Coombe Wood Walk on Thursday morning

No sunshine today - the sky was washed with grey but a cheerful view greeted me as soon as I went in the gate

Orange flowers by the pond - petals beginning to fall off

Some of them have already turned into seed pods

The pond was a little cloudy again. 

Around the corner I was sad to see that many of the big leaves had been ripped apart

and the bits floated in the stream the other side of the path. There's no way they got there accidentally

I walked on enjoying the peace and thinking how amazing it is that the rumble of the traffic and drone of a distant machine seem to be swallowed up by the silence so that all I really notice is the intermittent birdsong. I noticed a few yellow flowers that have come out since my last visit

and had a closer look at the tiny little fluffy looking flowers - such delicate pink with deeper pink middles

Shiny red rosehips

and other red berries

Variegated berberis

Nasturtiums twining around the railings - looking like a design for stained glass

I had said I would have a closer look at these. Some have yellow middles and some have pinky red middles. I wondered if the red middles were further developed than the yellow ones

This seemed to be confirmed by a spray of buds and partially opened flowers - none had red middles

These are looking even more shaggy now - but they still have those precise little double curls which are more visible around the edge of the sphere

Beautiful drifts of flowers in the prairie beds

As I sat on a bench I heard children's voices and a lady appeared pushing a little girl in a buggy, accompanied by three lively boys running here and there, with sticks in their hands, their insistent voices shouting -"Mummy, Mum, MUM look at me" Mum look at this." etc. They vanished up the hill. I could still hear their voices, and the sound of children's feet on the wooden floor. One of the boys climbed up a tree shouting "Mummy, mummy, look at me look how high I am."

I continue walking disappointed to see beheaded flowers lying on the grass

 Looking closer at a flower middle - what an amazing structure

- I noticed a little white spider hiding between the petals

A few of the Beautyberries (Callicarpa) are beginning to turn purple.

Little star shaped seed pods

I hear a boy shout "look look - there's a secret pathway" as he leaps into a gap in a flower bed followed by another child and I worry about the plants getting crushed as I continue walking and the children's voices fade into the background - 

Orange berries

The woods were dark today - no sunlight through the leaves

but although there's no sunshine the top of the big acer tree looked amazing

I sat down again - my thoughts wander. I'm thinking about the children again and I wonder if I feel so defensive about the garden because I've met the gardener and I know how hard he works. I can imagine how it must make him feel to see plants crushed and flowers decapitated

Some of the cornus fruits are very red now

And these little deep red flowers catch my eye too

A hover fly - their exquisite markings fascinate me

Sedum

On my last visit  these were yellowy fluffy grass like plumes - now red disc-like seed pods have formed

I can't help myself - I stood for ages photographing these starry-middled flowers. Little star shapes emerging from bigger star shapes. Incredible

This one is about to happen

Distracted for a moment by pink flowers and buds

then back to the starry middles again 

Various slightly different stages. Such an amazing design - it blows me away!

Splashes of red between allium seed heads

 Wonderful symmetrical patterns

 Wild carrot "nest"

 A sea of yellow and orange

A slightly different view of the flower beds nearest to the gate

Blue flowers with white tipped petals

Perhaps the rain that is forecast will sort this out as it is only a light film across the surface of the pond

Thank you very much for joining me