The Roof Garden

When I was a little girl my granny used to take me to The Derry & Toms Roof Garden in Kensington High street in London where we lived. It was, and probably still is, a magical place. A garden growing on the roof of a large London department store. I remember being intrigued by trees growing seemingly out of nothing and wondering where their roots went. A Woodland Garden with a running brook, and a Spanish Garden with a pink tower and archways all sitting 100 feet above Kensington High Street. It was another world up in the air and I loved it.

Well, we don't have that, but we do have our own roof garden (sort of)  up on the hill  at the back of where we live. The lifts were out of order the day we went so we took the stairs! You can just see the roof of our house poking out through the trees on the right

Going up

Once up on top the landscape levels out, as one would expect from a roof garden and an enormous vista opens up showing the 'Highland Loch Roof Garden'

The air sea rescue helicopter flew overhead as we walked towards the loch, we tried to look casual and not give the impression we needed lifting off the roof  - especially as it had taken us a while to get up there!

The Highland Loch Garden doesn't have archways and walkways or even palm trees and sadly is without a tea pavilion, but as the sun starts to sink below the horizon it lays on a light show which is worth struggling up onto the roof to see.

We walked round the edge of the loch admiring the sculptured water features

and out over the loch towards the impressive backdrop of An Teallach powerful and dominant as ever in the setting sun. We waited....

and then the light show began.

 what had been mundane and colourless lit up in glowing yellows and golds, russets and reds

With the sun so low in the sky at this time of year our little bit of hillside where we live is in shadow by lunchtime, but up here on the roof the sun pours its heart out and the grasses and lichens soak it up gently swaying in the breeze - it's like a sea of gold.
Even if the lifts are out of order it's still worth coming up here to the sun drenched Highland Loch Roof Garden.