The weather forecast for today looked very favourable and a nice day to go out for a walk with the dogs. I had them both out earlier this morning for a good long walk on the Barff before we had breakfast, so after a shower and change of clothes etc I loaded up the car and headed off to Castle Howard for the morning.

It was a reasonably quiet journey along the A64 with only light traffic, it was nice and dry too so very little mucky surface spray splattering the windscreen, like there has been of late. It was about 10.15am as I parked the car in the car park adjacent to the ‘cricket square’. On arrival I always take them both for a quick ‘wee and poo walk’ in the woods before venturing into the courtyard, Meg is pretty good and performs virtually on my command, Gracie though is a little monkey at times and not as particular as her sister!

It was back to the car and after putting on my outdoor jacket we headed into the courtyard and ticket office. The house is currently closed after the busy Christmas period, so todays visit was for steady pleasant walk around the grounds. I was surprised how quiet it was with very few visitors though it was still reasonably early in the day.

From the south side of the house we followed the path along the grassed terrace towards the ‘Temple of Four Winds’, by now the sun was out and there was a lovely blue sky, the house as usual looked quite stunning in the morning sunlight and the views across the ‘South Lake’ just as beautiful. It was nice to see the daffodils emerging through the grass, the odd rogue one in flower, but it will be several more weeks before they form a huge yellow blanket along both sides of the south terrace. Snowdrops though were flowering nicely with huge clumps set amongst the trees, their delicate white flower heads trembling gently in the light breeze. We spent a few moments at the Temple just admiring the views across the Howardian hills and over to the family mausoleum.

After several minutes we headed back towards the house but turned slight left, down the grassy bank and walked around the far side of the ‘South Lake’.  The lake was flat calm and the reflections of the house in the still water looked remarkable. Continuing our walk, we headed through the trees to the ‘Atlas Fountain’ which had been partially emptied for the winter months. The views from the fountain looking towards the house were beautiful especially with the sun shining and a blue sky. From here it is just a few minutes’ walk back to the house, were we stopped for another rest before heading back to the Courtyard. As it was lunch time and the sun was still out we headed over to the courtyard café for brunch, we sat outside on the enclosed foyer and enjoyed a very pleasant meal, Meg & Gracie  quite content to sit and lay quietly, probably exhausted from their mornings walks at the side of my chair. I counted another six other couples doing the same as us with their dogs, all sat as good as gold, enjoying the mild winters morning sunshine.