Coombe Wood with "birthday buddies".

Yesterday I met a friend at Coombe Wood for lunch and a very enjoyable walk together and we were joined later by another friend for a cuppa and cake, and another lovely walk. All three of us were born in the same year and the same month - our birthdays are 10 days apart. For a number of years we have marked the occasion by doing something together. 

I was surprised to see how much further the Aliums have come out in just one day.

It was pretty blustery and the plants were waving about a lot which made it quite hard to get a good photo - I deleted loads of blurry ones. I think the leaves of the golden rain tree look lovely against that patch of blue sky.

 This plant has dainty heart shaped leaves on delicate flexible red stems.

Puffy white clouds sped by. The sound of the breeze in the trees was like the sea and the feel of the blustery wind reminded me of coastal walks I have enjoyed in the past.

 A fence protects a young and tender red acer from the deer.

The gardener told me this is a Judas tree. It has fabulous blossom. 

The woods are transforming completely, almost from day to day. The red acer is springing into life again.

Bleeding hearts. 

A very good plant for the gardens at Coombe Wood - apparently they're deer resistant. 

Layers - looking across the flower beds at the tulips and underplantings of forget-me-nots. 

 This tulip looked as if it had been marbled.

On my Bank Holiday Monday blog post I talked about parents allowing their children to run riot in the flower beds, yesterday I saw something quite different. Two young boys were chatting with the gardener while he mowed. I've seen one of the boys many times enjoying Coombe Wood with his mum. She is fabulous at allowing her son to have great fun while he is learning about the plants, birds and animals. I hope that the enjoyment the boys were obviously having chatting to the gardener as he mowed will help increase their love of gardens and gardening too perhaps. 

When I got home a package was waiting for me. My lovely camera has come back - mended under warranty. I can't wait to get out and take photos on it again but today hasn't been that kind of day for various reasons. 

Thank you very much for joining me.