After a hectic weekend in the garden catching up on jobs that I had started a fortnight ago then delayed by two bouts of snow, I managed to get finished at last. So this morning with a good day ahead of us we headed off to Harrogate and a walk around the gardens at Harlow Carr. It was 10.30am when we arrived, it looks as though they were enlarging the car parks by the amount of civil engineering work being carried out. After collecting a coffee from the coffee shop we headed through the visitors reception to the gardens. The view ahead of us looking over the valley was quite a picture, the heathers where in bloom, daffodils out, the sun was shining and there was a lovely blue sky. We headed off to the left and the Lakeside gardens, from there we followed the path around the QM lake and followed the Streamside walk. This is one of my favourite walks with lovely vistas to the left and right, over the lake and looking back over the lawns to the centre, although the trees are not in leaf yet the colours of the tree trunks are beautiful. Some white, some a ruby colour and silky smooth to touch. Many of the shrubs were blossoming alongside the stream their tiny pinkish flowers looking beautiful in the cold morning sunlight. We continued along the streamside path to the bath house, following the path up the slope, past the children’s play area and into the Arboretum, we popped into the bird hide for a few minutes and admired the Great Tits and Coal Tits busily feeding on the feeders before continuing our walk through the big trees, we followed the meandering path for another ten minutes or so before it brought us back to the Bath house. From here we followed the Streamside path, this time on the other side of the stream, this is probably one of my favourite parts of the gardens at this time of year, the path leads up to the Sandstone garden and ponds. There are some great views from here and many people were sat having picnics and enjoying the scenery. We continued our walk back to the centre for a very pleasant brunch in the tea rooms.