It was a cold and dull start to the day this morning. I was somewhat late up today and didn’t get out with Meg & Gracie till 6.45am. After a miserable weekend of weather, this morning although still dull, was dry underfoot and it wasn’t raining. We had a good dog walk before returning home for breakfast at 8.45am. It was quite a strange news day today as it looks as though the country is going to be hit with the Coronavirus epidemic and all sorts of talk about shops closing and people being laid off to help reduce the spread of the virus.

Straight after breakfast we packed the car for a ride over to Castle Howard to have a look at the daffodils that should be showing nicely at this moment. The daffodils in our garden are just beginning to turn and droop and we have learnt over the years that Castle Howard Daffodils are always about two weeks later than ours for coming into flower, the only thing we can put this down to is the difference in altitude as Castle Howard is situated quite high up in the Howardian hills.

We were last here for a walk about a fortnight ago and the daffodils where just beginning to come into flower then and we said at the time that we will come back in a fortnights time they should be flowering nicely and we weren’t disappointed.

We had Meg and Gracie with us as usual when we come here and on arrival, I took them both out for a quick gallop through the woods at the back of the cricket pavilion to burn of some of their surplus energy.

On entering the main courtyard, we had a quick coffee stop before entering the ticket office and grounds. I was quite surprised as to how few visitors were here though with the impending and escalating situation with the Coronavirus visitors were quite wisely staying away.

After leaving the booking office we followed the path towards the house, in front of us was a huge sea of yellow daffodils, swaying gently in the morning breeze, flowers of several different varieties and shades of golden yellow. We continued our walk alongside the walled garden, stopping for a few moments at the house to take some photographs. Our route followed the South terrace and up the gentle slope into Ray wood, stopping at the top of the slope to admire the view behind us. On passing through the gate we headed through the wood towards the Temple of four winds, large clusters of daffodils lined the trail through the woods. The views on reaching the Temple never fail to impress, the open fields seem to stretch for miles to the left and over to the right the view of the new bridge and mausoleum. We headed back to the house along the Temple Terrace which was lined with daffodils its entire length and always provides a magnificent sight with the house in the background.

On reaching the courtyard we would usually have had brunch in the Courtyard restaurant but today we decided to buy a couple of sandwiches and some cups of tea from the coffee shop and have a picnic in the car instead which rounded off our visit very nicely.