins and spreading the batter evenly
Once cooked leave them to cool
Then the fun part-layering the different colours of the cake with icing or in this case low-fat cream cheese for the butter-cream icing holding it all together
Then just cover the whole cake in the icing and decorate as you like. All that is left is to chill and serve.
The cake is fairly easy to make, looks great and tastes delicious. For the recipe see here and you can see my sister’s write up of her baking skills here
Red petals
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