It was a lovely morning, I must have spent about 15 minutes looking for some Bee Orchids whilst out with Meg & Gracie earlier today, alas to no avail. I have seen several pictures of them on social media, I know they are well spaced out and know the vicinity of them from previous years, anyway, there is always tomorrow.

I had 10.00am pre booked tickets for a visit to RHS Harlow Carr this morning, so straight after breakfast it was a quick shower and change of clothes etc.  It was a straightforward 45-minute drive up the A1 motorway from home, the traffic was quite heavy between the Leeds & York junctions but other than that there were no hold ups or delays. It was just after 10.00am as I drove into the carpark at the gardens and made our way to the reception entrance. I was quite surprised that although still quite early, there were quite a lot of cars already in the car park.

This morning we took a different route than usual and instead of walking around in a clockwise direction we went in the opposite direction, there was method in my choice of route, namely my thirst for a coffee, I know we could have got one in Bettys café/restaurant adjacent to the entrance but there was quite a queue there and because of the length of that said queue we decided to follow this new route which took us past the outdoor café next to the old ‘Bath house’. I hadn’t realised until we arrived at the gardens that from Tomorrow through till Sunday was the annual Garden Festival, so all the stall holders and nurseries staff were busily setting out their pitches ready for the show.

Considerable work has been carried out landscaping what was the small stream adjacent to Bettys which ran down to the Gazebo, the stream has been taken out and turned into a rockpool and the pathways reshaped accordingly, it will look lovely once the planting gets established again.

Anyway, from the entrance we followed the path to the right along to the Alpine house, this footpath path looks to have had some work done to it since our last visit and the border adjacent to the garden centre shop has been reshaped too. Following the footpath to the left, we headed down through the kitchen garden to Bettys Tea house where we stopped for our first coffee of the morning. After our refreshment we continued our walk down to the stream and followed the streamside walk all the way to the QM lake. The footbridge over the stream near to Geoffrey Smiths monument has been rebuilt during the lockdown and looks wonderful, all locally sourced stone and some excellent handiwork. The planting along this part of the stream is extremely colourful and a haven for bees and butterflies.

Some very nice pieces of stainless-steel garden ornaments have been placed next to the lake which oscillate with the wind and look very effective as they twist and turn with the light breeze. Work looks to have started preparing the area for a foot bridge over the corner of the lake, it looks as they will be hoping to complete it by the end of the year. We continued our walk around the lake and up to the lakeside gardens and the Edwardian Garden, this part of the garden has just nicely been refurbished and a lot of the drystone walling replaced, it is always a colourful part of the garden with lots of soft grasses and evergreens. From here we continued along the path, admiring the view over the QM lake on our left, passing the Lodge and learning centre before making our way out around the back of the centre, this is a temporary exit during these Covid times. We made our way down the slope, passing Betty’s restaurant and shop on the left, to the bookshop and garden centre. I always enjoy a walk through the bookshop and garden centre, it is very rare that we don’t come away with something, be it a book or two or a plant from the garden centre that took our fancy. After our perusal we made our way back to Bettys, the plan was to have lunch there but as all the other visitors had the same idea as us and with a wait of up to an hour, so we decided to buy some sandwiches and cakes from the takeaway part of the shop to take home with us. It was an uneventful drive home where we sat in the garden and had a very pleasant lunch.