Kew Gardens Spectrum

In Kew Gardens I feast on daffodils and swans and honk- ing geese in turf protection mode and one spectacular show from a strutting peacock’s tail, its color chart exploding against the day’s gray weather. On warmer days Kew is packed with mums and dads and kiddies running about or being pushed in prams. Today’s marginal weather has cut the numbers. I am drawn to a park’s promises in crowd depleting weather. . In youth I’d sit on a bench beneath a chestnut tree and feel fully protected from rain by the natural umbrella of thick leaves above my head or, barefooted, tramp through wet grass after the midday storm. In the misted gray of not quite Spring Kew Garden isn’t in full bloom but I can feel the promise of warmer days and, with luck, the persistent need of a peacock to impress his ladies with the full bloom of his magnificent tail.