Plenty to brighten a dull morning

It was quite dull this morning when I headed off for my walk but the birds really were in good voice - it's very cheering to hear their exuberant songs. I was surprised that the plants didn't seem to look battered after the heavy rain we've had over the past few days.

Berries by the pond

The back of some fern leaves 

This is a fern I'm more familiar with. I didn't notice the gorgeous curls of last year's leaves on the ground to the left until I looked at the photos on the computer. The papery curls remind me of rolls of caps from a cap gun I had when I was a child.

Lovely red coloured tips on these ornamental grasses

This yellow flower really stood out against the reds and oranges in the background

I've lasted till my sixth picture before talking about the middle of a flower. Just look at this . . . there are so many different things happening. What an incredible structure  

Stepping back to see the wider view

From a distance I thought maybe some branches had blown down but when I got closer I could see that it was bamboo which had been cut and placed there. Perhaps the gardener was working somewhere nearby and was going to remove the leaves and use the bamboo to support something.

Standing under my favourite acer. The leaves are turning red and the winged seeds have grown quite a bit

Further along the path I saw that the heart shaped leaves are more colourful now than when I last noticed them - and water droplets were glittering on some of the more horizontal leaves

The spiders have been active all around the garden. I'm interested in these berries - I would like to follow the whole process from flower (which I have photographed) till the berries open and the seeds drop out - but I didn't manage to get a good photos of the seeds last autumn. I think most of the berries probably get eaten by birds before they get to that stage.

These berries look like tiny limes to start with, then they blush and go pink and eventually turn bright red

The long poppy and wild flower bed has almost finished flowering. There are plenty of poppy seedpods . . .

 . . . and a couple of poppies still flowering. I was surprised to see a yellow spider on this one. I've seen creamy white spiders and a lime green spider among the poppies at Coombe Wood before but this was the first yellow one I've seen

The petals of this wildflower seem to have melted away and left only their skeletons

A different view of the prairie beds - taken from under the golden rain tree

A wild flower - or some would say a weed - but what a structure. Each seed has a parachute of hairs - similar to a dandelion but with a much shorter stem between the seed and the parachute. From this angle it reminds me of a very hairy caterpillar.

This is the flower I think - it looks very fragile and translucent around the edges. Between each petal is a tiny green filament

Stepping back again and looking across the long poppy and wildflower bed towards the hut

A bee coming in to land - it already has very full pollen paniers

Some flowers are very strange. This one seems to be becoming even more prehistoric . . .

. . . and as for this one - it even looks as if it has a mouth

Two incredibly small butterflies (or moths) I nearly fell into the flowerbed trying to get this photo

Allium seed head

A mass of pink flowers

The gardener at work - making neat stripes on the lawn

When I get a close look at a bumble bee I'm always surprised how furry they are. This one had a lot of pollen grains on its head. A string of pollen grains is draped at the bottom right of the flower centre - stuck on a spiders web

Tiny flowers - no idea what they are. I do wish I was more knowledgeable about flower names

The gardener called out to me and told me that the bees were particularly active today and asked if I wanted to come and see them. The hives are in a private area of the gardens, protected with fine netting which is probably about six feet tall. The bees come and go over the top of the netting. They were congregating at the entrance to their hive - on their "doorstep" - with their pollen sacks full. I can see where the term hive of activity comes from. Unfortunately I couldn't get a good photo of them over or through the netting - but I'm very glad I saw it.

The love-in-a-mist seedpods are beginning to go papery

I hadn't noticed before that the leaves of this purple flowering plant have purple veins

Plenty of bee activity (or should I say stripy black and yellow insect activity) on these shaggy pink pom pom flowers

Looking closer - this one might be a hover fly

Reflections in the pond

Thank you very much for joining me