Early morning Coombe Wood walk last week (5th July - catching up!)

I arrived before 7.30 - official opening time is 8am - but the gate was open! It was comfortably cool to start with but soon heated up. 

Silk Tree leaves

Flower buds showing. 

I love these - so delicate!

A couple of flowers from the Golden Rain Tree (on the bench under the tree).

A big black glossy bird was strutting around looking very important. 

Masses of growth in the prairie beds. 

Jewel-like flowers. 

Callicarpa. 

Big bee with massively stuffed pollen baskets. 

When talking to the gardener later on I found out that this is a candy floss tree - so called because of the scent of burnt sugar and candy floss which comes from it in Autumn. (I have noticed that scent in Autumn but hadn't realised where it was coming from.) The gardener has cleared some space around it. 

The heart shaped leaves are lovely colours but in Autumn they are spectacular - making the tre look like a burning bush. 

 Hydrangea - gorgeous mixture of colours. 

Looking closer. 

Cornus bracts changing colour - brown and papery. 

The flowers are on the green bobbles and are left on the long upright stalks when the bracts fall off. 

The smoke tree or smoke bush (cotinus?) with flowering bits lit by the sun.

Having a closer look - seed pods and slender hairy stems

Herbaceous border overflowing with rapid growth. 

Spindleberry flowers with petals like pale green popcorn. 

More jewel colours. 

Allium seed heads dotted through with tiny red flowers.

It hasn't taken long for this lot to spring up! 

Crocosmia

Sugary pinkness! 

Peach and custard. 

One of very few roses that have escaped the deer. (They have a taste for rose bushes!)

 Another branch has fallen from thebig old beech tree. 

Just one poppy in the wildflower area. 

When I saw the gardener later on he told me that a branch has come off the tree on the left here, as well as the one from the big beech tree.

The yellow flowers of the Golden Rain Tree peeping between two other trees.

There are a lot of flowers this year - I wonder if it will produce extra seed pods in the Autumn (the pods look like little lanterns)

Walking through the shady yew arch I could hear the water sprinklers - the gardener was watering the flower beds.

Buddleia close up

There were two water sprinklers spraying in different directions. Although I didn't mind getting wet ( I did stand deliberately close for a while) I decided it was wise to go back around the other way rather than going right through the spray.

One of the cats meowed at me from its sheltered place...

...then came out and was joined by another - both jumped on the bench making it clear that they wanted to be stroked. On the bench just in front of the cat on the right are the two Golden Rain Tree flowers that are in the photo near the beginning of this post. This photo gives a better idea of scale.

A vine of some sort is twining around the fence above the Cafe courtyard.

Such a lovely display of pots and tubs full of plants outside the flat above the cafe.

The trough near the Cafe. 

Having a closer look at those flowers in the trough

Still early and in the shade - these daisy-like flwoers hadn't opened yet.

The grapes are coming along nicely on the vine above the Coombe Wood notice board

Watering in progress. 

By the pond - could be a cypress tree - tiny fruits? look like little brussel sprouts. 

Watering. 

Soft and subtle wispy corner.

Bright colours

Back to that wispy corner where a bobbing stem attreacted my attention as a bee was trying to get into the purple flower.

Love in a mist seedheads in a wonderful thready tangle.

The gardener pointed out a hole - where a badgers has wrecked a bees nest trying to get the honey.

The gardener was moving the sprinklers as I left. 

Thank you very much for joining me.