Two Spring walks (Coombe Wood)

WALK 1: Thursday 21st April

A lovely warm sunny afternoon with a light breeze.

A tiny pale green spider was having a late lunch

Sunlight through mini tulips

Tiny acer leaves

We have one of these in our garden - not in such good condition though. The flowers are really tiny. I think it might have the word snow in its name but haven't been able to find out anything online about it.

This blossom is much larger

The gardener was cutting the edges of the grass and tidying flowerbeds

I keep being drawn back to the Korean Pine tree. I'm very interested in how different the flowers look. Some are orange/brown . . .

. . . some pale green ones which are in the process of turning red

and some look like tall raspberries

A tree overhangs the path further along. Its bare branches still have several big clusters of berries hanging on them

Underneath it a small tree is growing new leaves and tiny buds

The lily of the valley stems have shot up from under a leafy carpet

Magnolia in the sunshine

Bumble bee on a camelia

Delicate white bells with their flicked out skirts

Acer leaves on red stems

Leaves danced in eddies as the breeze caught them up and swirled them around.

The plants that smell of onions have developed clusters of round creamy berries with slightly pointed tops

Green acer with red acer behind it

From the other side - red acer with green acer behind it. There are so many tiny flowers on this red one

A cluster of tree peony leaves growing and spreading but still hiding the developing flower bud

Purple magnolia 

Beech tree flowers

A circlet of bright yellow petals around each tiny daffodil-like trumpet

The gardener working on another flower bed

Tiny red azaleas

Hawthorn buds 

Colourful flower beds

Fern uncurling

 Bedraggled bulrush

On the way home I came to some roadworks and temporary traffic lights. While I was waiting patiently I realised I was in just the right position to take a photo of some spheres of mistletoe. I've been meaning to go and find somewhere nearby to park so I could take a photo before the tree grows new leaves and hides the mistletoe. I wonder if I've ever been grateful for roadworks and temporary traffic lights before.  

WALK 2: Saturday 23rd

I was there by 10 past 8, first car in the car park and amazed that there was blue sky and sunshine again. It was much colder this time but I was quite surprised to notice that my breath hung in the air. There had obviously been some heavy rain in the night because quite a bit of tender new growth had been battered down to the ground from the tree tops. Leaves were shedding drops of water around me as the breeze shook them.

The low sunlight was dazzling, droplets of water that remained on the plants shone like diamonds. Photos weren't very successful till the sun lifted higher in the sky.

The new growth on the Golden Rain Tree stood out against the blue

Clouds danced across the sun changing the light minute by minute

Pink blossom

Cold fingers - I was very glad my gloves were still in my bag.

 The wood anemones were still in the shade and hadn't opened their petals yet

Thick cream waxy bells dangled in a patch of sunshine 

The banana plant is trying to escape from its winter protection

Leaves of the Lily of the valley plants have unfolded since my visit on Thursday

Showers of the delicate white porcelain-like bells

A close look at the Australian pine cone - there's just one weighing its branch down.

I stopped to do a very quick drawing of the "flower" of the onion smelling plant - water droplets from the plant made the ink smudge

A robin sang loudly above my head. Bees buzzed by and a dog was barking in the distance.

Fragile blossom trailed like lace across slim branches

and I breathed in the delicious scent of these tiny flowers once again

 Hawthorn blossom opening

Three trees. I don't know what the nearest one is, the second is the Golden Rain Tree and the third is the magnolia

 New shoots in the wide borders

Something else is on its way here

There will be beautiful marshmallow pink peonies here in late spring

 The flower beds near the gate

 Bulrush - seeds captured by a thread of spiders web

Colourful reflections in the pond 

Thank you very much for joining me