National Gallery

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I visited the National Gallery not long ago for the first time and it’s one of those places I’ve walked passed many times but for some reason never thought to go inside. The National Gallery houses some of the world’s most famous paintings; Van Gogh, Leonardo de Vinci and Monet being my favourites among many others. I think it will be a place that I will definitely visit again, and seeing as you can’t take photographs inside it really makes you look at the artwork and take in the detail and history of them. For more information of what’s on see http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/

African periwinkle

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I really like this photo; a delicate, pretty pink flower against the dark green leaves and foliage. I think the contrast in the colours make it a striking photo and the sharp detail of the water drops also stand out. What do you think?

Merry go round top

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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.

Purple tissue

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Giant snow globe

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I was in Central London recently and came across this giant snow globe, which I thought was very creative. The statue in the centre is there all year long but they’ve created a snow globe around it, for the winter season

Kew Gardens – Autumn visit

Posted on December 11, 2013 by myeye1

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