Thursday 2nd August 2018.

This warm and sunny weather is continuing for yet another week albeit for some overnight rain last Sunday evening. The temperature late yesterday afternoon in the garden reached a sweltering 32C. 

Although up early this morning I have had to shorten our dog walks for a few days due to Gracie straining one of her front legs chasing her sister around the garden!

This morning we had a trip over to the gardens at RHS Harlow Carr with one of Jenny’s grandchildren. There has been a ‘Jurassic Discovery’ exhibition running at the gardens during the school holidays and it gave the walk around the gardens a little more interest for a 5 year old. We arrived in the car park at the centre for 10.15am and struggled to find a car parking space. The temperature had risen to 18C, though the low heavy cloud kept the full heat of the sun somewhat at bay. From the visitors reception area we followed the path to the left past the learning centre and onto the lakeside gardens, the pond area has just been fully renovated and looks really good especially the York stone walling and patio blocks. Continuing our walk past the QM lake we headed up into the woodland to do some fossil hunting and looking for Dinosaur eggs and relics, all good stuff. From here we decided to head back to the centre and call into Betty’s for brunch before the rest of the visitors had the same idea. After a lovely brunch I headed back outside into the gardens whilst Jenny went round the bookshop. 

The garden borders are looking quite a picture at the moment and amass of colour, after about ten minutes I met up with Jenny and our grandson and we watched the Birds of Prey flying demonstration, the Eagle Owls were being a little bit naughty much to the amusement of the several hundred spectators, it was a really good flying display though and the falconer gave a good commentary accompanied by some very dramatic music. After the flying display finished we headed down to the stream and continued over to the ‘Logness Monster’. After Fifteen minutes or so at the small play area we followed the Streamside footpath to the Old Bath House, the views and vistas along this path change with every visit to the gardens, the colours, light and of course the plants all contribute to the experience. From the Bath house we followed the footpath on the other side of the stream up towards the Sandstone Rock Garden, this is one of my favourite places, mainly because I like both the ponds and the planting around and in them, I always like to stand and stare for a few moments admiring the views and the quietness surrounding the water, a lovely tranquil place. No time to stand and stare today with the grandchild though and we made our way up the slope and back to the visitor’s centre and the journey home, no sooner had we driven out of the car park when I glimpsed through the mirror to see our grandchild hard fast asleep in his child seat holding onto his dinosaur. A lovely day.