Winter garden...

A day of pleasures large and small. I had resolved to spend the day at home writing, but a call from Al's friend Jill with an invitation to join her in a visit to the Royal Horticultural Society garden Harlow Carr in Harrogate, put paid to that.

Visiting gardens in winter is like going into a gallery with just one or two paintings. You pay particular attention to what is there. So, in the winter landscape (complete with boots and umbrellas) we spotted tiny cyclamen, snowdrops, the first hellebores, the bright red stems of cornus, glorious gold witch hazel... and I got particularly excited when we came across New Zealand flaxes and cabbage trees!

I was also taken with the wonderful willow structures in the vegetable gardens, especially the way the willow had been woven to form edgings, straight and circular.  

The outdoor highlight for me was a tiny bird hide from where we watched goldfinches, bullfinches and blue tits tucking into the feeders. (And it was a day for two robins - one at home in Clifton and the other elsewhere in the RHS garden). 

A hot drink in (Yorkshire famous) Betty's Tearooms, overlooking the gardens and buzzing with people, capped a lovely afternoon.