Harlow Carr Robin

How could I resist this Robin even with all the other winter delights at RHS Harlow Carr, Harrogate today.

Unfortunately I had a bad night for no obvious reason so didn’t get up for the early walk but we had decided we would go to Harlow Carr today whatever the weather. 

We arrived before 11.30 and went straight to Betty’s for coffee, no queue. As it was still quite early they still had breakfast on the menu so we decided to indulge in brunch. We both had a Swiss Rosti breakfast which was delicious and quite filling.

Although it was windy it wasn't too cold (didn’t need gloves)  and it didn’t rain so not too bad even without sun.

Lots of work going on since we were there for Glow in November. They have completed the Thaliana Bridge across the Queen Mother Lake. They seem to have cut out the ‘Diarmud Garvin’ corner but that was the last remaining  millennium garden so perhaps not surprising. 

Quite a lot of bulbs coming through; snowdrops, aconites and even some daffodils. Some lovely flowering shrubs, particularly the Hamamelis and some lovely hellebores. I love seeing the Cornus in the winter, just fabulous. You can see them with hellebores in the extra.
But this lovely friendly robin had to be my blip. I’ve taken pictures of robins here many times but I never tire of them.

We had a quick look in the library where the embroideries of the  garden through the seasons are on show again, always nice to see and there was a Japanese crafts exhibition in the Bath house where they were promoting vintage kimonos for £40. They all looked enormous so I didn’t try one!

I’ve added a link to my winter Flickr album to show some of the winter scenes. You'll need to scroll half way down p 2 of the album