Spring sunshine - Coombe Wood

A beautiful morning in spite of the showers that were forecast

Gorse by the cattle trough (near the alternative car park) 

This is the gunera leaf that was shown towards the end of my last blog post - lying on the water - now growing upright.

Evidence of the tree that came down in storm Katie

All that remains of the tree

A circle of skunk cabbage on its way (what a lovely name!) - a relative of the arum lily

Wondering if this is a mahonia or related to the mahonia

Sunlight through a fan of leaves

There are so many different types of catkins - these are quite shaggy and knobbly.

Buds bursting open everywhere

Mahonia berries - such a distinctive shape and no shine

The grass in front of the little shelter has been cut leaving the bank of daffodils and crocuses

Little blue flowers emerging from raspberry red buds

Pink magnolias 

Some of the trees still look bare

but looking closer they're all budding

There are even glimpses of blossom forming

Tiny white flowers along the edge of the daffodils

Sumach tree flower (I think) 

Looking closer at the flower - red spiky bobbles draped with glistening threads of spider's web

Pure white magnolias that open like stars

These magnolia buds may be dark pinky purple when they open

A few of the little dangling thread of white bell flowers were open. These had all been tightly shut on my visit a few days ago

To my surprise as I came around the corner there was a whole shrub of open flowers

so dainty and delicate

The light was in the right direction to get a photo of these seed pods on the tree today

I liked the criss crossing effect of the different kinds of tree, focused and unfocused against the blue sky

New acer leaves - and some flower buds too

Lots of tiny red flowers dangling under new leaves here

New shoots

Little white flowers and a very small yellow bee like insect

Tree peony bud

Clusters of pink flowers 

I can't resist another photo of these emerging leaves - lovely colour mixture

The wide lawn had been mowed. I could hear a machine like a mower in the distance. I could also hear what sounded like pheasants calling but didn't see any

I did catch sight of the gardener though

 More buds against the blue sky

Some of the buds glisten in the sunshine

Some tulips are beginning to show between the other plants in the flower beds near to the entrance. A few are beginning to open

Most are still just leaves showing between the other plants

 A different colour scheme in each flower bed

Spiders' threads glistened in the sunlight around the bulrushes

A curtain of weeping willow covered in new leaves

Thank you very much for joining me