It was a cloudy start to the day this morning but the weather forecast looked pretty good, so with Autumn well and truly here we decided to pack the car and head off to the Thorpe Perrow Arboretum in Bedale, North Yorkshire. It was in February earlier when we last visited to look at all the Snowdrops and here we are in October for our second visit, what happened to the summer? It was a mild day although overcast, so it was a light jacket as we made our way to the entrance, the Horse Chestnut trees were in full autumnal colour as we pulled into the driveway and looked quite a picture, Jenny had filled her jacket pocket with conkers by the time we arrived to pay our admission fees! Once through the gates and past the café we walked in a anti clockwise direction around the estate, following the course of the stream. Within five minutes of us leaving the car it started to rain, fortunately the leaf cover on the trees was sufficient to keep us reasonably dry and by the time we reached the Bird of Prey centre the rain had eased up. From the centre we headed off following the course of the stream past ‘Henry’s Island and onto Kate’s island on the main lake. The views from here looking across to the main house look quite stunning and with the rain drops hitting the surface of the lake gave the view a different perspective. Fortunately, by the time we arrived at the Bird of Prey centre the rain had eased off considerably. Unfortunately we couldn’t have a look at the big birds as we had Meg and Gracie with us so we continued with our walk and headed for the huge ‘Jubilee Oak tree’ along Birch Avenue. It was nice to have a sit down under this tree for five minutes, the rain had as good as stopped and the sun started to shine so all was extremely pleasant. With the onset of Halloween there were lots of quirky ghosts and ghouls hanging around amongst the trees which looked very effective and dramatic. We continued with the walk, past the bog garden and pets cemetery arriving back at the café just in time for brunch. A lovely walk in a beautiful part of the country and hope it isn’t another eight months before I can return again.