After a cold and misty start to the morning with a light overnight frost, we packed the car and headed over to Castle Howard for a walk around the grounds with Meg and Gracie.

It was just before 10.00am as we parked the car in the car park. The sun was beginning to break through the low cloud as we made our way across the courtyard to the ticket office. After showing our passes and exchanging pleasantries with the reception staff we headed outside, the daffodils on the western lawn were in full flower and provided instant colour to the landscape forming a huge yellow blanket under the trees. A few clusters of Snowdrops were still hanging on to provide additional colour amongst the trees. The Magnolia and Rhododendron bushes were beginning to come in to flower, their tall white and pink buds quite distinguishable on the otherwise leafless bushes. We continued our walk along the gravelled drive adjacent to the walled garden till we reached the South West corner of the house. Continuing our walk along the gravelled path along the Southern front of the house, it looked as though work was being carried out at pace inside the house in preparation for its opening next month, including the newly restored tapestry room.

Continuing our walk, we headed around the Time capsule, stopping for a moment to admire all the daffodils which were in flower along the terraces and slopes leading up to ‘Ray Wood’.  It will be another week or so till all the daffodils will be at their best, weather permitting of course. The view looking across the corner of the South Lake towards the Mausoleum just under a mile away, was quite special, the bare Silver Birch trees standing proud with their silver-coloured bark glistening in the morning sunlight and the daffodils lining the lakeside with the Mausoleum standing proud on the skyline in the distance.

It was a steady walk up the incline to the woods, stopping every few moments to admire the views looking back towards the house and lake, A pair of Mute swans were busily patrolling the water’s edge whilst several Mallards were making quite a commotion towards the middle of the lake. On reaching the wooden five bar gate we stopped to listen to a pair of Great Tits busily singing away in the trees above our heads. The Snowdrops which covered this area on our last visit had all but disappeared under the long grass but the emerging Daffodils equally made up for their disappearance. Clusters of yellow flowering primroses were popping up along the trail through the woods. After a relatively mild winter one of the first bushes to come into flower in the woods are the Rhododendron bushes. I remember as a young child, and later in life when I was out in some inhospitable places, the Rhododendrons came in to flower from early May, Spring Bank holiday time. Today as we walk through the woods, one of the first thing that caught my eye was the purple flowering Rhododendrons.  Their bright pearlescent colours lighting up the woodland and leaving you with a warm glow inside. Flowering Daffodils lined our route through the woodland till we reached ‘The Temple of Four Winds’. The views from the Temple looking across the Howardian hills is always spectacular and today was no different. A buzzard was circling high above and calling for its mate hiding amongst the trees over by the Mausoleum. The Temple lived up to its name today, there was a bitterly cold North Westerly breeze blowing in our faces as we made our way back towards the house along the grassy Temple terrace, stopping several times to admire the views of the Daffodils on either side of the terrace. From the house it is just over a five-minute walk to the courtyard where we enjoyed a very pleasant brunch sat outside in the sunshine of the Courtyard restaurant, Meg and Gracie were quite happy and managed to stay awake long enough to enjoy their doggie breakfast too.