Longwood Gardens: By Night
Ok, yesterday was all about walking the grounds of Longwood Gardens during the day. Today is all about what happens after dark! Until the end of September, the artist Bruce Munro has several light installations that creep throughout the gardens. The feeling of walking through these installations is magical and otherwordly, like descending upon a fairytale land.
And of course, the photos don't even begin to do it justice. Here are a few anyway!
Walking down the path from the conservatory, we have no idea what to expect. It's dark and I can't see five feet in front of me but I can tell that the path is full of people. Suddenly, to the right, just beyond a pond, thousands of lights, like blooming night flowers appear. Their colors shift and they give off the most beautiful reflection into the dark water.photo by me
Photo by Mark Picthall from Longwood Gardens website
Photo by Michael Keefe from Longwood Gardens website
The path continues and we walk down a bridge strewn with white fairy lights. It's narrow enough that we need to walk single file and I quickly lose track of my friends. But that's ok; all the lights are putting me into a trance and I go into my own head. The path opens onto a dark field full of towers of water bottles lit with colored LED lights that change in sync with a musical score. I wish I could just lie down and spend the rest of the night here. Maybe the rest of my life.
photo by me
photo by Corriette Schoenaerts from Longwood Gardens website
We walk over another bridge, hovering a few feet above swamplands. It's pitch black and thousands, maybe millions of crickets, play their nightly symphony. Suddenly there's a person directing us into the woods, where 20,000 orbs form a carpet of light under the trees. Ok, this is ridiculous! I feel like magic is all around me. I lose everyone again. I don't want to talk, there's nothing to say.
photo by me
Photo by Fred Dunn
As we walk back to the car, everyone's a little tired, a little overwhelmed. We all make plans to come back as soon as possible.
If you want to visit, check out Longwood Garden's tips for seeing Light.
