After a cold overnight frost, it was minus 1C when I took Meg & Gracie out for their morning walk earlier today, in fact for the last few days we have had overnight frosts and today was no different. The weather forecast for today was a good one so after breakfast we headed up north to Bedale and a walk around Thorpe Perrow Arboretum.

It is a reasonably pleasant fifty-minute drive up the A1, then passing through the lovely market town of Bedale, we arrived at the arboretum car park some five minutes later at 10.45am. The sun was shining, a lovely blue sky and the temperature was a barmy 15C.

After passing through the ticket office and café, we followed our usual anti clockwise route, down to the stream and along the ‘water steps path’ passing the ‘pet cemetery’ on the left, stopping for a few moments at ‘Henry’s Island’. The next part of our route is one of my favourites, the stream opens up into a lake with lovely views of the big house on the opposite side of the lake. It is always nice to have a sit down and soak in the view. After a few minutes we passed ‘Kates’ Island’ on our right and headed over the footbridge towards the ‘Milbank Pinetum’. This is another great place to stop for a few moments to admire the view, the lake here turns back into a stream with lovely views looking along the stream to ‘the Catherine Parr Oak’ in the distance.

We continued over the bridge and in the ‘Pinetum’ heading towards the ‘Bird of Prey & Mammal Centre’. As we had Meg & Gracie with us we avoided the Birds and Mammal centre and followed the trail through the dell onto ‘Birch Avenue’ to the ‘Jubilee Oak’, from here we turned right onto’ the ‘Millennium Walk’ and followed the path to the ‘Catherine Parr Oak’. This is a lovely tree (A Veteran tree) with lots of history attached to it, records have shown that the tree was actually planted in the year 1534, the same year that Catherine Parr married Baron Latimer of Snape, they lived in Snape Castle which you can still see in the distance from the car park. Following the Barons death, less than ten years later, Catherine went on to marry King Henry V111, she was his final wife as he died in 1547. Catherine went on to marry Thomas Seymour, so there is a lot of history attached to this tree.

After leaving this huge tree, we continued our walk following the perimeter path till we reached the Bothy where we followed ‘Cherry Avenue’ till we reached the monument, the daffodils had only just started to flower but it still proved a lovely stopping point for a few moments. There are in excess of 110 different varieties of Daffodil at Thorpe Perrow with thousands planted amongst the woodland and avenues. As I mentioned earlier, many daffodils were out today but I think within the next week or so, dependant on the weather of course, the vast majority will be at their best just in time for the Easter holidays.

From the monument we continued following the perimeter trail, crossing the stream and arriving at the café and visitors centre, where we enjoyed a very pleasant pot of tea and bacon sandwich before the journey home with two tired dogs.