LITTLE ARTY JOURNEYS: A walk in the sunshine on Monday (Coombe Wood)

Rain, showers, heavy rain and thunderstorms forecast for most of the week BUT there was a decent sunny spell yesterday morning which I made the most of.

The pond looked much clearer although there was a bit of green filmy stuff still floating near the edge

I like the way the outsides of these are so orange, even red in places but the insides are a soft peachy colour

Tiny yellow flowers. I might need to start taking a ruler with me to put next to things so I can show the scale of them. How tiny is tiny? These are very tiny.

Tall flower spikes next to the pond are beginning to open

These are tiny too - they look as if someone has hung little brussel sprouts all over the branches

Little pink flowers - salvias I think (and what size is little?)

I realised I'd forgotten to have a drink and needed to take some pills so I popped in the cafe and treated myself to a fruity tea which I drank in the courtyard. Some spectacular hydrangeas have come out since my last visit there (which was quite a while ago)

Clouds of delicate little flowers float at the edge of the raised beds

Tiny pansies spill from a window box

Going back into the gardens through the archway - hops clambering everywhere

Clematis middles

I'm amazed that these are still flowering

There's a large drift of these tiny stripy flowers now

Tall spikes of yellow flowers - they look very strange from the side

A pool of light washes the colour from the middle eryngium making it look silvery against the deep blue of the others

Green and red acer seeds shining in the sun

I would never think of putting lilac/purple against red but in nature it just seems perfect

Big clusters of buds about to burst open

Very strange flowers - curled upwards like partially extended party blowers

The gardener was strimming edges

These pinky lilac buds are unbelievably small - nearly as small as pin heads

The unidentified plant in the wild flower area with huge leaves at the bottom has grown progressively smaller and smaller leaves up its stem. Flowers are forming so hopefully it will be possible to identify it soon. It has rather a lot of small creatures on it

Two very different ladybirds and several ants on this flower

Some tall silvery headed grasses stand in a neat row nearby

Wild carrot - some have very pink buds and almost every tiny centre flower is deep pink

Among the quaking grass seeds there are pink flowers like little bottle brushes

A different hydrangea - what a mixture of colours - pink, lilac, cream etc.

More of that pinky lilac and red combination

Plumes of white flowers

Gorgeous blues with beautiful middles

Beautyberry flowers (Callicarpa)

Foxgloves

Showers of bells hung here not long ago, now seed pods are forming, each one with a spike on top

Patterns with branches in front of leaves with the sun shining through

Another different kind of hydrangea

This can't be a bee can it? Strange creature - about the size of a large bumble bee, with tattered stained glass like wings and a very shiny body

Dainty flowers like miniature foxgloves

A different acer - red seed pods with green wings tinged red

Delicate pink circle of big hydrangea flowers with a froth of open tiny raspberry and lilac flowers in the centre

Looking closer at some silvery-green, hairy grass seeds

and a wild carrot flower

Lavender

I love these delicate intricate flowers

Striking red and pink

Salvia hot lips

Gorgeous colour blue with a tinge of lilac (I wonder what you see when you look at this - I have recently discovered that I have become a bit colour blind in one eye because of damage to my eye so we may be seeing different colours!)

These were white and upright a while ago - now they're like the spokes of open umbrellas

The spindle berry flowers are spread like a lacy veil over the tree

A large pool of water has collected near the top of this flower spike and looked like big blob of mercury

Very small vibrant citrus coloured trumpets

Antirrhynums and grasses

Lilac spiky flowers

The gardener had swapped his strimmer for a leaf machine

Really tiny milky white flowers with raspberry anthers

Unusual delicate bell like white flowers - the gardener told me they are campanulas. I was surprised because all the campanulas I've seen before have been more sturdy