Thorp Perrow Arboretum

I planned to visit Thorp Perrow Arboretum, near Bedale, during the autumn, as the colour there is usually magnificent. I went last year in November, a little too late for most of the acers, many of which had shed their leaves by then. So I planned an earlier date this year. Sadly, the weather on my chosen day was dreary, with constant drizzle interspersed with heavier showers. Not what was forecast! The overcast skies, however, do cut down the glare so that it's arguable that the colours actually look better and more saturated. The damp was a bit energy-sapping, I have to admit. I was saturated too! I retired to the café after a while, to dry out with coffee and cake, so that perked me up again.

There are few places locally with the range of colour that Thorp Perrow offers. The trees are a mix of native and exotic, collected by the owners of Thorp Perrow Hall since the 1800s and developed into an arboretum by Sir Leonard Ropner from 1931. It is now considered to be one of the UK's finest arboretums. 

The several long avenues of native trees had not really started to turn colour, though there was a carpet of dead leaves underfoot. 

Not many flowers make it through to this time of year - and Thorp Perrow isn't big on flowers anyway, being an arboretum rather than 'a garden' - but patches of autumn flowering cyclamen had been naturalised around some of the trees. They look such a delicate plant but they are surprisingly hardy.

I can go a bit giddy on taking photos in these surroundings, so I'll be showing you more over the coming days! Feel free to scroll past...