After a light overnight frost, I was up and out with Meg and Gracie for 6.30am. The air temperature this morning was -2C, I had a lovely, dry and sunny walk with Meg & Gracie. The Bluebells on the Barff are in full flower at this moment and depending on the weather should stay out for another two weeks at least.

I had pre booked a couple of tickets to take Meg & Gracie for another walk around the Thorpe Perrow Arboretum near Bedale today, so straight after breakfast I loaded up the car and set off for the 55-minute journey to the Arboretum. It was a straightforward journey, though there was some heavy traffic on the A1 between the Leeds & York junctions, but once we had passed the Harrogate turn off the traffic eased up nicely.

It was 10.45am as I drove into the car park and visitor’s centre. The sun was shining, a lovely blue sky and 15C, a pleasant Spring morning. The staff look to have been busy since our last visit, refurbishing and defining the car park.  After checking in and showing our passes, we followed the footpath over the stream and continued along the path adjacent to the stream, large swathes of daffodils were in flower around the Arboretum and formed huge yellow blankets over the woodland floor. The trees were leafing up and the different colours looked quite stunning in the morning sunlight. A striking blossom tree was in full flower next to the stream, it’s pink blossom cascading into the water. We continued along the path, passing ‘Henry’s Island’ on the right and a little further on ‘Kate’s Island’ I always stop here to look at the lovely carving which has been cut into the streamside tree. depicting several tiny huts linked by a spiralling staircase, a clever piece of craftsmanship and art. After a short rest we continued along the main trail, stopping to admire the main house on the opposite side of the stream, the manicured lawn, hedging and plants always look immaculate and today was no different.

Crossing the wooden bridge, I like to look at the view to the left, the planting of shrubs alongside the stream provides a palette of colour which changes with the seasons. Our path leads up to the Bird of Prey Centre and on reaching the centre we turned left and headed deeper into the woodland arriving at the gigantic ‘Jubilee Oak’, several trails branch out in every direction here, we continued along the ‘Millennium Walk’ passing several young families enjoying a picnic by the water’s edge. Clusters of Yellow Primula and Cowslips provided a haven for a family of Mallard ducks who kept pestering the picnicking families for scraps of food. Walking around the huge ‘Catherine Parr’ Oak, which has had quite a trim since our visit last year. We continued along our trail following the path alongside the edge of the arboretum, admiring the swathes of Daffodils, until we reached the ‘Monument’ I was hoping to take some pictures here and I got several, but was limited somewhat by a family enjoying a picnic there, so will try again on my next visit. From the monument it is just a five-minute walk back to the café, due to the current covid restrictions we could not eat inside the café, but they offered a particularly good takeaway service and with plenty of benches set up in the vicinity we enjoyed a very pleasant cup of tea and bacon roll, much to the delight of Meg & Gracie.

A very pleasant and enjoyable mornings walk.