Wednesday 3rd October 2018

I had a free day today, I had been out with Meg and Gracie for an early morning walk earlier today so after breakfast packed the car with some camera gear along with Meg and Gracie and headed over to Castle Howard. It was a lovely morning with the sun shining nicely, quite mild for this time of year too 15C with just a light breeze, although the temperature is always a couple of degrees cooler than at home due to its position amongst the Howardian hills.

We arrived in the car park at Castle Howard at around 10.45am after a reasonably straight forward drive along the A64. No matter how many times I make this journey, which is at least once a month, the sight of the 7th Earl’s monument at the top of the hill and the long straight drive past the castle walls never fails to impress me. On getting out of the car you could feel it was a little cooler than home, I had packed a light gilet so popped that on and with M & G headed into the courtyard and onto the estate. The sun was trying to break through the grey gloom and very occasionally did but for the majority of the day stayed well hidden behind the clouds. It was reasonably quiet today with just a few visitors enjoying the walk in the fresh air. We made our way into the Walled Garden for a walk amongst the flower beds and admire the fish in the pond. The gardens were looking lovely and considering we are in the 1st week of autumn still had lots of colour. From the garden we headed down towards the Atlas fountain, I think it is always quite a special sight to see the water spouting out of the four tritons onto Atlas carrying the globe on his back. Meg and Gracie would be in the water like a flash if I let them! It is also quite a feat of engineering to think that water for the fountain comes down from a reservoir over in Ray Woods and that gravity produces enough pressure to power water through the jets and it has run like this since the day it was turned on in 1853!

After leaving the fountain we headed through the trees,  past the sweet chestnut trees having to be careful where we walked as the fallen chestnut kernels were still quite green and extremely sharp, especially when the dogs stood on them,  on towards the Southern lake and followed its Southern most shore line, I always enjoy the views looking over towards Ray Wood and especially at this time of year when the leaves of the birch trees start to change colour prior to the onset of the colder winter months. Equally the view across the lake looking back towards the house takes some beating especially when the lake is flat calm. From the far corner of the lake we paused for a few moments to look over towards the ‘new river bridge’ and mausoleum before heading up towards the ‘Temple of Four winds’ and into Ray woods. Looking at some of the beautiful trees it is hard to imagine that the area was clear felled back in 1940. Today it is estimated that there are around 800 varieties of rhododendron along with magnolias and hydrangeas which look beautiful in the spring time and maple and rowan trees with the most beautiful leaf patterns and shapes. After pausing a while at the reservoir we continued in a southerly direction to the top of the terrace offering beautiful views of the eastern side of the house.  After a biscuit break for a few minutes admiring the eastern side of the house and the beautiful views across the southern aspects of the grounds, we headed back towards the house, pausing a few moments to look along the terrace of lime trees adjacent to the walled garden. I couldn’t resist another walk around the walled garden before heading back to the car. The sun had started to burn through the clouds and it was nice to feel some warmth in the air, so much so that before we headed for home we had a small picnic overlooking the cricket square, much to Meg & Gracie’s delight.