Early morning walk (Coombe Wood - Bank Holiday Monday)

I went early so I could walk before too many people got there and before it got too hot - I didn't see or hear anyone else for the first hour and a half apart from the lady who lives in the flat above the Coach House Cafe.  

I only managed one walk last week (Tuesday) because last week wasn't a good one healthwise. This morning's walk was a much needed walk to refresh my soul with the sights, sounds and scents of nature and my radio playing worship songs (UCB2).....only one earphone in so I can enjoy hearing the birds singing as well as the music.

All of the flower beds that had tulips in have been cleared. Everything is looking very tidy and ready for the next things to be planted. 

Cistus - you might have guessed - I love these! 

This one has an extra splash of pink - it looks as the colour has run.

Baby grapes growing. 

There's a tiny semi transparent green spider on one of the little flower stems, almost the same colour as the stem, just below the centre of the photo, slightly left.

Pink cistus flowers leaning on each other. 

Bud

Tiny raspberry tinted acer seeds....some have three wings.

There aren't many petals left on some of the alliums. 

Irises. 

Big leaves on a little tree. 

Does new life really come from this? 

Quaking grass. 

Sunlit raspberry and purple

Broader views. 

The palm flowers have fluffed out - they no longer resemble big lung shaped lobes packed tightly with sweetcorn.

The banana plants have shot up since my last visit.

What a contrast of greens - old and new. 

Korean pine cones developing. 

Enticing pathways still lined with colour. 

After the heavy rain - the evidence of a temporary river running down and sweeping everything aside.

Big colourful blossoms. 

Pools of petals forming underneath. 

Stamens - I find them so interesting. 

Foxgloves appearing. 

No real idea of scale here - that yellow azalea is above my head height - the pink rhododendron is a tree sized plant. That pool of petals is quite big too!

Orange azaleas in the sun. 

Sunlight through petals. 

This was covered in white blossom last Tuesday.

One plant loses it's flowers and another plant takes its place - this one nearby has new tiny white flowers beginning to show.

Pink Weigela. Just when I thought I'd got this worked out - that flowers seem to have darker buds which open to lighter coloured flowers....these buds seem to be white - opening to pink. 

I don't know what this is - it has lovely lime green leaves which look fabulous in the sun, and scented creamy flowers.

It's just taken me quite a while to find out online that this is a Crinodendron Hookerianum or Chilean Lantern Tree (a very small tree at the moment!)

So many spindleberry flowers.

 Beech nuts and sunlit leaves. 

Rowan flowers. 

A tufty lichen...

A frilly lichen. 

More frilly lichen (my titles - no idea about lichens!)

The borders are filling up fast. 

Two big alliums. 

Blossom on the shrub that climbs the end of the long shelter - this will have orange berries later on.

I always think these petals look as if they are being squeezed out like toothpaste from the tube.

Strange topknot. 

Early stage of petals forming. 

Foxglove. 

Apologies - I got a bit carried away here. The flowers are forming on the Lady's Mantle (Alchemilla Mollis) and water droplets have settled around the flower buds and all around the edge of the leaves.

 Pink Iris

Orange Iris.

Big allium opening. 

Tiny shiny green beetle on a love-in-a-mist flower.

Another shiny green beetle on another flower - this beetle has very powerful back legs.

Purple and white aquilegia. 

 Yellow iris by the pond. 

Tiny white flowers by the gate. 

I found out the other day when watching the Chelsea flowershow coverage on TV that a lot of the filmy substance  on ponds is caused by pollen - at Chelsea they scoop it from their water features to keep the water clear.

Bulrush - a natural sculpture. 

Thank you very much for joining me.