After storm Katie (a Coombe Wood walk)

After a very blustery night with a lot of rain which has flooded the end of our garden again, the sky cleared and I went to Coombe Wood, There were a lot of small branches down in the road on the way but I wasn't expecting to see a whole tree lying across the car park.

From the other side

Broken trunk

Bent fence

Inside the gates apart from some broken branches and twigs the storm damage didn't look too bad. I didn't go right up into the woods though because there were still some strong gusts of wind making quite a loud noise in the trees and I was concerned that anything that was loose might still fall down

Plants by the pond - dripping with orange and red

Magnolias opening now

A few broken plants in the prairie beds

Others were bent and might recover

Some pine branches down

The banana plant protection has come adrift again

Many clusters of wrinkled red berries have blown down

 Some branches are broken but haven't fallen off yet

White seeds with red tufts are forming inside the remains of the witch hazel flowers

Patches of blue sky appeared and disappeared rapidly as clouds moved quickly across the sun

There are a few bluebells

A dent in the ground where the branch fell

Plants that smell of onions

The range of colours in these emerging leaves amazes me. Deep red to start with, they go through various shades of pinks and yellows before finally become green

Branches and twigs on the lawn . . 

. . . and on the paths

Buds against patches of blue sky

 A couple of these shrubs have been cut into ball shapes - their orange flowers peep out

Bright colours

 As well as branches and twigs the storm has brought down a vast amount of  tiny yew flowers

The fallen tree is just the other side of the hedge to the right of this picture

Some of the bulrushes have been blown down - others are leaning . . .

but quite a few are still upright and I think they look fabulous with the sun shining through their fluffy seeds

The little flower by the pond has opened more

Most of the algae that was covering the pond on my last visit has been beaten into submission by the torrential rain and blown to the edges leaving the water clear again.

The young willow leaves are showing a lot more now

One of the gunera leaves is opening

more are on their way

The leftover algae and duckweed has collected around the gunera

but most of the rest of the pond is clear and was reflecting the blue sky and fast moving puffy white clouds

Thank you very much for joining me