My birthday at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and a painted parrot

This year, like every other year...lol... I got to go to the royal botanic gardens, Kew on my birthday.I wonder if you're all bored with seeing Kew every July since I started this blog? Seven years of Kew!!!But I just love traditions and rituals, and my birthday wouldn't be the same without a day out in Kew, so I hope you'll come with me yet again.Each year Kew has a different theme, and this year the focus was on bees and deep, flowering borders.These borders are planted all along the walk to the Orangery where we always have lunch.On the way we spied these two young artists and stopped for a chat.After lunch we walked to the Kew palace and round to the palace kitchens and kitchen garden.I love the palace kitchens.Situated a safe distance from the palace, (in case of fire), they are my absolute ideal shabby chicness.Look at this wonderfulness! Really, what more would I need?Ok, maybe an aga and a fridge...but that's all.Oh, and maybe some chairs too. :DWe thought about not going to see the hive. It just seemed to be a sculpture one could stand inside and listen to a recorded buzzing of bees, but thought that maybe we should anyway, you know, just to say we've been there done that.But on the way up to the sculpture, we were shouted at from the guard at the top telling us we're going up the wrong path!!! Path police!!!The thing is that there were no directional signs and actually the only sign there, a 'please keep off the wildflower meadow' sign, was planted facing the direction we were going!!!We looked at each other and thought, "good feeling's gone."We turned around, walked out and happily went to find our own buzzing bees.Then on to the walled garden. I love walled gardens in general because they create the most wonderful microclimate for vegetables.This one is so full of wonderful ideas.For example, look at these cucumbers being grown up these little trellises. How brilliant is that for keeping them off the ground and away from slugs and maybe even protected a little from mildew because of the air flow.And these tomatoes grown as cordons in this system.And here in this walled garden is my favourite rose: Filipes Kiftsgate.I just love this rose. A village friend gave me a Kiftsgate shoot last year and it's doing really well in my garden here, but hasn't bloomed yet. I can't wait to see this kind of display in the old crab apple tree in a few years.Out of the walled garden......and past the two artists.Their paintings were really coming on well. If I lived in E full time, I'd paint at Kew too.I just couldn't get enough of the borders. Can you imagine having the room in your own garden for deep borders?Such a dream.On to the glass houses.The waterlily house, and the palm house, (which are my favourite), were open, but the temperate house has been closed for repairs for a couple years now. It will reopen next year.The waterlily house was so warm and humid that my camera lens fogged up almost immediately, so you get very romantic Victorian photos. :DDo you see in the centre there are three buds on the giant Victoria waterlily.Out of the waterlily house and into the old Victorian palm house.The palm house is really full of plants because so much of the material had to be relocated from the temperate house. I love it like this. It's a jungle.One more look out and around the garden, a quick stop at the little shop, and home we drove.When we were walking around we kept hearing raucous squawking from some of the trees and then finally saw the bright flashes of green. We stood still and watched. It was the feral parakeets, the ring-necked parrots, which escaped or were released in Victorian times and found their new homes in the trees of London.So, naturally I painted one for myself. I put him on a piece of Mendelssohn with the term "Presto agitato" and a very repetitive note structure. So fits!Well I hope I haven't bored you to distraction with my annual post from Kew. :D