LITTLE ARTY JOURNEYS: Abundant growth (Coombe Wood)

It was a slow and very careful walk this morning because I was recovering from a migraine. The vision loss from about 8.45pm yesterday evening had cleared by the morning but I was left with a headache which was worse when I tilted my head, as well as a bit of a balance problem. The gentle walk helped to clear my head.

I saw the gardener at the gate and he told me he hoped the pump would be mended today.

Gunnera by the pond

"What on earth have they done to the pond?" a passer-by comment to the person he was with - obviously thinking that neglect or worse was responsible for the green slimy surface. The cause is the broken pump and the amount of time the council has taken to get it repaired. Hopefully very soon the waterfall will be working again and there will be lovely clear reflections again.

Tiny alpines smaller than daisies - such a shine on their dainty petals

Little red trumpets

Wide open pink petals basking in the lovely sunshine

Gorgeous blue

A shock of yellow stamens

Delicate cloud of tiny white flowers

Pure white, a circle of yellow and a pearl like centre

Iris - incredible patterns

Tiny green beetle on the little pink flower.

Something landed on my arm. Usually I brush insects off straight away but this time I paused to check what it was and was surprised to see that it was one of the green beetles

Daisies scrambling over a wall

Acer seeds

Love-in-a-mist

Anyone who has read my blog before knows that I'm fascinated with the details of flowers, specially their middles

These flowers look as if they have seams

Acer and bee

Silvery leaves with flower buds that were barely visible - but this one is beginning to show yellow petals

A net of spiders webs hung under the palm flowers catching the petals as they drop

Under the palm tree - rust coloured ferns are still uncurling

Looking closer at the palm flowers

Standing back - palm tree and banana tree

Korean pine cones. Some look midnight blue - where the inner bit has overtaken the "petals" - you can see a few petals sticking our lower down these cones like little tongues

Cones in varying stages of development

On a plant with narrow palmate dark leaves, pink frothy flowers are opening

The rhododendrons are on their way out now - but there are still quite a lot to enjoy

So many shades of pink

These light green leaves were red a little while ago

Little heart shaped leaves

Although a lot of rhododendron petals have fallen there are still quite a lot of flowers left

These are the leaves that will be really big soon

A lot of the scented yellow azaleas have finished now - petals dangle and sway in the breeze

I wondered if the top of the Australian pine.would recover - it didn't look as if it was in a good way but it has sprouted very recently

Standing under trees looking up at the leaf patterns with the sun shining through

Red acers

Showers of winged seeds hanging from the branches

These flowers showed up a lot more today with the sun shining through them

Multicoloured acer leaves

Some rhododendron shrubs are still full of flowers

Happy bees

Yellow rhododendron

Long grasses and wild flowers

Yellow rose in a patch of sunlight

Bright orange

Another happy bee

Beginning of the spindle berry flowers

Why so many photos of the same things? Subtle colour differences - and also if you move a little you get a different background - a mass of out of focus leaves, some other coloured flowers etc. and I like the different contrasts of colour and texture.

A few more irises