The Last Leaf

Fall is outside the window. Here in North it's cold and dark time of the year, but as wise people say: Nature has no bad weather'.

I've dug out Internet and found poems. Here are the poems that I liked and I added my pictures of autumn.

The Last Leaf
by Harry Behn

A few leaves stay for a while on the trees
After their color begins to turn,
And no other leaves seem as gold as these
Not even the ones our bonfires burn
With golden flames in piles on the ground.

A few leaves stay so long that I found

 

The one last leaf on a tree in the snow,
And when a galloping wind came round
The edge of our house and started to blow
Snow dust to sparkles floating free.
When the wind ran away, almost with me,

And sunshine settled quiet and cold.
There, like a bird, still on the tree
Was that lonesome leaf, no longer gold
But curly and brown and dry and old.

Autumn

By Judith Viorst

One by one the petals drop
There's nothing that can make them stop.
You cannot beg a rose to stay.
Why does it have to be that way?

November

by John Updike

The stripped and shapely
Maple grieves
The ghosts of her
Departed leaves.

The ground is hard,
As hard as stone.
The year is old,
The birds are flown.

And yet the world,
In its distress,
Displays a certain
Loveliness---

What do you think and feel in fall season? Would you see the loveliness of these cold days?

Thank you!

The Royal Kew: Rock Garden and Plots

The Rock garden is large and impressive. Sure some of you who have been to  this garden remember it. The shapes of stones surprised me, I used to see round granite stones and there I saw big limestone plates. They were covered with greenness: trees, bushes, flowers grew everywhere. 

I've read that this Rock Garden is home to alpines and Mediterranean climate plants from around the world. Rock gardens show a variety of habitats of different plants.

The Kew Rock Garden, with its pools, streams and seven waterfalls is wonderful. The sound of falling water was heard everywhere.

 

A stream and waterfall is in the Asian Section and I think these conditions are perfect for moisture-loving plants.
I also liked nice pines and other conifers, light yellow and dark red leaved spireas, bright purple crocus.

Autumn crocus, allisum, herbs and red flowers grew within the limestone plates.

 

It's amazing that such a renowned Kew garden allocates plots for the students so that they can grow themselves and learn about plants. This part of the garden is not well known to tourists, so I wanted to see what the students grow in these vegetable plots.

 

I've learned that three-year Kew Diploma offers broad-based training in amenity and botanical horticulture. Every first year student is allocated a vegetable plot which they must maintain for one season. Soil must be dug, seeds be sown, and a whole variety of fruit and vegetables be grown to the highest of standards.

Each month, battling against the grey skies and army of pigeons, they produce the quality vegetables.

The plots are assessed every month on a variety of criteria including range of crops, crop protection, tidiness and overall health of the crops.

It was interesting to see the professional works in creating rock garden and the students' plots such well maintained with growing veggies. What do you think about students' plot in Kew Gardens?

Thank you for your comments I love to read and they are appreciated!

The Royal Kew: Duke's Garden and Treetop Walkway

               After visiting Dave's Alpine garden I went to a walled garden that formerly was the private garden for Cambridge Cottage. The Duke's Garden is one of the lesser-known corners of Kew, overlooked by many visitors to the Royal Botanic Gardens. 

 

I saw the Cambridge Cottage in a beautiful English garden, where an inhabitant was the first Duke of Cambridge after whom the garden takes its name. The Cambridge Cottage and a garden was added to the Kew Gardens in 1904. Now there is the Kew Gardens Gallery that shows exhibitions of botanical art by past and contemporary artists.

I've read that Cambridge Cottage is licensed to host civil wedding ceremonies and receptions. But at the moment when I've been there were not ceremonies. 

 

Large lawns and seasonal beds, which were looking very colorful at this time of the year. The beds framed manicured lawns. 

I liked the composition of autumn flowers as Aruncus dioicus, Сosmos sulphureus, Astilbe, Rudbeckia, Sedum, Bergenia and herbs and a variety of violet lavender species and cultivars.

I've seen the ‘exotic bed’ that was made for seeing just how hardy some tender plants are, such as tree ferns, ornamental bananas, cannas and gingers  that thrive in warm conditions.

Near the Temperate House (which was closed for renovation) an Arboretum is. It includes a 59 foot high (20 m) Treetop Walkway known as the Xstrata Walkway. I wanted to climb up there! They said that Treetop Walkway offers spectacular views of the treetops and the gardens below. 

  The Walkway itself is quite wide with very substantial rails. Look at the picture to see people on the walkway it's gives you a guide to scale.

 

From the height of the Treetop Walkway the crowns are clearly visible especially I liked the branches of chestnut trees with fruits. The most wonderful views in Arboretum are the Mediterranean Garden, the Rhododendrons (they did not bloom in autumn), and the bamboo collection.

I imagined what the birds can see from such a height. I loved to walk of the Treetop Walkway!

 

Would you like to climb up this Walkway and to see the tree crowns as the birds see them?

To be continued...