After a night of significant heavy rain it was very wet underfoot on the dog walk earlier today, I found a frog on top of the Barff this morning, how it got up there I do not know and further round on the walk I had a close encounter with a big Roe Deer, twice! The Orchids are just coming into flower on top of the Barff at the moment, I spotted a lone Marsh Orchid earlier this week, though I’m reliably told that there are more and just this morning I found my first Bee Orchid of the year, now I know there are more than one Bee Orchid on the Barff so from now on am going to have to pay a little more attention. After a good long walk we headed home for breakfast and after a shower and change we headed over to Harrogate for a walk around the gardens at RHS Harlow Carr for the remainder of the morning. 

It was just before 11.00am as I parked the car in the car park and made our way to the visitor centre entrance. It was quite a pleasant morning a little overcast, the sun was somewhat reluctant to come out from behind the grey clouds but at least there was no rain.

We popped into Bettys for a takeaway coffee and ginger biscuit (the coffee there is always very nice) and set off on our walk around the gardens. I always tend to prefer to walk in a clockwise direction around the garden so from the visitors centre turned left and headed for the learning centre. The first thing that struck me this morning was how lush and green everything looked, the heavy rainfall of the past few days and nights has certainly made a difference. We followed the trail around the QM pond admiring the wild orchids in the long grass, much of the land on Southfield has been left as a wild garden and with all the emerging wild flowers looks quite a picture at the moment. From the pond we followed the streamside footpath to the Old Bath House, I enjoy walking alongside the stream, the landscape seems to change with every visit, what was noticeable this morning was the amount of water running in the stream and secondly how the planting along streamside has grown since our last visit. The variety and colour of plants along the steamside walk is amazing, let alone the scents and aromas, every now and then the heady scent of Honeysuckle drifts across, then there are the Meconopsis - Blue poppies quite difficult to grow at home but look to be thriving in this damp and dappled environment next to the stream. Large groups of Primulas and irises all in full flower at the moment. The planting around the stone bridges that cross the stream is colourful at the too, no more so than were the memorial stone to Geoffrey Smith is situated. The fancy primulas look quite stunning.

From the Old Bath House we doubled back on ourselves somewhat but on the other side of the stream and headed up through the Sandstone Rock Garden, towards the garden centre, stopping to admire the main borders. The Alliums are in full flower at the moment and look absolutely superb their white and purple heads floating on the morning breeze. The guide books say there are at least six different types of Allium at Harlow and I am not surprised they are a beautiful looking and unusually striking plant. They also make a very nice dried flower and look good in Christmas floral decorations too. After admiring the borders we headed back to ‘Bettys’ for a late brunch before the journey home. Another lovely morning.