Anthurium at Kew Gardens.

Today we celebrated Dad's birthday - almost a month early because we we will back in Azerbaijan in August. We went to Kew Gardens in South West London - Dad said the last time he'd been was with me, and he'd had to pay a penny to take my pushchair in... awhile ago then! You could tell that London had recently had a heatwave - the grass which must be one of the best looked after patches of grass in the country - was pretty brown. It was a fairly grey day, although not cold, I liked the colours of this plant in the Princess of Wales greenhouse. We explored the newish tree top walk - Dad racing up and down the spiral staircase overtaking those he thought were going too slow... as he says to me, he might be approaching 75, but he still thinks he's 25. The walkway, 18 metres above the ground, gives you a good close up view of sweet chestnut and oak trees, and a view over the rest of the gardens. As it was grey we spent most of the rest of the time in the glasshouses (one had live butterflies and moths), as well as lingering over a delicious lunch (salmon on grilled fennel with rocket salad and caper tomato salsa).

After the gardens, we took Dad to see Stomp - musical theatre involving a performers making music with pieces of hardware and rubbish - and finished with dim sum on the South Bank, Dad gamely using chopsticks and drinking flowering tea - two firsts for him. Had a lovely day, and I think Dad did too!