Tuesday and Thursday - abundance at Coombe Wood

I've been walking even more slowly this week - my toe is healing but my back has been even worse. Having to walk so slowly means I notice more of the changes - and what a lot of changes there have been in just a few days. Everything is growing so fast.

TUESDAY

It looked as if the spider was weighing this flower down.

This plant (red hot poker?) has grown unusually wide. It reminds me of the way children draw royal crowns. I can imagine one of these made as a soft sculpture - knitted top with fabric stem maybe.

 

 Tiny tufty flowers

I haven't noticed the inside of a pine cone before - the sun was shining on this one - it looks like a little cloven hoof inside each cone scale.

A friend had arranged to meet me. We had a drink in the courtyard of the Coach House Cafe before enjoying a walk in the afternoon sunshine.

The gardener was planting alyssum around the edges of the flower beds.

Happy bee

Love in a mist - what a crazy design - the middle reminds me of a jesters hat. This one is white with a blue middle

Close up of a blue one

What a lovely twist these buds have as they open.

 This little flower has pin stripes

 My friend noticed the pattern on these rhododendrons. 

Leopard print rhododendrons?

 Looking closer

I nearly missed these roses - hidden among other plants

There are some very strange flowers

 I love the colour of these peonies - like pink meringues.

Enjoying the sunshine

 Purple grasses

THURSDAY

Gunnera leaf unfolding

The pond was glittering in the sunshine behind the pink flowers.

The gardener was planting the bed nearest to the gates

Damsel flies flitted here and there and sometimes landed on a leaf for a while

A newly planted flower bed getting a good watering.

More love-in-a-mist - what a gorgeous blue

White love-in-a-mist 

Shaggy, frilly poppies with the sun shining through them

 Bee having a great time

 Bee leaving

Another bee arriving

Compact little flower just beginning to open around the edges

These look a bit like buttercups

Have you ever looked closely at the structure of grass seeds. I think these ornamental grasses are amazing.

Clouds of yellow flowers

The palm flowers have developed into seeds so quickly

Pink fluffy flowers - almost luminous in the sunshine

Gorgeous pink flowers like little umbrellas (from the buds that look like iced gem biscuits)

Foxgloves

The hellebore pods have dried, curled up and released their seeds

White fluffy blossom

These buds will turn into very strange flowers - I remember them from last year

Fabulous blue

More blue with a determined bee hanging on

Delicate little white flowers with pink middles - wish I could have got closer to them.

These are tiny hairy flowers - and each hair has a little black bobble on the end

The wild flowers are growing fast - this will soon be a mass of colour . . .

. . . but at the moment it's mainly big daisies

More grasses

The flower on this recently planted shrub caught my eye - as it hung like a big crumpled bell in the sunlight

The bees were having a fabulous time - there doesn't seem to be a shortage of bees at Coombe Wood/Gardens

Jerusalem sage flowers

Thank you for joining me. I hope you will look closer when you're out and about and enjoy the details in nature that we usually miss when we are hurrying along in life.