Colourful walk at Coombe Wood

Another careful walk because I'm having some balance problems.

As I arrived I heard the clopping of hooves and turned to see two riders passing by, pausing a little way back from the junction while a vehicle with a siren passed by and then continuing on their way.

The pond was the greenest that I have seen it - although the pump has been mended and is working now. Perhaps it's a case of getting worse before it gets better

Last week the red version of these were out - they have almost finished and now the orange ones are coming out

The little stream is greener than the pond

Big crinkly leaves with frilly edges

Overlapping ferns

Branch wearing moss like a sleeve

Tall stems with little yellow flowers on

Foxgloves - tiny silvery hairs catching the light

I really like the dark veins on petals, the pinks and purple combination of the flower middles and the soft fluffy centre

Cone shaped yellow buds opening - masses of stamens

Pale lilac coloured froth of petals

Health and safety! Is this allowed?

Jagged narrow leaves 

Bee on a big daisy among the wild grasses. 

Irises in front of the plant with dangling red lantern like flowers

Contrasts - colours, leaf shapes and textures

Acer seeds - very red

Tiny plant that looks like a mini azalea

My index finger - to show scale

Among the grasses - like showers of yellow hundreds and thousands

Yellow flower near the banana tree

Patterns - dandelion head against hessian

Frothy pink flowers on tall shrub with dark narrow leaves

A little further on I noticed that a leafy plant has sprouted tiny bell shaped downy flowers

There are still some rhododendrons left

Cascades of tiny flowers

If I hadn't stopped to photograph the previous flowers I wouldn't have noticed these yellow spheres

 Acer leaves and seeds

Dark patterns on rhododendrons

Chocolate markings on pale pink rhododendrons

The "blossom" on the tree which will have very big leaves is barely visible . . .

. . . but some have fallen down. This one was almost 3 inches long and is covered in downy hairs

Australian Pine - mentioned on Gardeners World this evening in a section about prehistoric plants (Wollemia)

The cone - it's only got one

The red lantern shaped flowers looking up from underneath

Shaggy white flowers

This yellow flower was just a pale green hairy bud a little while ago - now open and providing a feast for a bee

Some plants catch a few droplets of water but these have robust cupped leaves and gather little pools of water

Strange wild grasses

The top flower bed has its summer planting now - including marigolds, sunflowers and abutilons

Shaggy poppies - I love the colour

Abutilon

Top flower bed from the other end

The later alliums seem to be quite a lot bigger

Having never seen these green beetley bugs before I keep coming across them this year - in yellow poppies . . .

and in orange poppies today

Bee landing on allium

Back to the pond. I wonder how long it will take for the balance to be restored and the water to clear

Next to the willow tree there's a tree with showers of tiny buds on it

The gunnera seems to have grown several inches each time I visit

Thank you very much for joining me