Winter and Christmas Begin.

Although Christmas decorations have been adorning the shops for weeks the 1st of December is quite soon enough to be getting into the 'Christmas spirit'. This afternoon I went to the Rosemoor Gardens  glow event. This was with 50  choir members. One of our members co-ordinated all the people who had RHS cards and could take in a friend for free and for the remaining people the tickets were paid for out of our general funds so that it was free for everyone. Some people, like me came alone as their partners weren't into this sort of thing or don't have a partner and others brought non-choir member partners and of course there are couples who are both members of the choir. 

 

I was a bit nervous about driving up there on my own simply because I haven't driven any distance on my own since the boys were at university. With no satnav or road atlas I had a fairly good idea where I was heading but in the end the direct country road was reassuringly familiar and had good road signs. 20 years ago when I drove out that way with the boys I took the longer route down to Bideford and then turned left after going over the old bridge. Today I gave myself an hour and a half and got there in 40 minutes! I took the time to walk around the outside of the gardens and took some photos while it was still light.

Once we had assembled we had nearly an hour to walk around the gardens and then get a cup of coffee before it got dark and we could appreciate the dramatic lighting of plants and the many sculptures. Quite a few of the sculptures were moving on balancing points or were spinning around in the breeze. (Photos to follow.) We had asked if we could sing while we were there but after an initial yes the answer came back No. I can't think why, it's not as if we were going to be shaking collection boxes but these large organisations can be hide bound by bureaucracy.

All the paths were lit by small white lights and lots of the plants were lit by colour changing or myriad twinkling lights.  

It was dark for my drive home but I knew that for the whole way the road was wide enough for two vehicles to pass safely apart from an olde bridge which is only one and a half cars wide. Arriving back in Barnstaple at 7.00 I stopped at Tesco's (overload of Christmas muzak) where I bought most of the ingredients for the Christmas cake and two pairs of sports leggings which had been reduced twice. I got one pair in the next size up to wear when cycling as I'm determined to get fit enough to cycle further that our first outing.