It was a lovely morning as we headed north up the A1 motorway to Bedale and the Arboretum at Thorpe Perrow. It is just a steady one hour’s drive from home traffic permitting. We arrived in the car park for 10.45am, and after a quick coffee on the patio at the tearoom we followed our usual route alongside the stream. It was a pleasant morning, dry underfoot, a little cooler than home with some low cloud but the sun did make an appearance every now and then.  Everywhere was looking very green and lush. We stopped to exchange pleasantries with a lady and her spaniel for a few moments before continuing our walk, we stopped again to have a look at one of the Veteran trees on ‘Henry’s Island’, it is a beautiful multi stemmed Yew tree, with a girth of 4.10 metres. It is believed to be quite old in that the island it sits in, an area known as Springs Wood, dates to medieval times. This Yew tree is a conifer native to Europe, and they can live quite easily for 600 years. Leaving the island and Yew tree we continued along the streamside footpath stopping for a few moments just before ‘Kate’s Island’ to photograph the house on the opposite side of the lake and its beautiful lawned gardens. I always have a few moments here just to admire the wood carving in the Oak tree alongside the bridge to the island, and to see if the crocodile is still hiding under the bridge. On the left a beautiful Japanese Snowball bush stood majestic as it changed into its autumnal colours, its leaves turning red with green veins. We continued our walk alongside the lake crossing the wooden bridge to the Millbank Pinetum. On the left we stopped to admire the Cherry Laurel bushes, laden with small Cherry like fruit with colours ranging from green, ruby red and black. Small clusters of pink coloured Cyclamen in full flower added extra colour under the bushes along with flowering Geranium Endressii with their tall lilac-coloured petals shimmering nicely in the light breeze. On reaching the Animal and Bird of Prey centre we turned left along the Dell, leading on to Birch Avenue, stopping occasionally to admire the flowering Hydrangeas, ‘Penny Mac’ in particular caught my eye, its pink and blue flower heads were large, and colourful. We sat on one of the benches close to the Jubilee Oak, planted to commemorate the Jubilee of King George V in 1935, and had a pleasant chat with an elderly couple who were visiting the Arboretum for the first time, they had travelled up from Kent the day before.  After leaving our friends we headed over to the ‘Catherine Parr Oak tree’ a spectacular English Oak, with a girth measuring 6.1 metres. This is another Veteran tree planted around the year 1534. We continued our walk, passing the Bothy and just around the corner the circular stone Sir John’s Memorial seat with a stunning California Incense Cedar set in the centre of the memorial. We continued our walk along Cherry Tree Avenue till we reached the Monument, by this time the sun was shining, and we had lovely views looking down the Main Avenue to the house and also looking along the Cypress Avenue. From here it is just a short walk to the Bandstand and Tearooms where we enjoyed a very pleasant brunch before we set off for home. Another lovely day out with Jenny, Meg and Gracie.