First Walk In A Month

I mentioned briefly in a previous post that I'd been having a few medical issues and hadn't been out of the house since before Christmas. It actually turned out that the last decent walk I had was on the 8th of December when we went Back To The Canal. I didn't go out walking again until Friday the 29th of January. Don't worry though, Mick made sure that Archie had some nice walks whilst I was somewhat incapacitated.

Mick's got quite a lot of holidays to take before the end of March. He didn't take many last year with things as they were, we didn't go away anywhere, so he decided to take Friday off. We decided to go to Temple Newsam. It was mild after days of heavy rain, so although it wasn't cold, it was very muddy.

As we're in our third lockdown at the moment, I thought it would be much busier than it was as we visited during the afternoon but it does seem as though many children are still in school. There's a primary school round the corner from us and it's still busy at drop off and pick up times.

It's unusual for me to get photos at Temple Newsam without people in them. This grassed area is usually very busy during the summer months, it's used for picnics, exercising dogs or family games. Even in winter there's usually many more dog walkers around than there was on this day.

Can you see the pathway through the trees? This is the path we use when we approach Temple Newsam from a different direction and walk through the woods. I wrote about this in my Holiday Week post back in 2019.

The formal gardens look quite desolate during the winter months. The arbours are covered in laburnum which look fabulous when they're flowering.

It's nice to see signs of spring around though, there were snowdrops flowering and daffodils poking their way through the earth which will be blooming before too long.

Archie enjoyed his walk. He's looking very woolly bearish again at the moment as his groomer isn't working during lockdown. I'm hoping he doesn't have to wait too much longer for a trim as it does seem to make him feel better when he's not carrying a fur coat around with him.

We found a painted stone. I know many people leave these in places to brighten people's day but it's the first one we've ever come across. We left it there so that it will bring a smile to someone else's face.

It was so good to get outdoors in the fresh air again. It's been quite hard over the last month or two, but I always find a walk or even a drive out can make me feel a little better.