GardenFest

Take me up out of the city
Where the grass is green
& the lights are so pretty! 

Day 2 of 2. A cinema date with Sarah in the afternoon

(The meta-theatrical allusions totally worked for me.
  And the awesome blue wallpaper towards the end.
           Go see!)

& a group trip to Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens in the evening. 

I'd spotted the GardenFest flyer at Museum Shopper's Fair so I became the raison d'aller. Sarah helped co-ordinate people (Marcia+John, Geoff+Peter), transport, tickets. Julie-Paint let us meet up at her house & had mulled cider ready before we headed out into the night. Mmm.  
   As a festival of lights, it was so Pretty! More creative & expansive than I'd actually anticipated it being despite its claim to HALF A MILLION LIGHTS!
   A fair few Christmas-themed elements what with it being a December event but also using regular parts of the Garden to direct the theme ~ like vegetable patches or its Japanese-style origins.
(The bulk of the photos can be found here
                                                                 but my favourites follow below:)

 

Squeee! Summerhouse! Romance!

 

Pink Flamingo is back!

 

Clouds inside the Conservatory

as well as the Paper Crane Chandelier

 

 

And a Christmas tree comprised mainly of pink flower vomit.... 

 

Pretty lights!