On a cold, misty and foggy morning we left home just after 9.00am for the one hours drive north for a walk around the Thorpe Perrow Arboretum on the outskirts of Bedale. Early Spring is always a lovely time of year to visit the Arboretum, despite the weather. Snowdrops and crocuses cover the woodland floor adding plenty of colour and mark an end to the cooler winter months, Cyclamen provide extra splashes of colour in small clusters dotted around under the trees. Emerging daffodils are just coming into flower and will replace the Snowdrops over the coming weeks. The arboretum has one of the finest and most extensive collections of naturalised daffodils in the North of England and in a couple of weeks’ time they should be at their best, weather permitting, covering huge swathes and avenues in the woodland.

We followed our usual route after leaving the tea room following the streamside walk, many of the shrubs and small trees were coming into blossom and provide lots of additional colour on this dull and murky morning. Passing Henry’s Island on our right we continued along the gravelled path, beautiful orange and violet coloured crocus covered both sides of the path as we headed to the lake, a pair of Mallards were busily patrolling the shallow water like a pair of security guards going about their business. We stopped to take the compulsory photograph of the main house with its reflections shimmering in the nearly flat calm water. A little further along we stopped to look at the intricate carving in the Oak tree whilst keeping an eye on the Alligator which had its eye on Meg and Gracie. Crossing the wooden bridge, we continued through the ‘Milbank Pineium’ till we reached the Bird of Prey centre where we headed left along a tree lined terrace towards the ‘Jubilee Oak tree,’ we sat and admired the flowering blossom on many of the surrounding trees and shrubs for several moments before heading over to the ‘Catherine Parr Oak tree’. It was looking quite dull and gloomy over towards the Bedale direction, fortunately the direction of the breeze kept the damp weather away from us.   A lone mute swan and a pair of Mallard ducks swam to the water’s edge of the small pool to say hello as we sat and admired the shape of the Catherine Parr tree on our left, I wonder what stories that tree could tell us? Continuing our walk, we headed over to the Bothy, stopping along the way to admire several of the trees and shrubs in full flower at this time. Huge swathes of Daffodils swayed gently in the mornings breeze as we headed over to the monument, the daffodils in this part of the woodland are still to flower but in a week or so’s time the area will be covered in a huge swathe of Daffodils. On leaving the monument it is just a leisurely five-minute walk back to the tea room, where we enjoyed a very pleasant brunch before heading home with two tired dogs in the back of the car.