Well, the weather has been quite kind to us this week, dry, sunshine and quite pleasant for the time of year. This morning was no different, we woke to a light overnight frost. I was out early with Meg and Gracie and as it was such a pleasant morning, after breakfast we headed over for another walk around the grounds of Castle Howard.

The drive along the A64 was quite uneventful today, with just light traffic, after a 50-minute journey we arrived at 10.45am. After popping into the takeaway coffee shop for a drink and biscuit we headed across the courtyard to the ticket office, after exchanging pleasantries with the staff we made our way to the main house. The house is still closed at the moment for its annual spring clean in preparation for its opening in April. It is a lovely walk following the high brick wall of the walled garden. Huge swathes of snowdrops were in full flower, its hard to imagine that in about a months’ time the same grassed areas will be awash with flowering daffodils. I always like to stop just before the Southwest corner of the house to admire the view, the clear blue sky with the sunlight shining on the house, the brick work and form of the house looked absolutely beautiful.

We continued our walk along the south parterre and terrace passing the house on our left, I stopped once or twice to take several photographs of Meg & Gracie sat on the lawn in front of the house. We continued our walk, passing around the time capsule and following the terrace up the slope to ‘Ray wood’, stopping occasionally for a rest and to admire the view looking over the South Lake. We passed through the wooden five bar gate into the woods, huge clusters of Snowdrops covered the woodland floor, their delicate white flowers gently swaying in the cool, light morning breeze. Several of the magnolias and Azealia’s were beginning to flower, their pink florets glistening in the shaded sunlight adding a tough of colour to the otherwise bare trees. After a few more minutes we arrived at the ‘Temple of four winds’. As well as the beauty of the ‘Temple’ I always enjoy looking across the vast landscape of fields, today we watched the Buzzard who has a nest in one of the copse of trees over towards the family mausoleum. After the obligatory photographs we continued our walk back towards the house along the southern terrace. Hundreds upon hundreds of daffodils were poking through the grassy slopes and embankments so I kept the dogs on a shortened lead.

Looking over to the ‘South Lake’ on our left we watched the geese, ducks and swans gently gliding along the smooth waters of the lake, every now and then all hell would break out on the water as a pair of the Tufted ducks would start to squabble between themselves, this was the sign for the rest of the birds to take flight, fly once around the lake and land back in the water. We continued with our walk, past the house and headed for the courtyard.

After a very pleasant brunch in the courtyard café which had just opened, we headed back to the car and our journey home.

I am hoping that on our next visit the daffodils will be in full flower, and we should be in Spring.