I had a free day today and with a promising weather forecast of bright sunny periods decided to take Meg and Gracie for a walk around the grounds of Castle Howard and photograph the Autumnal colours around the estate. Unfortunately, the sun decided on other things and stayed well hidden behind dense cloud during my visit.

We left home around 9.30am and after an uneventful drive arrived at the stately home just after 10.30am. The first thing that struck me was how busy the car park was, forgetting of course that it was the autumn half term. The Courtyard was busy with visitors hanging around waiting for their party/family members to arrive before setting off to either have a look around the house or head off to the large play area of Skelf Island. Some estate workers were busily planting Christmas trees around the Courtyard and starting to prepare the area for the Christmas season. (The House closes from Sunday 3rd November till 14th November whilst they prepare for Christmas and will reopen on Friday 15th November for Alice's Christmas Wonderland.)  

After exchanging pleasantries with the staff in the ticket office we headed outside and made our way to have a stroll around the Walled garden. Although there is still lots to see, many of the borders and beds had passed their best but still looked colourful. I could hear several families walking around the pumpkin patch, the young children shouting with excitement as to which pumpkin they should purchase. 

On leaving the Walled Garden we made our way along the Lime Terrace towards the house. The tall, majestic trees looking beautiful in their autumn colours. Several contractors vans were parked up at the top of the terrace, the workers busily erecting a huge marquee along the west face of the house in preparation for the Christmas activities.  We continued our walk along the South terrace, passing the house on our left till we reached the Time Capsule where we headed off to the right and over the grass meadow to the South Lake. The lake was flat calm as we reached the waters edge, I was hoping to get some nice sunny and reflective photographs, but the dull, overcast, and grey sky unfortunately prevented me from taking the pictures I would have liked, “oh for a little bit of sunlight” I whispered under my breath, but it wasn’t to be today, ‘plan b’ then.  Considering the number of visitors in and around the Courtyard earlier there was very few walking around the estate. We continued our walk along the water’s edge, stopping for a few moments to watch a lone swan busily preening itself. The view from this part of the lake looking back to the house is quite breathtaking, even more so when the sun is shining, but it wasn’t to be today. The view in the opposite direction looking over to ‘the new bridge’ and ‘mausoleum’ is equally spellbinding. We walked down the grassy slope to the edge of ‘The Temple Hole, stopping to admire some patches of fungi shooting up in the long grass, before passing the statue of ‘The Shephard boy’ standing proud looking over the water. Leaving the statue, we followed the water’s edge and climbed up the slope to ‘The Temple of Four Winds’. No matter what the weather, the views from here are always spectacular, be it looking across the Howardian Hills, watching the cattle grazing in the fields, the view looking over to ‘the New Bridge’ or the view looking over towards the Mausoleum, all are worthy of a sit down to admire the beauty of the place. On leaving the Temple we headed into ‘Ray Wood’. The first thing that struck me was the beautiful autumnal colours of the trees and the leaf litter covering the woodland floor. Every where you turned the autumnal leaves were falling like confetti, leaving a blanket of golden leaves on the ground. Meg had a great time rolling around in all the leaves whilst Gracie looked on in disgust. We continued our walk through the wood, stopping to have a chat to a couple of estate workers who looked to be repairing one of the wooden gates. On leaving the woods and walking back down the slope towards the house, several visitors came across to have a chat about Meg and Gracie, asking if they could stroke them, they explained that they were over here on holiday and had to leave their dogs at home, fortunately Meg and Gracie are well behaved, and the visitors went away with a smile on their faces. From the house it is a short five-minute walk back to the courtyard where we all enjoyed a very pleasant brunch sat outside in the Courtyard café. Despite the weather we had a lovely mornings walk.