Monday morning sunshine and tree trouble (Coombe Wood)

A carpet of cyclamens are growing behind the wire mesh fence and spilling out onto the path beside the car park.

 Pushing the camera through the mesh I managed to get a closer view.

The gardener was setting up a sprinkler. He told me that he has won another gardening award. This one is a BALI National Landscaping Award. Very well deserved!

The gardener also told me that a large branch has fallen from the big beech tree, damaging the hedge as it fell across the herbaceous border and crushed quite a lot of plants.  A couple of branches have fallen down elsewhere as well (e.g. the behind the little shelter). The council has been notified and the gardener is waiting for someone to come and remove them.

The pond was beautifully clear today. 

The large rose-hips.

 Spiders have gone crazy.

The threads glistened rainbow colours in the sunlight.

 The sunlit pathway looked so inviting. 

I thought these were berries forming but when I clambered up the bank to have  closer look I discovered that they are little bell shaped flowers.

 Bright splash of sunlight on tiny acer leaves and seeds.

 I heard the leaf blower and saw the gardener working in the Cafe courtyard below.

On towards the prairie beds. Contrasts of the purple tall and slender flowers against the yellow blanket of out of focus yellow flowers.

Soft grasses wafting in the gentle breeze. 

Golden Rain Tree pods.

Inside one of the pods. 

I was sitting on the bench under the Golden Rain Tree stroking one of the cats when the gardener passed by, clearing leaves.

There's not many flowers left on this delicate plant now.

Bees coming in to land. 

I squeezed my way along the pathways between the overflowing prairie planting, ignoring the bees, remembering my uncle saying "They're much more interested in the flowers than they are in you" and stood in the middle surrounded by the tall plants.  

Soaking wet orange petals and wonderful curly centre.

Two very wet red flowers - the lower one with a halo of yellow, the top one covered in perfect curls.

Sunlight through grasses and stems, creating stripes.

A bee, with very ragged wing edges, on a yellow flower. It's surprising how damaged their wings can be yet they can still fly.

Close up of more neat curls. 

White clouds moving away across the sky.

It was very warm in the sunshine. 

There are such a lot of different grasses - and now some of them are changing colour. Pinks getting pinker and some green ones becoming more and more bleached.

Looking closer at the grasses. 

In front of the zebra grass there are some longs stems with fluffy seed heads.

I haven't noticed these leaves before. Each each stem has more little stems growing symmetrically from each side with leaves each side of them, which overlap making interesting patterns. 

 My first sighting of a fallen acorn. 

The shrub that had died, that was covered in gorgeous red and russet brown leaves has been cut down and cleared away now. There are a few of the lovely richly coloured leaves left on the ground.

 I heard horses hooves and just caught sight of two riders through the fence.

I came to the beech tree with the broken branch. The gardener had told me it was a large branch that had come down but I hadn't appreciated quite how large it was.

There are several places where the branch has snapped.

 I love the curls on the lower teasels. 

 Wild carrot seed head - pinky green claws. 

Mystery plant in the wild flower area - some new green "flowers" are still coming along among the ones that have turned brown and are forming seeds.

 Thistle seeds in the sunlight.

The beech branch that has fallen across the hedge into the herbaceous border.

It's absolutely covered in beech nuts. 

The person who told me the cosmos flowers were coming to an end now was a little mistaken - there are loads more.

Bee-like creature.with lovely honey coloured base to its wings.

Turning around and showing its rear end and the yellow stripe all around the sides.

 Turning further - from the front, showing its strange snout. 

 Grasses like cascading fireworks. 

Hoverfly. 

Seeds.

 Water spray like a thick mist. 

A breeze lifted the arched grasses so they were all blowing in the same direction.

 These seeds have opened further to the tip. 

 Back to the pond. 

Thank you very much for joining me.