Theft and drizzle (Coombe Wood)

Judging by the weather forecast, today was supposed to be the best day of the week before the weather goes downhill again. It drizzled on and off for my walk.

Daffodils by the gate.

In the distance I could see the gardener clearing the paths.

A pair of ducks were swimming on the pond.

The gardener came and spoke to me - he is hoping that a duck platform will be built in the pond to make nesting safer for them.

Fish don't seem to mind swimming under ducks.

The gardener told me that the thief has been back twice and helped themselves to bedding plants. This must be so incredibly frustrating - specially as the gardens are being judged soon. I photographed the gaps towards the end of my walk.

Yellow skunk cabbage flowers

The ducks disappeared into the plants hanging over the pond.

Tiny vibrant red tulips - only a couple of inches tall.

Leaning daffodils with long orange trumpets.

 Small pale irises by the path.

Big flamboyant irises further back in the flower bed the other side of the path.

More miniature tulips

Tiny pink buds. 

Magnolia buds - not nearly as open as they are at Kew (my cousin went there on Saturday and took lovely photos of wide open magnolias.)

I was surprised to see that a tree that had been bare a few days ago was now covered in blossom. I walked along the mowed path at the back of the area to get a closer look which took me very close to the daffodils. I was in for quite a surprise. What had looked like an area of yellow was actually filled with many different kinds of daffodil - including these white ones with short, wide open, deep orange trumpets.

I've never been particularly interested in daffodils but this morning they overwhelmed me with their incredible variety of colours and shapes. Perhaps I've never really examined them closely before. 

Here's the tree with the white blossom 

and another kind of daffodil - this one has a wide and very frilly orange trumpet.

Close up of the white blossom.

Delicate white flowers. 

Heather

The tree with showers of creamy bells. 

 Strong scent from these. 

White delicate bells dripping. 

Pastel coloured Camellias 

 and shocking pink ones. 

The centre of this one looked as if it was illuminated.

Rhododendron buds. 

Hellebores still going strong. 

More tiny scented flowers. 

The garlicky smelling plants - strange tiered flowers.

Back to the flower beds near the entrance. Carpets of bright flowers.

Little pink bobbly flowers between the tulips.

Neat pink pompoms. 

Middles collecting little ponds of water. 

One of the gaps where plants have been stolen from.

Empty area near the entrance. 

This is what the flower bed should look like all over.

Mrs duck creating patterns on the pond. 

The willow tree was bare last time I was here but it is turning green now.

I thought it was all leaves making it look so green but looking closer they look like little catkins with just a few little leaves.

Thank you very much for joining me.