We have just come in from a wonderful evening in Benmore Gardens. The gardens are home to a magnificent avenue avenue of giant Californian redwood trees, and this year marks the 150th anniversary of their planting.

To celebrate, they flooded the avenue with light, fire and smoke, and giant ethereal puppets walked the woods in front of us and danced to music playing somewhere in the dank undergrowth.

The rain fell from time to time, and the grass of the avenue turned to mud which reflected the light like writhing earthworms.

The contrast of light in the dark seems all the more appropriate this Diwali…