Natural illuminations at Coombe Wood

Another very slow walk but with a lot less coughing today

The freshly dug soil was steaming in the sunshine

Droplets of water sparkled on leaves

The tree strawberries (Arbutus Unedo  - which the gardener told me means 'eat only once' because you wouldn't go back for a second one because it is said that they don't taste very nice) have rough surfaces that look as if they have been sugar frosted. The red berries mature at the same time as the next lot of flowers are being produced. According to Wikipedia the fruit tastes a bit like a fig but some people find it bland and tasteless - but there are photos of Arbutus cakes on Google

Red flower spikes in the sunlight 

A large party of school children arrived soon after me and headed towards the cafe. I was somewhat surprised to see one of the grown ups from the group go off on his own with a pair of secateurs cutting bits and pieces from here and there. I feel guilty if I occasionally pick one berry or leaf to examine more closely

The sunlight illuminated another batch of honesty pods almost ready to drop their seeds

A delicate little mushroom lay on the grass, its fluted edge decorated with tiny water droplets

Colourful leaves and tiny flowers underneath the banana tree. No banana flower photo today - it hadn't changed since my previous post - apart from the snail having left its shelter under a petal

The beauty berries (Callicarpa) are much plumper and are like shiny dark purple pearls now

Dew drops sparkling on fiery leaves

Many of the puff ball mushrooms have burst and spread their spores

A few still have swollen centres almost ready to pop

The neat pattern at the centre of the Australian pine leaves

I'm surprised how many different kinds of winged seeds there are. I used to think they were just sycamore seeds - then I discovered that acer seeds were like miniature versions - and there are these too which hang in clusters.

Spindle berries in the sunshine again

More Autumn colours in the sunshine - with glittering water droplets and strands of webs

Sparkling spiders web

Illuminated red grass

More spiders webs

The gardeners cart-wheelbarrow. I wondered what he was doing today

By the lawn - flowers backlit by the low sun

Aha - that's what the gardener was doing this morning - using the rotavator to prepare the beds for bulb planting

Workmen were putting up scaffolding ready for roof repairs on the toilet block. The gardener told me that they had been delayed because a tree had needed to be pruned before they could get their scaffolding up

Rotovating

By the pond

Looking closer at the seed pods - delicate colours

The tiny moss 'flowers" look as if someone has plugged each orange trumpet with a little yellow bung

I lingered at the pond watching huge dragonflies skimming across the surface dipping and darting about. No photos of dragonflies though - they weren't settling anywhere today

Thank you very much for joining me