After a very wet and miserable weekend, it was nice to be out and about this morning.

Today, we had arranged to meet my daughter in law and grandchildren at Thorpe Perrow Arboretum, near Bedale, we usually visit the Arboretum several times a year, but due to the pandemic have been unable to make as many visits, this being only our second one this year, our last being back in April.  

The Autumnal colours at home have been absolutely stunning this month and Thorpe Perrow was no different.

We all met for coffee and cake in the Arboretum café just after 11.00am. 

It was a dull, grey and cloudy morning, there was little wind and the temperature was quite mild at around 8C, it was quite wet and muddy underfoot from all the rain that fell over the weekend. 

After some light refreshment we left the warmth and comfort of the café and headed outside. We always seem to follow a anti clockwise route, following ‘water steps path’ alongside the stream, stopping to explore ‘Henry’s Island’. The stream opens up into the main lake at this point and is probably one of my favourite parts of the walk. The trees had lost a lot of their foliage during the recent strong winds but there were still plenty leaves hanging on for the time being, their colours ranging from beautiful shades of Bronze, Gold, Yellow and Red. Continuing along the lakeside path we stopped to look across the lake and admire the views of the main house, before walking over the bridge onto ‘Kate’s Island’ to look at the wooden sculpture. After walking around the tiny island, we crossed the bridge back onto the ‘mainland’ and continued to the end of the lake, again stopping at the wooden bridge that leads into the ‘Milbank Pinetum’ the view looking along the line of the stream to ‘Catherine Parrs Oak’ always provides a beautiful view and today was no different. From the bridge we continued along the path towards the ‘Bird of Prey and Mammal Centre’. On most of our visits to Thorpe Perrow we have the dogs with us so we cannot see the birds and mammals, but today, as we had left the dogs at home, it made a refreshing change to be able to walk into the centre and admire the birds, unfortunately we had missed the flying display so on leaving the birds we headed over to the mammal centre and watched the Wallabies as they explored their paddock, completely oblivious to our presence. On leaving the ‘Mammal Centre’ we headed for the big ‘Jubilee Oak’ the autumnal colours were beautiful, the fallen leaves forming a huge golden-brown blanket on the woodland floor. We continued along the ‘Broad walk’ avenue before bearing left to admire the huge ‘Acorn structure’ to the right of us. We continued along our walk, crossing ‘Fern Avenue’, the ‘Spring Wood’ and the ‘Bog Garden’ before reaching the ‘Play area’ where we stayed for several minutes whilst one of our grandchildren enjoyed playing on the slides, climbing frames and little cabins. It was just a short walk back to the café where we stayed and enjoyed a late brunch, before saying our cheerio’s and our journey home.