After a pretty wet and miserable weekend, Saturday it rained nearly all day and Sunday was cold with sleet showers on and off all day, I was pleased to get out of the house for a breath of fresh air so to speak. I had been out with Meg and Gracie earlier in the morning for a wet and muddy walk on Brayton Barff so after breakfast I packed the car and we all headed up to Bedale for a walk around the Arboretum at Thorpe Perrow. 

It is a steady fifty minute drive from home, up the A1 motorway to Leeming Bar service station where we took the turn signposted to Bedale.

It was approximately eleven o’clock as we parked the car in the car park at the entrance to the centre. M & G were quite excited in the back of the car so after putting the winter jacket on I took them for a quick walk on their long leads just to burn up some of their surplus energy before we went into the Arboretum itself. 

It was a cold morning, with patchy drizzle and sleet and a horrible dull grey sky. We checked in at the Tearoom and headed off over the little stream that runs through the Arboretum, turned right and followed the ‘Snowdrop Trail’ towards the ‘Bird of Prey Centre’. 

They have some twenty five different varieties of Snowdrop planted amongst the trees, most of them are in flower at the moment, forming huge swathes amongst the woodland floor and making quite a picture, especially on a dull and overcast day like today.

We continued walking alongside the lake, passing ‘Henry’s Island and Kate’s Island on the right, stopping every few minutes to admire the Snowdrops and the views across the lake. After reaching the Bird of Prey Centre we followed the path through the trees to the Holly Grove, along Birch Avenue to the Jubilee Oak. This was only our third visit to the Arboretum and on our previous visits we tended to stay around the lake area, so today from the Jubilee Oak we followed the Millennium walk to the Catherine Parr Oak. Keeping the fence line on our right we headed for the Bothy, after a brief look around we continued our walk along ‘Jenny’s walk’ turning right on the ‘Main Avenue’ to have a look at the monument. From the monument it is just a short walk back to the stream and tearoom. We put M & G into the car so they could have a snooze, whilst we headed back to enjoy the hospitality of the Tearoom.