Bonus walk in Coombe Wood

I was expecting to host an art group meeting today but for all sorts of very good reasons no one could come . . . so I popped off for a bonus walk in Coombe Wood.

Alliums

Love-in-a-mist

Happy bee

Tender new leaves against the wonderful blue sky

More alliums

Grassy pathway to the tropical corner and Korean pine trees

More of the palm flowers are opening

Tropical corner

Row of Korean pine cones

Avenues of colour

If only you could smell these yellow azaleas

Some are starting to fall - but they don't fall off completely - they dangle until the wind and rain knocks them down

Sunlight through leaves

A week or two ago these pale leaves were fiery red

Beginning of the huge leaves - I'm still waiting to see the amazing blossom I have been told will appear

Another avenue of colour. I met two ladies with two small children who were enjoying picking up the fallen trumpet-like rhododendron flowers and threading them onto sticks

The onion scented plants have nearly all flattened to the ground - their green berries shone in the sunlight

Little pink trumpets

These were like little round pom poms a while ago - now they're like bristly bottle brushes

Seed pods forming in the centre of the tree peonies

More seed pods - all that's left of the hellebore flowers

Luscious greens with a little pop of red in the middle

Rust coloured leaves

Tiny flowers- tiny leaves

The top flower bed has been cleared of its spring planting

This might be a firework allium - it's shorter and much chunkier than the previous ones shown

This one is ridiculously tall

Orange poppy

Fabulous blue - is the pollen blue too?

Bleeding hearts in the sunshine

More blue - lovely veining 

A "flock" of dark allums

The first white iris - complete with passenger

A closer look at the green and shiny creature

I can't resist another photo of an allium opening 

And here come the big poppies

Little orange flowers floating about the foliage

Yellow poppy centre

The last allium for this time. Look how neatly they open

A mass of yellow flowers tumbling over the low retaining wall of one of the raised beds

Half of another flower bed has been cleared. I'm very interested to see what will come next

Thank you very much for joining me