There had been a cold overnight frost and the cold northerly wind was quite cutting. It was certainly a morning when you needed your warm jacket and gloves on.  I had been hoping for a slightly warmer day today as I had pre booked tickets for this afternoon to visit RHS Harlow Carr ‘Glow’ event 2021 which runs from Thursday 18^th November through to Wednesday 29^th December.

We actually visited the same event this time last year, mid covid pandemic and were very impressed so I had no hesitation to book again for today.

We arrived in good time late afternoon and made our way into Betty’s for a takeaway coffee and biscuit to sustain us till our late evening meal. It was quite dark by 4.00pm as we made our way through the booking office and into the gardens. The view during daylight hours as you look across the valley from the entrance hall is always colourful with the natural colours of the trees and shrubs. This evening as we looked across the same valley the view was just as colourful as the lights lit up the trees and shrubs in such a wide variety of colours, you could even see a couple of illuminated deer in the far distance as they grazed amongst the woodland.

Our route around the gardens followed the one we usually make on our visits, from the entrance hall we headed down the steps and turned left, as it turned out there was a one-way system in place which worked really well, we continued our walk towards the learning centre, passing one of the ‘Four Season Sculptures’ by Phillip Haas on the left. The views of the borders were quite stunning and set against the night sky became quite surreal. As we headed through the learning garden, we made our way to the sunken Edwardian Garden, I took a slight detour before we got there to photograph the tree reflections in the QM lake, the white light and coloured lights of red, orange and purple set against the dark sky looked beautiful. From the lakeside I headed back up the slope to the Edwardian Garden. The purple light illuminating statue of ‘Alice’ dominated this area and carefully placed spotlights highlighted many of the potted shrubs and surrounding borders. The purple theme continued in Diarmuid Gavin’s Garden too. Continuing along the path we rounded the corner passing the QM lake on the right, the trees looking beautiful highlighted in white, red and orange lights. Our route continued along the streamside path towards the old bath house. There was a Christmas gift fair taking place in the house tonight, so this was always worth a visit, lots of paintings, arty crafty things, xmas decorations and all things Christmassy were on sale, all very pleasant. The newly constructed rockery looked amazing adjacent to the stream, we spent several minutes here just admiring the different colours and lighting effects. From the bath house we headed up the slope to the Kitchen Garden and Alpine house, passing another of the four seasons sculptures on the left. An absolute stunning light show. It is not surprised that the event has been sold out for several weeks.