Plantopia

There's a really cool botanical garden right next to my house called
Plantopia, but shamefully I've only been there once so far, and that
was last year. When I went in I was expecting manicured gardens and
tropical greenhouses, a la Kew Gardens, but it turned out to be the
complete opposite: a deserted, sprawling mess of forest surrounding a
valley with an overgrown lake at the bottom. I was far from
disappointed though - the forest was packed with interesting plants
and animals, and the slightly ramshackle nature of the layout made a
nice change from other gardens I've been to, where often you feel like
you're being led round by the hand.

Anyway, I recently came across some of the photos I took in Plantopia
last September, so I thought I'd share them with you. I'd only just
got my camera at that point, and I hadn't worked out all the settings,
so I apologise for the poor quality...

By the way, my "camera" is actually my mobile phone - I don't own a
proper digital camera.......yet. Having said that, my phone is pretty
damn good at taking pictures - it's got a 2.1 megapixel camera and a
removable SD memory card, which is certainly more than my phone in
England had. Actually, when I think about it, my phone in England
still had a black and white screen... Anyway almost every single photo
on this blog has been taken using my phone. Not bad for a phone, eh?