Three very little journeys and one short Coombe Wood walk.

JOURNEY NO 1. Sunday 11th December - to the top room. There have been so many lovely sunsets recently. This one was a glorious ever changing, long lasting light display.  

JOURNEY NO 2. To our garden yesterday evening. The moon had a halo.

JOURNEY NO 3. To the dentist this morning. I got there early having allowed extra driving time because of the train strike but the road was clearer than expected so I had a bit of spare time to wander and admire the mist.

JOURNEY NO 4. After the dentist - to Coombe Wood for a short walk.

Light reflecting from the fish made some of them look as if they were glowing.

Yellow flowers popping open in a little dark corner. 

It had been raining which made the rose hips even more shiny. Now that all the leaves are gone the tangle of thorny stems is easily seen. I wouldn't like to get entagled in this lot.

Figs.

Very clear tree reflection in the pond. 

I don't remember seeing the flowers on this plant this year but there are some berries so there must have been flowers. These berries have a matt surface almost as if they're frosted. The thorns are vicious.

Delicate red leaves peeping through another plant.

Little collections of fallen leaves have gathered on branches.

Red berries.

At the top of the steps tiny red and orange acer leaves. None left on the tree now - just winged seeds.

Mahonia buds showing. 

What a fabulous colour this leaf is. 

Such an abundant year for acer seeds. 

More berries. 

Ivy berries. I thought the little brown bits on top looked like tea pot lids.

Flower buds on a big shrub. 

Azalea buds. 

Wet pampas grass beginning to fluff up again in the breeze.

Spindle berries - many of the berries have dropped to the ground now leaving the outer pink flowers.

A few leaves left on these thorny branches. 

Passing one of the flower beds on the way back to the gate I noticed a broken mushroom which made me look closer at other things around it. The dead stems and leaves of the surrounding plants were covered in tiny hairs and every hair had a tiny droplet of water on it.

Nearby there were some more mushrooms. They were very round and mainly flat apart from a little mound in the centre which made them look like little sombreros.

A little further on a lot of the fern leaves had turned brown and collapsed to the ground. Lying on top of the brown carpet were two pale allium heads still managing to look like little firework explosions.

The bulrushes by the pond were looking very bedraggled.

 Two seem to have melded together. 

Looking across the pond I saw striking red and orange reflections - looking closer I realised that some of the wonderful red colour was from the rose hips I had looked at earlier.

I played with the focus for a little while - focusing on the reflection and then on the surface of the water.

Thank you very much for joining me.