Henry Moore at Kew Gardens

Some colour still in Kew Gardens

 Did you know you pay less if you go to Kew Gardens after 4pm? Well, that's what a friend and I did last week. But there were drawbacks. Our transport was a nightmare. We were coming from different places and both of us had delays and cancellations. This meant we were half an hour later arriving than intended. The hothouses close at 5pm and the Henry Moore indoor exhibition closed at 5.30pm. And we had all those sculptures to see, scattered around the gardens, by 7pm when the gardens closed. Could it be done? Almost!

It was a a bit of a rush, but I reckon we only missed four or five of the most far-flung exhibits. We began at the indoor exhibition. Very handy, because as we arrived, the heavens opened. We really need the rain, but why then? Hah! We had brolly's, and we sheltered under a tree, but time was of the essence, so as soon as the worst of the deluge was over we carried on. The indoor exhibition was mainly drawings in preparation for the sculptures, as well as a beautiful sequence of trees in charcoal, pen etc. It was interesting to see one exhibit that was much like a Barbara Hepworth using string. Moore loved abstract and disjoined pieces, and he worked with stone, wood, and bronze. His work, like Hepworth's, is very distinctive.

I love these

The rain had almost stopped by the time we came out. With our trusty map, we went in search of the exhibits around the gardens. Some were grouped closer to one another, others were further away. We chose to leave the ones further away and concentrate on those closer together. Two were in one of the hot houses, which of course was closed by the time we got there. However, I could see one through the door window. So, I found an open window further round where I could position my camera and take a photo.

My sneaky shot through an open window

Actually the clouds were darker than this

When we came closer to the Victoria Gate we went into the cafe to have a cup of tea and sneakily eat the roll I'd bought from home. Then we set off to try and fit in as many of the other sculptures as possible. There were some handy waymarkers to head us in the right direction, and managed to fit in quite a few more exhibits. We left Kew at one minute past seven.

The upside of going later is there are less people. It's nice and quiet, and I guess you can concentrate on one area in more depth. There would probably only be time for one hot house visit, though. It depends on what you want to do. The gardens are suffering much like any other green space, due to the heatwaves, but there are areas that have been watered and cared for and look very colourful. However, a lot of the trees are shedding leaves like everywhere else and it begins to look like autumn.

I was pleased with what we saw in the time. The sun was going down and the clouds were interesting after the rain. We were right under the Heathrow flight path and planes were coming over at around 30 second intervals. So, apart from a shaky start, we saw most of what we wanted. However, the journeys home were horrendous for both of us. I hadn't realised just how congested Richmond got. It took nearly three quarters of an hour to get out of there on the bus. The one-way system is worse than in Kingston.