It was a dull and gloomy start to the day today, I had been out earlier in the morning with Meg and Gracie for a shortish walk. It was quite overcast and humid, with rain threatening in the distance. After breakfast we packed the car, and all headed up the A1 to the Thorpe Perrow Arboretum on the outskirts of Bedale. It is just a steady fifty-five minute drive from home and quite straight forward. We arrived at the ticket office for 10.30am, ordered a takeaway coffee before heading off into the arboretum. We followed our usual route, following the stream, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of water flowing into the main lake, especially since June has been a relatively dry month. Wildflowers about a metre tall lined the banks of the stream adding a nice splash of colour on a gloomy morning. We continued following the stream till it opened up into the main lake in front of the house. This stretch of the walk is always lovely, no matter what time of year you visit, when we were last here towards the end of May, the bank side and avenues were awash with daffodils.

Recently, I had been doing some work in the loft at home and came across some old oil paintings of my late grandfather. One of them was of two Victorian ladies walking alongside a stream, with trees in the background. I looked on the back of the painting at the title and description of where the picture had been painted, which happened to be at Thorpe Perrow Arboretum. From my memory I tried to envisage whereabouts the picture would have been painted, which turns out to be alongside the lake, nearly adjacent to the house. I will have to take a picture of the painting with me and try to pinpoint the exact spot, just to satisfy my curiosity. We stopped for a few moments to admire the reflections across the water before heading off towards the Milbank Pinetum and Birds of Prey centre. It was very quiet in the Arboretum today, other than chatting to another couple about some ancient trees in the Arboretum we must only have seen a handful of people during our visit, which I found very pleasant. On reaching the Mamal centre and Birds of Prey centre we headed along ‘Birch Avenue’ to the huge ‘Jubilee Oak’, where we turned right along the ‘Millennium walk’, part way along I thought I could hear some Tawny owl chicks calling in the trees on my right-hand side. On closer examination I never found the chicks due to the quite dense tree cover, and the fact that they were quite high up in the tees, it was still lovely to hear though. We continued our route to the ‘Catherine Par Oak’ where we sat for 5 minutes just listening to the bird song and admiring the views. After our rest we continued along the edge of the woodland till we reached the stone ‘Bothy’, following ‘Cherry Avenue’ till we reached the ‘Monument’, after a short photo break we continued along the outer perimeter track till we crossed the stream and back to the cafeteria, where we sat outside, under the shade of one of the umbrella’s and enjoyed a very pleasant brunch of bacon and egg sandwiches  and pot of tea with Meg & Gracie, before the journey home.

Note to myself’ I must remember to bring my booklet entitled ‘Thorpe Perrow Tree Trails’ on our next visit as it contains lots of useful information about many of the ancient and veteran trees within the Arboretum.