After a busy week, it was nice to escape for a walk around the grounds at Castle Howard today with Meg and Gracie. It has been bitterly cold all week with hard overnight frosts making the ground rock solid, but it has been lovely being out amongst the cold weather and it has stayed dry.

I had been out earlier in the morning with Meg & Gracie but only for a shortish morning walk knowing that we would be having another longer walk after breakfast. The journey from home was quite uneventful, approximately forty-five minutes and no hold ups which made a pleasant change. It was just after 10.30am as we arrived in the car park, after parking up we headed for the coffee shop for a takeaway coffee before heading across the courtyard and ticket office. The sun was shining in a cloudless blue sky and with only a light breeze we had a very pleasant walk up to the main house. I usually try to have a walk around the walled garden but today the gardeners were carrying out routine maintenance work, so it was closed to visitors.  

We continued our walk along the gravelled drive in front of the Southern aspect of the house. Looking to our right the ‘Atlas Fountain’ had been drained due to the below freezing temperatures and on the ‘Southern Lake’ the water was well frozen with a thick covering of frost lying on the surface of the ice. Heading up the slope the sun was bright, the young shoots of daffodils and crocus were just beginning to poke through the grassy banks leading up to ‘Ray Woods’. We stopped once or twice to admire the views looking back at the house and over to the lake. It was hard to imagine we were in the middle of winter, it was more like a Spring morning. On reaching the top of the slope we continued through the wooden five bar gate into the woods. Clusters of Snowdrops were beginning to flower along the edges of the path, their delicate white florets flittering gently in the morning breeze. We followed one of the smaller tracks, the ground being extremely frozen, logs piled up neatly at the sides of the track were covered in a heavy frost, we followed a meandering track, through the rhododendrons till we reached the edge of the woods adjacent to the ruins of the Venus statue. We paused for a moment to look at the remnants of the ruins and admire the views across the open fields before making our way up the grassy slope to the ‘Temple of Four Winds’. The views from here are always beautiful, no matter how grim the weather, but today it was a cold and crisp morning, the sun was shining and there was hardly a cloud in the sky. After a few moments we left the Temple, I took some photographs of Meg and Gracie before we headed down to the edge of the frozen ‘South Lake’. I always like this corner of the lake as there are some lovely views of the house, usually reflecting on the flat calm surface of the lake, alas not today, just a thick covering of ice. We continued our walk along the far side of the lake, passing through the trees and coming out near to the ‘Atlas Fountain’. We headed back towards the house, the sun still shining bright and reflecting nicely off the front of the house, the gold covered dome above the ‘great hall’ glistened in the sunlight. it is a good gentle five-minute walk from the house to the Courtyard where we enjoyed a very pleasant brunch in the busy Courtyard restaurant, after which we made our way to the car park and the journey home, no sooner had Meg and Gracie jumped in the car could I hear them both snoring contently in the back of the car. Happy days.