Now the Corvid restrictions have been lifted a little we followed the guidelines and booked a time for 10.30am to visit Castle Howard, our first visit and day out, since the lockdown started on the 22^nd March.

The main house unfortunately is still closed but the main reason for our visit to the gardens was for a breath of fresh air and to give the dogs Meg & Gracie a good run out, away from our home patch. It felt a little different visiting this morning, there was not as many cars or coaches in the main car park as usual. We had to show our e ticket at the reception along with our membership cards before making our way outside. The toilets in the courtyard and the courtyard restaurant are still closed due to the restrictions but additional portacabin toilets have been placed along the north terrace just before you reach the main house. We continued our walk passing the house on our righthand side. It was a lovely morning; the sun was shining with a cloudy sky and light westerly breeze. ‘Skelf Island’ and the ‘Boathouse café’ were still closed to visitors though I would think these would be opening again with in the next few weeks. After passing the house we continued our walk into Ray wood, the grass was quite damp after the overnight rain so decided to turn right and avoid the steepish path up to the reservoir, skirting around the house we continued along the ‘South Terrace’, towards the ‘Temple of Four Winds’ It was hard to imagine that on our last visit on the 16^th March, just before the lockdown, the daffodils were in full flower and the sides of the paths and slopes along the edge of the wood were awash with colour. Today the daffodils have long gone and the grass left uncut, we continued our walk up the slope to the top of the hill, stopping on route to admire the view looking back towards the house and over towards the ‘South lake’. It was nice to see several other couples and families well spread out over the parkland, many of them enjoying a picnic in the sunshine.

We followed the path through the wooden gate and into the wood, the trees were now in full leaf, one or two of the late flowering Rhododendrons were still hanging on to their blooms and providing a bit of colour. After a few minutes we came out of the woods adjacent to the ‘Temple of Four Winds’. The views from the Temple are always quite breath-taking, be it looking over the arable fields into the Howardian hills or looking over towards the ‘New bridge’ and Mausoleum. We headed down to the slope to the eastern edge of the ‘South lake’, following the water’s edge for a few moments, stopping to admire all the Marsh Orchids flowering in the wet grass. The path took us around the ‘South Lake’, I always like this part of the walk as you can get some really nice pictures of the house reflected in the lake. Looking over the lake we watched several pairs of Tufted Ducks, along with some Mallard and Greylag Geese, enjoying the afternoon sunshine.  We continued our walk along the waters edge and made our way over to the newly cleaned Atlas fountain. From there it is just a short walk back to the house and courtyard, where we enjoyed a very pleasant brunch from the courtyard café before the journey home.