Afternoon walk for a change (coombe Wood)

Bright sunshine and a slight breeze (and rain forecast for tomorrow) drew me to Coombe Wood this afternoon.

Flower beds filling out already.

Behind the pond along the beginning of the path that leads up and around above the Coach House Cafe courtyard I passed two young women with several small children. The children's bare feet were wet from paddling in the stream that runs near the path. A child approached me waving a stick festooned with dripping duckweed in front of him. Some of it landed on my foot.

While taking photos of the long leafy shadows on the duckweedy stream a sudden splash startled me as a child stepped into the green stream.

 The sky was amazing,. Today was definitely a day for looking upwards.

In the middle of a path one of the cats had found a shady spot created by a tall hedge.

So many different greens and browns in these allium seed heads.

A veil of seeds on the tall slender grasses. 

Hammering noises in the hut as two men were removing the badly damaged front which is rotten in places.

Sky patterns. This one reminded me of geometry and alternate angles etc. - which was about the only bit of maths I actually understood and enjoyed at school.

I found the shadows in the middle of this flower, as well as the actual flower fascinating.

Golden rain tree flowers opening showing little yellow petals. 

These yellow flowers (could be kniphofias) have grown quite a  bit since my last visit.

The hut looks strange with the doors and windows removed from the front.

The bright sunshine illuminated patches of leaves (caterpillars and other leaf eating insects have been busy).

Seed pods developing fast. 

Tiny acer leaves

I thought all these flowers had gone but noticed that there were still several at the top.

Cornus flowers (the green bobbles) 

Plants in the herbaceous border spilling out across the grass.

Flower - like a raised elephant's trunk. 

One kind of spindle-berry developing - these will open before the other kind.

The other kind of spindle-berry is still in flower. (Funny little green flowers.)

A few more sky photos.

 Bright flowers in the herbaceous border are beginning to unfold. 

Bee travelling around the flower centre, little legs covered in pollen. 

Unlike the earlier alliums these pink ones have smaller tightly packed florets.

and they're not remotely camouflaged among the surrounding purples and blues.

Heavily weighed down flower stem. 

More sky photos - I loved the cloud patterns today. 

Green insect in a poppy.

Unfamiliar looking hut. 

Through the yew arch - the gardener had built a structure for the sweet peas to climb up.

The gardener has been playing again - picking out the sunflower seeds to make eyes and a smiling mouth. Just one one sunflower.

A final sky photo. 

A friend of mine made a variety of gorgeous spherical sculptures - these allium seed heads remind me of them and really make me want to have a go at something similar.

Among the other yellow and orange flowers I noticed these which I don't recognise.

Red leaves against the blue sky. 

Starry seed head. 

The californian poppy seed heads in front of the allium have a very strange structure at the top. (I must have a go at making some sculptural seed pods somehow but I don't know what materials to use yet.)

Red backed big leaves.

Red - orange - pink - zingy colour combination. 

Damselfly.

Three damselflies (top one blurred - just taking off)

Then there were two. 

Last look at the pond before heading home. 

Thank you very much for joining me.