It was March when we last took Meg & Gracie for a walk around the Arboretum at Thorpe Perrow, on the outskirts of Bedale, so todays visit was long overdue.

It is approximately an hours (52 miles) journey from home in the car, along the A1 motorway north to the Leeming Bar junction then a short distance to Bedale.

It was a pleasant and dry morning, although we had had a tremendous thunderstorm and very heavy overnight rain which made the ground a little wet and slippery in places, but by mid-morning the sun was shining and it turned into a lovely, pleasant day. The wet weather we have been having over the past few days had certainly greened everything up, the grass was looking quite green, rather than yellow and the trees were looking very lush.

After passing through the booking office, we followed the small stream, passing the children’s play area on the left, and headed for ‘Henry’s Island’, before which we turned left onto ‘Annabel’s walk’. We stopped for a few moments to look at all the small headstones in the ‘pet cemetery’ after which we continued on to the ‘Lime Avenue’ where we headed over the wooden bridge into the ‘Milbank Pinetum’, I stopped on the wooden bridge over the stream to admire the view up the stream looking towards ‘the Catherine Parr Oak’ in the distance and was surprised to see the stream covered in waterlilies. This is always a lovely view, no matter at what time of year, with the different coloured shrubs lining the sides of the stream. We stooped for a breather when we reached ‘the Catherine Parr Oak’. This tree has plenty of history behind it, records show that it was planted in 1534, the same year that Catherine Parr married Baron Latimer of Snape. They lived in Snape Castle, which is literally across the road from the Arboretum, in fact you can see it from the arboretum entrance. Lord Baron died in 1543 and Catherine Parr went on to marry King Henry V111 later that year, Catherine was his final wife who survived him.

By now the sun was at its highest and the temperature just over 20C which made for a very pleasant walk, not to hot or sweaty. After a rest we headed over to the stone Acorn structure and butterfly garden. It is just a short distance from here to ‘Kate’s Island’ and a little further to ‘Fern Avenue’. There is a really nice view from here looking across the lake to the main house. The sun was shining, a blue sky, the lake was flat calm, and the house looked splendid in the distance. From the side of the lake we continued our walk, keeping the water on our left hand side and headed back to the visitors centre where we enjoyed a very pleasant brunch, sat outside on the picnic area, Meg & Gracie laid contently asleep amongst the flower beds. I certainly hope to visit again in the near future, Halloween is always a good time to visit.