We woke up to another dry, bright, and sunny morning, though a yellow weather warning for thunderstorms had been issued for all day today, fortunately the predicted weather never materialised and it turned out to be a lovely sunny afternoon.

It is six weeks since our last visit to Castle Howard, I do not know where that time has gone. We arrived at Castle Howard for 9.30am, it was slightly cloudy when we arrived and a couple of degrees cooler than home but the sun came out later which made for a very pleasant morning. After a takeaway coffee from the Courtyard coffee shop, we headed across the cobble stones of the courtyard to the ticket office. We exchanged pleasantries with the staff, before heading outside and made our way over to the enclosed Walled Garden. The borders as ever for this time of year were full and vibrant with a wide variety of shrubs and plants, the pink florets of Spirea, Jerusalem Sage, Purple Phlox, the huge Cotton Thistle, and Purpletop Vervain were in full flower and proving to be very popular with the large white butterflies. Huge beds of what looked like Sea Holly, Eryngium Giganteum was attracting the bees and insects to the garden borders. Huge Hydrangeas were in full flower; their flower heads the size of a small football!

We left the garden through the wrought iron gate leading to the Lime Terrace, looking across the South Garden the Atlas Fountain was all quiet. On reaching the house the Calydonian Boar on the West lawn was looking clean and comfortable sat on its plinth keeping an eye over the west lawn. We continued our walk along the gravelled drive of the South Terrace, passing the house on our left which looked resplendent in the emerging morning sunlight, we continued our walk passing Bacchus on our right and the Time Capsule on our left. Our walk took us up the gentle grassy slope to the Ray Woods, I noticed several wild flowers growing amongst the long grass including Creeping Buttercup and Purple Musk Mallow. On reaching the top of the slope we stopped for a few moments to admire the view looking back towards the house, and listen to the commotion on the South Lake to our left, the Canada Geese had congregated on the grassy bank on the east side of the lake and were not happy about something, from where we were I couldn’t make out what was happening other than the Mute Swans were taking their young signet family for a swim and maybe infringed on their space.

After a few minutes we continued our walk through the wooden gate and into the woods, all the Azaleas and Rhododendrons had finished flowering several weeks ago. Birdsong was very muted amongst the trees, though Wood Pigeon, Robin, and Wren kept us company on our walk with the occasional input from a Blackcap and Chiffchaff. As we made our way through the woodland we had to stop for a few moments whilst Meg dived into a huge pile of fallen Autumn leaves! As we came out the woods we continued our walk around the Temple of Four Winds, stopping to look across to the New Bridge and Mausoleum. From here we headed down the grassy slope to the Temple Hole, lots of Purple Loosestrife was flowering amongst the long grass close to the water’s edge. Some Orange Day lilies were still in flower around the statue of the Shepherd Boy. On climbing up the slope to the Eastern edge of the South Lake we were greeted by about a dozen Canada Geese some sat, others stood on the edge of the lake busily preening themselves and appeared completely oblivious to Meg & Gracie, that said I kept the dogs on a short lead and gave the Geese a wide berth so as not to disturb them. Within ten yards of the geese were the resident Mute swan family taking their young cygnets for a swimming lesson in the shallow part of the lake, hence all the noise a little earlier.

We had a pleasant walk along the Southern edge of the lake, the tall reeds and long grass forming a barrier between the water edge and the grassy bank. Although the sun was shining it was quite sheltered behind the trees. There were some lovely reflective views of the house on the flat calm water of the lake. Leaving the lake behind us we made our way up the slope and back to the house, continuing to the Courtyard and brunch sat outside under a brolly at the Courtyard restaurant, all very pleasant, Meg and Gracie enjoyed their doggie breakfast after which they both fell asleep for fifteen minutes or so. Suitably rested and after a very pleasant meal, we headed over to the Garden centre for some bits and pieces for the garden, we both commented on the beautiful colours of the plants on display in the centre especially the multi coloured Alstroemeria, the Corn flowers, Roses, Blanket flowers, and Hydrangeas.