Winter Gardens

Over the last few weekends we've taken Sharon out to see some English gardens and parks. Of course the weather has been filthy, but that hasn't (quite) stopped us.

First up was Kew Gardens. Which is magificent due to demented (and dementedly large) greenhouses.

Which transforms cold, grey day like this...

To a warm, mist filled tropical oasis like this. Which Emily (natch) slept through.

We were in time to catch a fair few daffodils and other lawnflowers, and the obligatory bad coffee. Very nice. (well, not the coffee, obviously).

Next up, last weekend, was Hyde Park, to show Sharon some tree-rats. We stopped off on the way at Whole Foods, which despite being a big pile of eco-wank had some extraordinarily yummy food at it (one extremely gooey unpastuerised brie, for example).

Hyde Park, was, well, very Park-y. Had yummy picnic, showed Emily some swans, tried to stop her eating dirt, showed Sharon various tree-rats, and then fled for the nearest Starbucks for warmth and coffee.

And the next day it snowed of course! We shall see if Alix's plants survive.

Last, for Beloved Elder Sisters birthday, we took her out to a Michelen-starred restaurant, The Greenhouse. Yum. Started off worryingly, as the first amuses-bouche tasted a bit like dishwater. Or old sock. But thankfully, everything improved extremely rapidly.

Sharon seemed to be flavour of the month with the staff - she scored brownie points with the bread waiter for scarfing down half a dozen servings of his (admittedly fantastic - esp. the stilton) bread.

The cheese selection puts any "cheese board" to shame - a trolley with the most fantastic variety of cheeses was wheeled to our table... Highlights were the Vintage Comté (aged 4 years), and the Saint Felicien, which was, frankly, profanity inducing (in a good way). As one might expect, much porto was consumed with this.

And of course, cute baby video.