After a cold overnight frost I had a pleasant, cool 4C, muddy walk first thing this morning with Meg & Gracie. The frost is welcome as it should dry up some of the rain that we have had recently.

It was a spur of the moment decision but after breakfast we decided to head over to Castle Howard and have a walk around the grounds with Meg & Gracie. We arrived about 11.00am and after a quick coffee from the Courtyard café we headed over towards the house. There was a film company filming along the front of the Southern aspect of the house this morning so we headed off to the left across the mown lawns and down towards the North Lake and boat house. The only time we tend to visit the North side of the house and grounds is when we have Jenny’s grandchildren with us and they like to play in the playground adjacent to the Boathouse cafe.  There was lots of wildfowl activity on the lake, with Mallard, Greylag Geese and tufted duck about, all being quite vocal and noisy, it was nice to hear. From the lake we headed up the slope admiring the swathes of daffodils before heading into ‘Ray Wood. The cold Northerly wind was quite biting as we walked higher up the slope, clumps of Snowdrops were gently swaying in the wind. We continued along the footpath till we reached the eastern end of the wood, the views across the farmland from this elevated position are wonderful. We continued our walk past the plinth of what was the Venus statue before reaching the Temple of the four winds, again stopping to admire the views over to the mausoleum and the Packhorse bridge. From the Temple we headed back along the terrace back to the house and courtyard café for a well-earned rest before the journey home.