London Gardens

When we read "Kew Gardens," it made me think of all of the gardens that I saw during my trip to London. I spent last summer in London for study abroad taking a class called "British Heritage Cinema." On one of our days off, some of us decided to take a trip over to Kew Gardens. Unfortunately,  I don't have any pictures from that day as I had forgotten my camera at the apartment. I do, however have pictures from Kensington Gardens:

And a few from Hyde Park (The night that I was there was the night of the Queen's Jubilee concert. The actual concert was in front of Buckingham Palace, but they put it up on massive screens throughout Hyde Park for everyone. So, these aren't so much pictures of the park as they are pictures of crowds...)

Wandering this area was really fun; however, some of the coolest gardens that I got to see were at Hatfield House, an old manor home about an hour north of London. We went to see it because many productions use this site to film classic "manor home" or "castle" interiors (Shakespeare in Love, Batman Begins, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows-Part 2, My Week with Marilyn, and many more). It is also the place where Elizabeth I lived in exile until she was named queen in 1558.

We wound up getting to Hatfield House almost an hour ahead of when our tour was scheduled to be, so our teacher sent us off to wander the grounds and take pictures. After about 20 minutes of this, I got distracted and started taking pictures of flowers (which I won't include here because they're mostly out of focus and you've already indulged me on the past 8 pictures of "not Kew Gardens"). However, the moment in "Kew Gardens" which the narrative shifts to the perspective of the snail reminded me of my own shift of focus at Hatfield house.