I cannot believe it was three months ago since our last visit to Castle Howard.

After a week of typical autumnal weather combined with rain and wind and more rain, it was very pleasant to wake up to a bright and sunny morning. After a short early morning walk and breakfast, I packed the car, and we headed off to Castle Howard for a walk around the estate. The house has been closed for several weeks now as they prepare for the Christmas opening tomorrow Saturday 11^th November.

We arrived in the car park for 10.30am after an uneventful fifty-minute journey from home, there was just a handful of other visitor’s cars parked up. We popped into the coffee shop in the courtyard for a takeaway coffee before continuing across the courtyard to the ticket office. On leaving the ticket office we stopped for a few moments to admire the autumnal colours of the trees, the morning sunshine glistening through the golden-brown leaves as we walked amongst them heading for the Boar Garden and the west wing of the main house. The statue of the Boar was enjoying the autumn morning sunshine today, it is usually covered over with the onset of the colder winter months. On reaching the corner of the west wing of the house we headed in a southerly direction across the lawn passing the neatly trimmed hedges to the Atlas Fountain which today was in full flow. Its four cherubs spewing water over the copper made globe, its gilded band glistening in the beautiful autumn sunshine.

The Atlas fountain has always fascinated me, the huge figure of Atlas, the decorated basin, and the four tritons with their conch shells were carved out of Portland stone by the Victorian sculptor John Thomas. Weighing more than 20 tons, they were transported in sections by rail from London. The fountain was turned on for the first time in October 1853. Today the fountain is a grade one listed building.

We continued past the fountain and through the trees to the bottom Southwest corner of the South lake. A pair of Swans with their three signets were gracefully gliding along the slightly rippled water, the parent swans keeping their distance from the youngsters. We followed the line of trees along the south side of the lake, the views looking across the lake to Ray Wood looked beautiful with the trees taking on their autumn colours, what a difference some sunshine and blue skies makes especially at this time of year.

As we reached the far corner of the lake, we stopped to take some photographs and admire the views looking back towards the house. We left the lake and continued up the slight slope to the Temple of Four Winds. There were some interesting fungi growing out of the stumps of some of the trees which had been cut down earlier in the year. The sunlight was shining nicely on the south face of the temple, and the views looking across to the mausoleum and new bridge were breathtaking. From the Temple we followed the Temple Terrace back towards the house, the sunlight highlighting the beautiful golden bronze colours of the trees on our righthand side.

On reaching the Courtyard we headed for the restaurant for a very pleasant brunch, Meg and Gracie contently settled under the table, grateful for a quiet thirty minutes or so before the journey home.