Sunshine and rain (2 walks - Coombe Wood)

WALK 1: Last Friday - a very hot day.

Sunlight through huge gunnera leaf

Gunnera flower like a little pine tree. 

I caught sight of the gardener heading up the path with the water spinkler. (Can you see him?)

Cooler in the shade of the trees. 

Sunshine like a spotlight. 

Clear water.

Fuchsia buds. 

These were lemon yellow when they were buds.

White blossom.

Seeds forming. 

Sunlit fern. 

These looked dirty yellow from a distance but getting up close revealed the most amazing pink bristly middles.

A veil of delicate floaty pink bobbles.

Spheres - Allium globe of seeds in front with little spiky blue pom poms behind

Bright raspberry coloured spikes 

Another allium - more cupped than spherical. 

Golden rain tree - covered in tiny yellow flowers on long stems that lift them above the leaves creating a halo effect.

In the wild flower area - poppy seed heads and thistle like flowers.

A jumble of little raspberry coloured flowers that bob up and down when bees land on them.

Hardy blue geraniums (?) illuminated by the sun. 

Seed pods forming up the tree with very big leaves. 

Looking up - acer leaves

Hydrangea - looking close - tiny flowers opening in the middle.

Herbaceous border. Blues and purples fading as the red, orange and yellow flowers take over.

Flowers fading, revealing red stems. 

 Watering

A patch of sunlight on these soft looking leaves but beware! They hide sharp thorns.

 Love in a mist seed pods. 

Lovely structures and wonderful colour contrasts. Pods pale green with soft yellow blusing red at the top, surrounded by green frondy spikes with red tips.

 I can't resist another allium - look how red its stems are. 

Lilac coloured flowers - what a range of textures they go through - from tight neat buttons to ragged explosions of petals.

By the pond - bulrushes.

Closer

I stood and watched a dragonfly darting back and forth across the pond and tried to get a photo but it wouldn't stay still for long enough - here's my best action shot. Not much good but at least it's enough to remind me of the thrill of seeing such a large dragonfly darting over the pond for such a long time.

WALK 2: Tuesday afternoon - breezy and then wet.

When I arrived the gardener was cutting back some exuberant ferns that were overhanging the recently replanted flowerbed.

By the pond - I thought these had finished but among all the dying and dead ones this one stood tall,

Dry and papery pods splitting open to reveal the big black seeds.

Another branch has fallen down in exactly the same position as the previous one. It doesn't look very big here . . .

. . . . but you can see it better in this photo. It's quite a hefty branch but not as big as the previous one that fell down. I met the gardener later in my walk and he said it had been down for about 3 weeks. I haven't been round that way for several weeks because of cutting my walks a little shorter (problem with my foot).

Looking at the tree from the other side of the hedge it is easy to see where both branches have fallen from. The big scar (low right) is from the other branch coming down and the taller broken branch in the middle is from the recent fall.

As I walked down the lawn between the herbaceous borders I sped up a bit because I realised I was in the way of a photoshoot. I paused to quickly snap these pink flowers with deep pink middles.

then got out of the way. The photographer had the family walking through an arrangement of brightly coloured upside down umbrellas - which wasn't easy because a breeze was rearranging them as soon as they were put in place. 

I headed towards the gate to meet a friend and passed the gardener's sunflower fun.

I waited for my friend by the pond, noticing how much clearer it had become

and enjoying the reflections. 

I started to get quite stiff sitting on a rock so had another little walk trying to keep out of the way of the photographer. The group had moved to the flower beds and almost everywhere I went I was in the way so I went round and came back to the gate a different way. (The gardener later told me that he'd had the same trouble).

The golden rain tree looking fabulous. 

And back to the pond - after a short while my friend arrived and we enjoyed a slice of  cake and a drink in the Coach House cafe. We went for a walk - not put off by the light drizzle. We both had umbrellas. My friend thought this might be a rhododendron tree. It has a huge flower.

In contrast these white flowers are tiny. 

I don't remember ever seeing pink, blue and lilac flowers on the same shrub let alone the same flower-head before.

Exquisite little flowers - gorgeous colours. 

Contrasting with the delicate colours in the previous photos - big bright yellow flower among robust red flowers, their petals edged with yellow. .

Now the rain was much heavier so we went to sit in the shelter and chatted while watching the rain "coming down in stair-rods" - an expression I heard my parents use.

The rain had eased a little. Passing the dripping flowers we headed for the gate. This lilac haze reminds me of smoke.

Thank you very much for joining me.