Catching up

Thanks to some lovely friends, I was away last week camping at New Wine which is held at The Royal Bath and West Showground, Shepton Mallet, Somerset. It's a massive interdenominational church event with loads going on. I found it extremely challenging physically - particularly as it was wet, muddy and very slippery for the first part of the week. I needed to sleep a lot and wasn't able to manage to do as much as I would have liked to but it was still excellent and I'm so glad I was able to go. I didn't manage to take many photos - my camera is draining the batteries when turned off and I had no way to recharge.

I got back in the early hours of Saturday morning and spent the weekend catching up on mountains of damp, musty, muddy washing.

On Monday I headed for Coombe Wood again - camera batteries fully charged.

Colourful plants have spread out and are filling the flowerbeds

There are various little flower spikes bursting out on bushes along the path up to the steps (maybe varieties of buddleia?) . . . some like little fluffy pompoms others like spiky bottle brushes

Turning the corner from the top of the steps I walked on towards the prairie bed. My goodness - a lot more flowers are open there - what a riot of colour and it's lovely to see so many bees

I love these pink flowers. I have some of my own in a tub - a gift from Cornwall from neighbours thanking me for watering their pots and tubs while they were away. They look really lovely in a big clump in the prairie bed - I hope my little clump spreads.

I really like the colour combination of the purply round spiky blue flowers next to the tall red flowers with the yellowy orange flashes of colour behind.

These were covered in bees

I like the curls as the spiky petals open and make the balls look softer and fluffier

Allium seed heads

This flower caught my eye because it was bobbing about as the bumble bee feasted on it

Bright flowers with fascinating middles . .

Smaller flowers in various stages of opening

More happy bees

The orangey yellow flowers stood out well against the dark blue in the background

Bright yellow flower with very neatly gathered petals attached to a beautifully patterned middle. I'll be watching these to see what happens next to the middles.

Sunflower with orange and red streaked petals and wonderful seeds developing

A profusion of little lilac coloured rounded bells

and even more happy bees

Spiky flowers 

Poppy seed head

There are still wild poppies in the wild flower bed - with more buds ready to open

Slim pink petals and a massive middle - I must have a closer look at the middle next time

 Such a gorgeous delicate pink - against those lovely neat yellow and green middles

and even more happy bees (or striped insects - I can't tell the difference) These have lovely stripes

This one looks as if it's wings are far too small but they worked fine

and this one is tiny

Interesting twisty seed pods developing

Poppy seed heads - with their hairy stems catching the light

Tiny flowers almost lost among the folliage - I haven't noticed these before

It looks as if these growing tips of this little plant have been dipped in purple dye

Splashes of colour

I went to Coombe Wood again on Wednesday morning to meet my sister and one of my daughters. I didn't take many photos on that trip because we spent most of the time chatting in the cafe courtyard and we only had a very short walk but here are a few that I took that day to end with.

The Golden Rain tree showing why it has that name. 

There certainly were a lot of very busy bees around again

Evidence of a celebration

I love the colour of this agapanthus

This little bees pollen paniers seem extremely full

As we were nearing the gate to leave I noticed these little blue flowers with splashes of white which caught the light.

Thank you very much for joining me.