Enjoying the colours in the Alpine House

This time of year is particularly grey isn't it?

There's hints of colour starting to appear in the garden, even in my garden, but generally its the greyness that starts to pervade our daylight hours. For someone who loves colour, I find this hard, so when I get a chance to absorb colour I take every opportunity. 

Sometimes that's an outfit, last weekend it was an orange skirt and top, with a black lace overtop to tone it down a bit (as I know not everyone does colour) matched with a pair of red sparkly shoes. 

Other times it's a blast of colour wherever I can get it.

After seeing the butterflies in the glass house at Wisley on Sunday, our next stop was the Alpine House, and another blast of colour.  These small flowers - irises, narcissi and muscari - pack a lot of punch.

Spring has a tendency to deliver plenty of blue and yellow flowers so it was great to get an advance shot of all of these colours, especially the grape hyacinth, or muscari.  I'm hoping mine make an appearance soon.

I am starting to spot crocuses around on my way to work and from the office window as there's a patch outside the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich where a yellow carpet of crocuses is starting to appear. I've not seen any quite like the ones below though, they're almost striped aren't they?

I don't have any crocuses or irises in my garden, and when I see them I think it really should.  It's not much use to me remembering when they're in flower though is it?  I'll have to add them to my plant wish list - that doesn't really exist, in an actual list, which is why I rarely actually get the plants I say.  Perhaps I should start a proper list, I think I've probably got some stationery that I could use...

I felt better on Sunday for having seen some colour, and even writing this post after a manic few days at work I feel better all over again for seeing the photos.  I'm sure each of us have mechanisms for coping with the grey, what's yours?

The butterflies at RHS Wisley

Yesterday I promised you butterflies and today butterflies it is.  We stopped off at RHS Wisley on our way home, and it seems quite a few other people had a similar idea. The first car park was full, but we struck lucky in the second car park finding a space just as someone was leaving.  As we'd needed to keep our plans flexible we hadn't been able to book a timed slot, so we decided to head straight over to the glass house and check out the queue.

The glass houses are always a good place to head for on a chilly day as they're noticeably warmer than outside. In with the butterflies the temperature goes up a notch or two again, and it's definitely not a place for coats.  As we arrived in the glass house shedding hats, gloves and scarves as we made our way to the queue I made an unplanned stop to capture a couple of photos - I can never resist a bird of paradise (above) and the yellow ones looked spectacular.

I've no idea what the flowers are below, but their stripey detail was exquisite, but it was their symmetry that really caught my eye.  They look a bit lily-ish, if I find the name I'll let you know.

When we reached the butterfly queue, the marker said it was a thirty minute wait from there. The queue seemed to be moving and so we decided to wait. It was a good choice as less than ten minutes - and several more photos - later, we were in and it was warm. And busy. 

Not just people either, there were plenty of butterflies flying about, much to the delight of everyone close by.  We saw many more butterflies than I could photograph, and many of my shots are of them resting. But what I learnt from this visit was how decorative the underside of their wings are too.

The blues on the butterflies was just stunning, and quite often I found myself looking at the plants and then suddenly noticing a butterfly taking a break too. The atmosphere in this part of the glass house was pure amazement, with people pointing the butterflies out to each other and to strangers too.

And I almost missed this one. Stunning isn't it?

"Hunting" butterflies was thirsty work, so lucky we walked past this plant - do you know what it is?

Yes coffee beans, although it's a little way to go before it ends up in a cup, I'm sure.

It seems that this past weekend, highly detailed plants were my thing as I was mesmerised by this one. Isn't it fantastic?  Sadly there's no butterflies on this one, and I spent quite a long time looking for one and encouraging them over, but with no luck.

Just as we were about to leave I spotted another one resting on a plant and put my best "leaning in" skills to use to get as close as I could. All that peering and leaning into greenhouses and places I shouldn't seems to have paid off.

So while I don't have shots this time round of the colourful butterflies, I am pleased with what I managed to capture and pleased that we managed to get along to see them this year.  It was noticeably busier than our visit in 2015, but I'm not sure if that's because our visit was at the weekend rather than a weekday, or because visiting the butterflies are much more widely known.

It was still worth going along though.

If you're planning to go along, then I'd book a timed ticket - while we got lucky with the queuing system, it was busy. The queue was full of young families who were spread out and with parents retrieving stray children so it probably wasn't a true reflection of the queue. There's plenty to see along the way if you do have to queue, but with a timed entry you probably won't need to queue at all.

If you want the butterflies to show interest in you, or one of your party, then wear bright colours. If you don't, then don't of course. There's also usually a lot of butterfly activity around the feeding tables, and this time on our visit we saw the most butterflies while on the upper level of the glass house.

And I'd definitely recommend going along, it is amazing to see butterflies almost the size of an iPhone 5 flying around so close to you.   Have you been, or are you planning to?

Teak thrones and a giant pine cone

One of the attractions at Woodfest last October was the Sculpture trail, where I saw a mix of teak root thrones and sculptures. The size of the teak roots were amazing, and roots aren't something you think about, but clearly big trees need big roots.

These roots come from felled trees in Indonesia. They're dug out of the ground and then dried, sanded and finished so they're ready to be turned on their end and shaped into unique garden thrones. I was in two minds about them, but they clearly make a big statement in any garden.

Whatever you think of them, the wood is beautiful. Teak is a hardwood and its natural oils make them resilient to the weather, although like any other garden furniture they're best treated to keep them in top condition.

There were many variants of the teak root thrones, the one above which seemed more benchlike was the one that persuaded me of their beauty. In the right spot - and probably a wider garden than we have, I think it'd look stunning.  Just as I was looking at the detail more closely something in the distance caught my eye. I thought it was a giant pine cone, and when I did a double take I saw my eyes weren't deceiving me. 

As I moved on I was taken by the beauty of the wood, and wood that as tree roots we don't usually see.

There were more sculptures along the way too. This horse was stunning - and I'm not what I'd call a horse person - but standing so close I almost felt as if I could be riding it. 

But I'd reached the giant pine cone - or rather, a stack of three giant pine cones. It's quite something isn't it?

If tree roots or sculptures aren't your thing, then perhaps this glass topped teak dining set might appeal. Peering into the table top gave a great photo opportunity, with the reflection.

And one more shot before I go. Alongside the giant toadstool was this magical wire fairy. It captured imaginations big and small and I didn't have long to get this shot, so I'm rather pleased with how it turned out.

At almost seven foot tall this cemented the idea that you can't do garden sculptures on the small side, but when they're this beautiful I'm not sure why you'd want to!