Botanical Gardens

We started off going down to a lovely lake which was dotted with very vibrant water lilies. We toddled around there for quite a while, snapping away at flowers and lilies and water and reflections, ducks and moorhens and the like... Eloise made herself busy by watching us all bemusedly, then playing with tripods etc, and finally caught the eye of a young girl's mum and got a decent supply chain of bread going to feed the ducks.

Then up to the geodesic dome thingy which has a kind of mini-rainforest inside with a central pool and a ramp spiralling up around it. There were little portholes in the wall so you could look in at the fish in the pool, and I think everyone gave Squeaky a lift up to goggle at the fishies. The cry echoed around, "More Fishes!" ad nauseam.

Across the way from the dome is a Fern House with lots of tree ferns in it.

Then to the Japanese garden, with a large ornamental pond with (I assume) a cherry tree up one end with bright pink blossoms. It was very placid there until a troop of scouts arrived...

After the Bonsai house, we decided to call it a day and left around eleven thirty. Eloise was asleep within twenty minutes of getting home.