Arty journeys...

LITTLE ARTY JOURNEYS . . . LOOKING CLOSER, SEEING DEEPER.

Monday 23 October 2017

Monday morning walk (Coombe Wood)

It's quite a while since my last walk - the germs caught up with me.

The gardener was clearing leaves when I arrived.

It was good to see that the large fallen branch had been taken out of the pond.

The gardener had been busy planting. 


The bunches of grapes hanging on the vines high in the trees have become quite plump.

The berries on the strawberry tree are very red now.

Red stems peeping through under the acer leaves. 

 White flowers on a big tree (so technical!) 

Looking closer. 

Mahonia

These small flowers are a striking blue. 

Tall grasses. 

Fluffy seeds. 

Looking closer. 

Acer leaves. 

Strange white flowers. 

Korean Pine cones are disintegrating on the tree now and dropping their seeds. 


Callicarpa berries - the leaves are turning now. 

Fern changing colour.

More leaves changing colour. 

Such rich colours everywhere! 


Iris corms above the surface of the ground - wonderful textures - papery surface with flecks of brown and pastel yellow peeping through from underneath.

Cosmos spilling out from the flower bed. 

 Bright yellow and pink - still flowering. 

Orange spiky flowers. 

 Good to see bees buzzing around. 

Delicate little cupped flowers all leaning in the same direction.

 Fluffy bottle brushes. 

One lot of spindle berries have almost come to an end -  but this tree is covered and they pods are gently changing colour.


More plants spilling out of the flower bed. 

Grasses - crinkly ones. 

Draping fluffy grasses. 

I stood and watched the bees coming and going.


Orange berries. 

 One of the other flower beds that has been planted for the winter. 

Thank you very much for joining me. 

Sunday 15 October 2017

Friday morning walk (Coombe Wood)

Surprisingly warm for October!

Looking up through the trees.

Cattle trough full of flowers - the other side of the road.

Salvias in the sunshine. 

Reflections in the pond. 


Grape vine

The vine leaves have been quite well camouflaged until recently when they changed from green to their gorgeous autumn colours which stand out so well against the background of the evergreens.

Trapped feather

Rosehips

Red leaves in the foreground, rosehips to the right and a glimpse of the orange and red vine leaves scrambling up the right side of the evergreen in the middle.

White flowers? Looking closer there is a delicate pink tint. 

Fallen leaves in a hedge. 

Bright orange berries on a low shrub caught my attention. I was surprised to see that the berries looked like spindleberries - popping out of their casing.


Prairie planting still very colourful and those little paths are very inviting.

Looking closer at the little clump of ornamental grass to the right of the path - shaggy purple seeds. 

Purple on purple. 

The markings on this tree seemed to be more noticeable than usual.

Looking closer - I didn't even notice the long white legs of a spider in the crevice until looking at the photos on the computer later.

Standing back admiring the pattern on the bark.

Looking closer at the  peeling bark. I was surprised to see an amber coloured spider (middle of the photo)

It was happy to meander slowly so I carried on watching it. My family tease me for saying "Look at the way the light shine through this!" - yes I do say it quite a  bit - haven't said it for a while - never thought I would say it about a spider but just look at the way the light shines through this spider! (Sorry those of you who don't like spiders - there are three more photos!)



These big leaved plants have flowers that are just emerging from their casings.

Opposite extreme - these tiny white flowers are coming to an end (love the little lilac anthers).

Callicarpa berries like bright colourful pearls. 

Heading along here into the woods among the changing leaves..

Ferns turning brown (so many different shades). 

Looking through from underneath. 

Looking closer - fern patterns. 

Squirrel with a sweet chestnut. 

I almost didn't notice the abundance of puff ball mushrooms!

Wonderful patterns on the surface of the puff balls as they get older.




Autumn colours

Sweet chestnut - tiny hole in it. 

I was surprised to see a couple of very large dragonflies flying back and forth overhead - nowhere near the pond.

Around the corner - flowers like pure white bottle brushes


Huge dark bumble bee with an orange bottom. 

 Fluffy honey coloured bee. 

This fading flower looked as if it had been dip dyed. creating blue, lilac and pink blended stripes.

Pink and purple. 


I thought all of the tiny fuchsias were white but these have very pale pink and green tinges and very narrow skirts.


whereas these have much rounder and pinker skirts.

I stopped to smell some sweet peas - although they were past their best the scent was still wonderful. A little further along there's a back of ivy flowers.

Lovely tangle of tiny orange flowers and love in the mist pods.

 These little blue flowers are really small but what a lovely colour.

Thank you very much for joining me.