After a cold and frosty week weatherwise, it was nice to get out of the house and enjoy a fresh, bracing walk around the grounds at Castle Howard with Meg and Gracie. The main house was closed after the busy Christmas period and will not be reopening until the beginning of April.

We arrived just after 10.00am to a practically deserted car park, it was a bitterly cold morning, the car temperature gauge was reading 1c, the sun was shining in a beautiful cloudless blue sky. The overnight frost was glistening in the wintery sunshine.

After leaving the car in the car park we headed over to the courtyard café for a coffee and cake, they make really good coffees at Castle Howard and sell nice cakes too. The courtyard was very quiet, just a couple of maintenance staff going about their business. After passing through the ticket office, we made our way towards the house along the Southern Terrace. The paths were a little slippery due to the remnants of the overnight frost, although earlier in the week the grounds had a blanket of snow covering them. The Southern aspect of the house was bathed in sunshine as we walked past, we stopped every now and then to take a photograph. At the ‘Time capsule’ we headed up the grassy slope to ‘Ray Wood’, it was nice to see thousands of daffodils poking through the grassy banks, it will be several more weeks though before they come into flower. We stopped at the top of the slope to admire the view over the frozen ‘South Lake’ and house, before heading through the wooden gate and into the Woods. The woodland floor was covered in emerging Snowdrops, just poking through the frozen and frosty ground. Many of the Rhododendron bushes were covered in buds though it will be another three to four months before they come into flower. Fortunately, the ground was well frozen otherwise it would have been a muddy walk through the trees, it was nice to see the sun shining casting all sorts of shadows through the trees. We followed the path through the woods, stopping occasionally for Meg to have a good roll amongst the fallen autumnal leaves which had blown into heaps along the sides of the fence, several minutes later we arrived at ‘The Temple of Four Winds’, standing proud and basking in the cold winters sun. The views looking across the Howardian Hills from the Temple always look amazing as does that looking over towards ‘The New Bridge’ and in the distance the ‘Mausoleum’. We didn’t hang around for long as there was a bitterly cold North Westerly wind blowing, so we headed down the banking towards the ‘South Lake’ where it was more sheltered from the cold wind. The lake was frozen across its full length and breadth with a thick layer of frost laying on the surface. The resident swans were nowhere to be seen, though you could make out the footprints of several Crows and Rooks which dared to venture on the thin ice. I always enjoy the view looking across the lake back towards the house, but today with it being frozen over it looked quite spectacular, especially along the southern edge of the lake. Continuing our walk along the side of the lake we followed the track around the western side and made our way up the slope towards the house, stopping to look at all the Daffodils emerging through the grass. It is just a steady five-minute walk from the house to the Courtyard where we enjoyed a delicious brunch in the Courtyard Restaurant, Meg and Gracie grateful for a thirty-minute snooze under our table.