Today was a typical late Autumn morning, dull and miserable and after the early morning dog walk I spent the remainder of the day sat behind my computer, busily editing photographs, listening to the persistent sound of rain falling on the office windows.

Several weeks ago, before the second lockdown was announced, around the beginning of November, I purchased a pair of tickets to have a look round RHS Harlow Carr ‘Glow’ event near Harrogate for this evening. Looking out across the garden, earlier this afternoon, cup of coffee in hand, I felt no more like venturing outside, with the camera to get cold and wet, also, with the current regulations about travelling due to the current travel restrictions due to the Corona virus, I was in two minds whether to go or not. Alas, several hours later I needed to have a break from the computer, so Jenny and I jumped into the car and headed over to Harrogate, it was just a forty minute drive from home to reach the gardens and considering the time of day, arrived just before our allocated time at 5.30pm, After parking the car in the car park, the rain from earlier this afternoon had eased slightly to a heavy drizzle, so, it was winter jackets on before we headed over to Bettys café for a takeaway coffee and biscuit. Face masks on and observing the Covid Spacing signs we made our way through the visitors’ centre to follow the well laid out trail, heading left towards the learning and development centre. The special lighting around the whole site was absolutely beautiful and quite enchanting, the two willow hares standing proud adjacent to the footpath, the blue and red lighting forming a lovely backdrop against the dark evening sky. We continued our walk heading towards the Queen Mothers lake, the waters edge clearly lit with thousands of lights around the entire lake, the trees on the right looking quite surreal against the rain ladened sky. Passing the lake on our right we made our way past the lakeside gardens to the sunken garden, which looked amazing, the shelter adorned with huge wicker stars covered with warm white and purple coloured lights. Continuing our walk around the QM lake we stopped for a few moments to look at the lighting effect looking back towards the visitor’s centre,  keeping the stream on our right hand side we followed the path to the old Bath House, the streamside part of the walk was absolutely amazing, the colours, the bare trees, the newly restored rock garden, the contrasting colours, the reflections in the water made a quite spectacular sight, everywhere you turned there was something to catch your eye, on reaching the old Bath House we popped into the Betty’s tea house adjacent to the Bath house for a takeaway coffee and biscuit, which made for some entertainment at my expense, trying to have a cup of tea, eat a biscuit and take photographs at the same time, whilst the path has a gentle gradient up towards the Alpine house. At one point I poured hot coffee down the front of my jacket as I couldn’t see the little hole in the cup lid as I tried to have a sip of tea! Needless to say I finished the biscuit in a couple of mouthfuls just to free up a spare hand. The lighting continued to amaze me, the Kitchen garden on the right leading up to the Alpine House looked stunning, although the Alpine house was out of bounds the lighting around it looked wonderful as was the hare riding a bicycle. After leaving the Alpine house we made our way into the garden centre and gift shop, the end of a wonderful evening.

Looking back this was my first outing since the lockdown other than the daily dog walks, I find it quite hard to describe the emotion I felt as we made our way back to the car.

‘Glow’ at RHS Harlow Carr ends on the 30^th December 2020 though it will be closed for three days over the Christmas period. Please do not just turn up and hope to visit, tickets for this night-time event must be booked online prior to your visit. Please check their website prior to your visit https://www.rhs.org.uk/gardens/harlow-carr/whats-on/glow-winter-illuminations