Ups and downs

It was lovely to see a pair of ducks on the pond at Coombe Wood this morning. 

The frost was melting quite quickly.

I went up the hill into the woods.

It was lovely to see the sunshine through the trees.

I had arranged to meet my daughter and three grandchildren. They joined me at the top of the hill. My my grandson found me first, hiding behind a tree. We all climbed a few more hills together looking for interesting things. My elder granddaughter found these delicate little bracket fungi.

After examining all the shelters (see an earlier post) and running up a few hills (the grandchildren, not me - I didn't manage any running) they left me to continue my walk on my own.

The sky was a beautiful blue. The remaining few golden rain tree pods shone in the sunlight.

One of the resident cats sunned itself on the bench. 

I like the cat's shadow on the back of the bench.

Snowdrops again! 

Some little flat brown mushrooms growing between the snowdrops near the hut.

Further disintegration of the Korean pine cones. I like the bobbles that have been left at the top of some of them. You only have to brush against the cones gently and they fall apart and the seeds scatter.

Sheltered by a shrub the frost melts slowly on clumps of snowdrops 

Looking up into the trees

Low winter sunshine and long shadows. 

Sun on the old fern fronds

I stopped to enjoy the robin singing and caught sight of it up in the tree. I stood and watched and took photos for quite a while. I often wonder how such a loud song comes from such a little bird.

Unfortunately I had a frustrating afternoon at the eye clinic. I've had to change back to the eye drops I was on before because the new ones didn't work.

The sunset this evening cheered me up though.

Thank you for joining me.