Grey and breezy morning walk at Coombe Wood

A heron rose from beside the pond, disturbed by my arrival. I took a quick photo - only to discover that I had forgotten to put my settings back to normal after some experiments on Sunday evening with candles and the "creative shot" setting (multiple images with effects).  Creative shots - multiple images with effects - ha ha - blurred nonsense! The heron soared into the sky escaping my attempt to photograph it in flight yet again.

There was surprisingly little damage from the blustery weather we've had over the last couple of days - just a few twigs and small branches down.

The little red berries reminded me of tiny red balloons but with the neck of the balloons facing outwards.

Their matte surfaces are made shiny in places by the tiniest amounts of water. I hadn't noticed before that the leaves are mottled with deep red. The pale slender thorns are very sharp.

A few remaining leaves on the little acer at the top of the steps fluttered in the breeze.

Around the corner, the gardener was working in the prairie beds, tucking a few new plants in here and there. He is just visible in the middle of this photo.

Crocus leaves springing up. 

Looking up - grey sky - very few leaves left now.

The last remnants of colour have almost all drained out of the prairie plants - leaving bleached grasses, dark sculptural stems and seedpods and some green foliage.

Beech nuts and grey sky.

Close up of the hessian protection around the just visible cut down stems of the banana trees and protective straw layer.

It must have been crow day yesterday! All the crows were out and about - loudly calling to each other in their raucous voices.

Berries or buds against the sky? 

The blustery weather has torn down clumps of red berries and left them lying on the path to be trampled underfoot.

Catkin like growth on bare stems - (might be birch?) 

In the woods there's still some autumnal colour to enjoy. 

A few orange and yellow dappled leaves hang on for a little longer.

Around the corner two acers are still clothed in vibrant colour

Orange and yellow leaves remain on the lower branched of the the taller acer.

The smaller red acer. 

These leaves were dark red not long ago but have now turned brighter red, almost deep orange in places.

More puff ball mushrooms - the one on the left is over-ready to burst and throw its spores everywhere 

and this little one has been eaten by insects creating a little window. 

 Looking up again - lanky evergreens against the bare trees.

The red acer that had been so spectacular a couple of weeks ago only has a few leaves left now.

The ground underneath is covered in red leaves and peeping through are clumps of variegated leaves - I think they might be cyclamen.

Tall bare trees and grey sky.

Snakebark maple seeds blowing in the breeze. I found it very hard to take close ups yesterday - everything was moving about in the wind so much. The tall trees sounded like the waves splashing onto a beach.

The little bare tree almost in the centre is the one that had the red and orange spindle berries on. It looks so much smaller without its leaves. There are at least 3 or four other trees with different coloured spindle berries - pink ones - but they're a later variety - only a few of them have opened. The breeze was tossing them around so much that I didn't get a good photo.  

Wind blown grasses. 

Looking closer at their crinkly "hair". 

Darkened seed heads.

A different kind of grass - much fluffier. 

Some of the other spindle berries almost ready to open  - hanging down over the dying, bleached blonde grasses.

Shiny little oval berberis berries

Fish swimming among the weeping willow reflections. I couldn't see the darker fish till it showed on my camera. It's easy to see what attracts the heron - these fish would make a very tasty lunch for a heron.

Not many fluffy seeds left now in these narrow curly pods by the pond.

I turned for a last look at the garden before leaving. There is still quite a lot of green but the russets, reds and oranges are continuing to creep across the flower beds.

Thank you very much for joining me.