It was another early start this morning, I managed a shortish walk with M & G before breakfast, after which we packed the car and head off to have a longer walk around the Castle Howard Estate. It was a bright, dry and sunny morning but with quite a chill in the air and the temperature in single figures.

It just approaching 10.00am as we purchased a coffee in the courtyard café, stopping for a few moments to sit on one of the wooden benches in the courtyard and enjoy the warmth from the sun and just people watched as everybody went about their business.

Suitably refreshed we headed through the booking office after exchanging pleasantries with the reception staff and made our way across the gravelled drive to the entrance of the walled garden. The garden this time of year is quite a colourful picture, the borders are full with a mixture of shrubs and flowers. The first thing that caught my eye were the Monk’s Hood a beautiful lilac coloured shrub standing around a metre tall with large lilac blue coloured florets, closely followed by an African Lily with lots of small white trumpet shaped petals, next to them stood a lovely Scarlet Ginger Lile with its orange-coloured florets glistening in the morning sunlight. A little further along the border clumps of Yellow coloured Coneflower provided more colour, this daisy type flower head looked bright and quite radiant. Leaving the borders behind we made our way into the centre of the garden. Huge swathes of Purpletop vervain filled the flower beds. Clumps of Rosehips added additional colour, and will make a tasty snack for visiting Blackbirds, Thrush, Fieldfare and Waxwings. After reluctantly leaving the gardens, we made our way along the Lime Avenue towards the house, looking over to our right through the trees we could see the Atlas Fountain was bathed in the bright morning sunshine. We continued our walk along the South terrace passing the house on our left, we watched lots of Swifts fly high above us and land on the roof of the house, enjoying the warmth coming from the stone walls and balustrades. Tony Craggs contemporary sculptures are still on display till the 22^nd September, I spent a few moments photographing ‘Industrial Nature’ on the South Lawn, with the house as its backdrop, then headed over to the raised flowerbeds which are currently filled with white flowering Cosmos. It is a pleasant steady walk up the slope to the entrance of Ray Wood, we stopped for a few moments to watch and listen to the gaggle of geese as they tussled with the Tufted Ducks and Swans on the South Lake, they made quite a noise. On reaching the entrance to the woods, we headed through the wooden gate and keeping to the main footpath made our way towards the Temple of Four Winds. It was quiet in the woods, with just the occasional Robin and Wren breaking out into a tuneful song. Meg had her usual roll, several in fact, amongst the dried autumn leaves that had blown up into a pile close to the wooden five bar gate. The sun had disappeared behind the clouds as we approached the Temple of Four Winds. The Temple doors were actually open this morning with several visitors having a browse around Tony Craggs delicate structure ‘Eroded Landscape’ inside the building. We continued our walk along the South Terrace back towards the house. A beautiful Red Maple tree was looking resplendent in the morning light, its bright red leaves certainly standing out next to the surrounding Oak trees. There were some lovely views looking across to the left over the towards the South Lake, lots of bird activity on the water the Geese were behaving like a group of boisterous teenagers out on a Saturday evening.  High above a pair of Buzzards were circling on the thermals before heading off in the direction of the Mausoleum. There was a steady trickle of visitors this morning all heading for the Temple. The first signs of Autumn are all around with many of the trees and Shrubs on the parkland adjacent to the South Lake slowly changing colour from green to yellow. The house was looking quite majestic bathed in bright afternoon sunshine. We continued our walk along the gravelled drive adjacent to the Walled Garden, passing the lush Magnolia bushes on the right before we arrived back at the Stable block. The afternoon sunshine filed the Courtyard, and many visitors were sat on the wooden benches soaking up a bit warm sunlight. We enjoyed a very pleasant brunch sat inside the Courtyard café, Meg and Gracie grateful for the chance to have a snooze and a small doggie breakfast before the journey home.