5 January - Kew Gardens

I imagine it would seem counterintuitive to visit a botanical garden in the dead of winter, but Kew Gardens at Christmas is a sight to behold. In place of blooming plants are imaginative, and often spectacular, displays of light, fire, smoke and water.

At the beginning of the trail are Cascade Tubes on Camelia Walk. The lights change color, the music is by turns, jazz, pop and ethereal; it's an introduction to what will turn out to be an evening of delights.

Rounding the bend you come upon the snowflakes.

The path then leads to The Whole Hole, a tunnel of light to walk through.

Throughout the park I loved the play of light upon the trees.

By one of the glass houses, we came upon the Fire Garden.

On to Electric Avenue (not the one in Brixton). Here's a second view.

Though he was meant to be home recovering from his long night, Father Christmas made an appearance.

To appeal to children there was a fun fair,

Throughout the park there were carts for food: burgers, jerk chicken, meat pies, Indian and Turkish food and beer, wine, cider and mulled wine, of course.

The weather forecast said that after three weeks of rain, we were in for a clear night. Just a 4% chance of precipitation. You guessed it, it started to rain as we made it to Treetop Rock.

There were pretty arches located throughout the park and perfect for photo ops.

Around the next corner was the Spark Ballet and Floating Candles

followed by the field of lilies.

After walking under the trapezoid heavens and passing the moonlight flowers

we arrived at the gorgeous Christmas Turkey Oak.

A bit further down the road, you come to the Christmas Cathedral.

Next you bop through the birdies on the Robin Trail, accompanied by Elvis singing Rockin' Robin. The birds are made up of hundreds of paillettes that dance in the breeze.

Around the next bend you come to The Hive which was absolutely enormous. It seemed to me that positioning the globe inside the hive structure we were being reminded that without bees, our world would perish. Here's another view of The Hive.

One quick glimpse of a giant Venus Flytrap (aka Snapper) looking like it's just escaped from one of the greenhouses.

Farther along the path we came to a really intriguing display, The Liquid Lake. At first I couldn't figure it out.  I thought it was water, but it turned out to be fabric and smoke.

As we walked to the last big display, light projections on the sidewalk reminded everyone of how we all must play our part to protect and heal our natural world.

Signs touted the work of Kew scientists.

Finally, we made it to the Christmas Symphony. An extraordinary end to an extraordinary evening!