Segogs at Kew

The Seed Walk - amazing willow sculptures by Tom Hare, originally uploaded by Kong_.

I haven't been to Kew since I was eight or nine. I remember it well - it was an overcast/rainy day, so I was wearing a horrendous cagool, scratchy and plastic; we had a clutchful of activity sheets to do, including sketching one of the manmade pools; and, most memorably of all, my NHS glasses steamed up when we entered the famous Palm House, and, briefly, all eyes were on me.

More than twenty years on, and without raincoat, specs or 2B pencil, I found an extraordinary, sunbaked paradise of twisted trunks, flowering scrub, bees and birds and soft, soft grass, pine cones (Leo's 'segogs' - hedgehogs) - and two ladybirds making love amongst the aphid-heavy roses.

Caramba!