NATURE TABLE EXPLORER

The question this morning was will we or won’t we?

Visit the botanic gardens , shall we risk it or not ?

We did, getting out of the car we felt rather smug , no rain what was all the fuss about. As I walked back from the ticket machine the heavens opened!!

Well we are here now so off we went exploring boots on, waterproofs zipped up.

The first encounter was with this lovely moorhen, at first the rain seemed of no consequence but as it got heavier it headed for a cave of plants in the stream bank.

Cambridge Botanic Gardens are a fantastic place to explore with brilliant planting and habitats and a range of glasshouses.

In issue two of EXPLORATIONS there will be a feature about travelling the world in these glasshouses.

Today the weather gave the gardens a fresh green hue and it was surprising how many flowers were still in full bloom especially in the bee borders .

These geraniums were even more beautiful in the rain.

At the end of the glasshouses there is a shady area full of ferns , tree ferns and two wonderful cork oaks.

Another feature of the rain is that it identified some wonderful spiders webs all horizontal sheet webs in a large area of plants. The delicate spiders were hanging under the centre of each web.

They were very difficult to photograph as the webs were across these pointy stems.

After a warm up cup of coffee we headed back to the car , passing a perfect weeping willow , like a painting.

Explore more … even in the rain !