I do not know at what point the wet and cold winter weather will end, but since Christmas  we seem to have had a right mixture of late, all be it mainly rain but this morning was one of those rare days when the sun was emerging, it was not raining and the weather forecast for the day looked pretty good, so after a short early morning dog walk, I loaded the car with Meg and Gracie and we headed over to Castle Howard for a walk around the estate. The main house and Walled Garden is still closed and not opening till 20^th March. It was just before 10.00am as we headed across the car park to the main courtyard and café for a takeaway coffee. Meg and Gracie were excited to be back since their last visit was October last year, so today was a treat for them both. After passing through the ticket office we headed out into the morning sunshine. We continued our walk along the gravelled drive towards the main house, large swathes of flowering Snowdrops gently shimmering in the light breeze to our left under the canopy of trees, three beautiful peacocks were gently smooching amongst the undergrowth, heads held high, occasionally letting off a huge bleat letting everyone know that they were there. Their pearlescent blue neck feathers and green wing feathers glistening in the morning sunshine. A little further along the path we passed a pair of mute swans sat contently in the grass, completely oblivious to passing visitors just a few feet away, another peacock was sat high on the brick wall of the walled garden. Closer to the house huge swathes of purply/blue coloured crocus were in full flower adding additional colour to the lush wet grass. The wild boar statue was still well hidden behind the confines of its shed where it stays till the Spring. The Lime Terrace looked good with the sun shimmering through the bare branches of the Lime trees. To our left the southern aspect of the house looked beautiful bathed in bright sunlight and set against the azure, blue sky. Continuing along the southern terrace and passing the Atlas fountain on our right we reached the time capsule, looking back towards the house the golden coloured dome of the grand hall looked magnificent bathed in the morning sunshine. Looking over to the South Lake a cackle of several Greylag Geese where making quite a commotion on the far side of the lake whilst closer to where we were standing lots of Tufted ducks were contently busily feeding and getting on with their day-to-day routines.

It is a short gentle climb up the grassy slope to the entrance to Ray wood; emerging Daffodils were poking through the grass on both sides of our route up the slope, though it will be several weeks before they come into flower. On reaching the top of the hill we stopped to admire the views looking back towards the house and over to the fountain. Huge swathes of Snowdrops and emerging Wild Garlic greeted us as we made our way through the wooden gate and into the woods. Many of the Rhododendron bushes and Azalea bushes were coming into bud. As we approached the Temple of Four Winds several clusters of Daffodils were coming into flower and added a splash of colour. The views from the Temple looking over the Howardian Hills were quite spectacular this morning, with the sun shining and the almost clear blue sky, we sat at the Temple for several minutes watching a pair of Buzzards soaring high above us. A handful of walkers enjoying the sun were also out and about heading off along the tracks towards the New Bridge and Mausoleum. Leaving the Temple behind us we headed down the muddy and slippery slope to the South Lake. It was extremely wet and muddy along the waters edge so had to be careful where we walked, a huge swathe of daffodils were in full flower along the slopes of the sunken hole or often called the frog pond with beautiful views looking over towards the mausoleum, it is quite a sheltered sun trap here and hence why these daffodils were in flower. We headed back up the slope away from the waters edge, stopping occasionally to watch the Geese and Ducks on the lake as they fed and caused general mayhem for each other, I was not surprised that the resident swans had taken a short spell away from the water’s edge at this time enjoying a bit of peace and quiet with the Peacocks. We continued our walk past the house again heading back to the courtyard, the peacock was still contently sat on the top of wall surrounding the walled garden and our two swans we saw when we first arrived were still enjoying the peace and quiet on the grassed area under the trees.  It was just a short walk back to the courtyard where we enjoyed a very pleasant brunch in the Courtyard restaurant (Meg and Grace shared a doggie breakfast between them!) before the journey home.