Unplanned Thursday morning trip to Coombe Wood.

The day began with a glorious sunrise...

The gardener at Coombe Wood sent me a message to say that he'd seen frost flowers there again this morning in the same place as last year. I went over there as soon as possible to take some photos. Tiny white petal like frosty structures are attached to the short stems which had been cut back for the winter. You could easily miss them if you weren't looking for them.

Here come quite a few close ups. 

They're created by a sudden freeze causing the water in stems to freeze and expand making tiny slits form in the stem. Water then seeps out of the slits and freezes in the cold air forming ice ribbons or frost flowers. 

Some of them look like delicate shells.

The gardener was mulching more of the flower beds.

It looked as if this was the destination for the next barrow load of mulch.

I could smell the mahonia quite strongly this morning

and the witch hazel scent was travelling quite a distance.

You have to get very close to the winter honeysuckle to catch the scent of the tiny flowers.

The scars on the old beech tree show where it has lost limbs.

Young mistletoe.

Lichen - various colours and textures. 

Snowdrops.

A last look at a couple of frost flowers. 

Icy pond. 

Thank you very much for joining me. 

More moon photos and local walking with my new neighbour.

This morning at 6.50am I popped out into the garden to photograph the moon in the very early stages of waning. I prefer to photograph the waning or waxing moon because the craters show up better on the edge which is in shadow (very skinny shadow on the right).

Through the silver birch tree. 

The moon at 7.47am as the sky is getting lighter. Soon after this it disappeared behind a low bank of cloud. 

My lovely new neighbour and I had a local walk together this morning. I'm not very familiar with the area yet and it's really good to have someone to walk with who knows the area well.

We probably walked over two miles along roads, little pathways, through Selsdon Recreation Ground and into the grounds of Selsdon Park Hotel. My friend is very observant and we were both noticing different things on our journey.

Several little family groups of deer sculptures (willow?) stood around in front of the Selsdon Park Hotel. The sculptor has caught the character and stance of deer very well.

I like the extra transparency of the young deer's ears.

My friend noticed these lovely large plump cones - I probably would have missed these - I was so busy admiring the deer sculptures underneath the tree. 

It's a very grand looking building - brilliant blue sky.

From a distance I thought these were shadows showing through a corrugated plastic hut.....I like the patterns the shapes and lines make.

We paused to look at the bee hives. 

Then a closer look at those "shadows" revealed a fence, several chairs and a table on top of another table with a chair on top of that. I still like the patterns they create as well as the contrasts of texture and colour.

More patterns - harmless graffitti on old windows panes surrounded by peeling rusty frames.

On the way back home my friend noticed a fragment of rainbow in the almost clear sky!

Beautiful! 

Thank you very much for joining me. 

Eclipse of the moon and a Coombe Wood walk with a friend (Monday 21st)

"Blood red wolf moon" - early hours of Monday 21st January.

Before

During

I was glad to have seen it - a heavy mist came down soon after the last photo. Other friends who got up to see it weren't as lucky.

Morning walk with a friend. Misty Coombe Wood.

I'm always fascinated by the little witch hazel ribbon like petals.

The herbaceous borders, bare now, will be overflowing in a couple of months time.

Snowdrops.

Frost 

Sun breaking through the mist. 

 More snowdrops.

 A photo for my cousin who likes a shadow selfie.

Golden rain tree pods.

Frosty prairie beds. 

We spotted a robin, no more than 4 feet away and stood still watching while it preened and ruffled it's feathers. It seemed to be having a bath in the moisture on the leaves. We dared to move to take photos - it carried on with what it was doing. We watched for several minutes, surprised that even holding a conversation didn't frighten it away.

It fluttered its feathers before darting up into the tree above.

On the way back to the gate we met the gardener with his wheelbarrow. He had just been putting mulch on some of the flower beds. He walke down with us a little way and showed us the little tiny pool where he has watched goldcrests bathing - something to remember and look out for another time!

Sunlight melting the frost on the flower beds.  

A thin layer of ice on the pond. 

Thank you very much for joining me.