Hampton Court Flower Show

I've had a fabulous day today at Hampton Court Flower Show with my mum.
The last time I was there Mr K carried a baby Miss E in a backpack so it's been a while!
It has been ridiculously hot today. When we got back to the car at 7pm the thermometer said it was still 32 degrees. I think it must have got to about 34 or 35 during the blazing heat of the day. It was proper boiling!
This is probably too much information but at one point I was wedged into a tiny portaloo cubicle, it was a billion degrees, I was sweating like a pig ever so slightly sweaty and I couldn't get my trousers back up, my keys, phone and loose change were falling out all over the place and it was all I could do stop myself ripping my way out my trousers and bursting out of the cubicle in my knickers!!!!!
Thankfully - for everyone - it didn't come to that!!
Tiny hot toilets aside, it was so lovely to be back. We had a fabulous time looking at the inspirational show gardens and all the trade stands selling every imaginable things for the garden. I could have spent a fortune!
And so many food stands!
Mum and I were very good and only ate food we'd brought with us. I had three M&S salads which were delicious - and virtuous!! Mum had left her salad in the fridge until the last minute before leaving and then forgot to bring it! We had to stop on the way down so she could get a sandwich!!
It was funny driving down. I spent three years living in Kingston-upon-Thames and despite not having driven it for nearly a decade the route was so familiar!
The heat was very draining and we spent lots of time sitting under trees, standing in front of air conditioning units in the plant marquees, and re-filling our water bottles and the sneaky tap we discovered at the First Aid tents!
And we resisted Pimms and ice cream, woohoo!!
I was hoping I'd find a nice water feature for our garden and I did!  It's a sort of fallen log with water trickling over it. It's solar powered (which ticks our boxes of not having to deal with electricity) and freestanding so we can just out it in place (which ticks our boxes of not having to do any kind of structural work) and it was on special offer at the show (which ticks our boxes of being miserly!!)
My mum bought some beautiful cow parsley wrought sculptures for the garden (see extras) and though I was sorely tempted I managed to resist. I treated myself to a beautiful hollyhock which I will be planting out the front of our house, and some tiny saddlestones which will be hidden in a flowerbed somewhere for the fairies!
I had my honesty tested when I went back to the creche to collect our bags before leaving. 
When I went to pick up our things in the creche the woman gave me our two bags and some rather lovely wrought iron poppy head sculptures. Rather than admitting they weren't mine I found myself walking away with them and thinking how pretty they were and how fab they'd look in my garden. But knowing I wasn't going to keep them.
After a bit of deliberating I, of course, took them back. 
My reflex was to think woohoo, free stuff!!! but thinking about the poor person going back to collect their treasures and finding they weren't there made me make the right decision. That would be awful!
The woman at the creche was a bit confused but eventually took them back and complimented me on my honesty. I glossed over the fact I'd taken them in the first place!
Funnily enough as we sat a short distance away having a last drink before leaving we saw the woman come and collect them and clearly told the story by the creche woman. She looked so much happier than she would have been had there been nothing there for her to collect.
Then it was time for us to take our treasures home. A quick cup of tea in my mum's garden and then home to my bed!!
A hot, fabulous and exhausting day!