Monday morning walk (Coombe Wood)

I'm so glad I went for a walk yesterday and not today. Yesterday started sunny but a bit chilly - today it's been blustery, grey and rainy all day. 

Yesterday the sun lit up the daffodils

and made the primulas look like bright jewels. 

Tiny white flowers

 

and behind them the lovely blue of "Glory of the snow" Chionodoxa Lucillae. 

These take me by surprise every spring - holly shaped leaves and sprays of dark pink stems with orange and red buds on. There's a hedge of them near the pond - and more later on which are on a much bigger shrub.

Magnolias.

Daffodils - dancing in the breeze.

Very short white crocuses with pods from the golden rain tree in the grass around them.

This pathway through the daffodils and crocuses looked inviting with the sun shining on it. I didn't go that way though - not yet.

A lovely splash of pink. 

Stachyurus - no wonder I couldn't remember its name last time. According to Google it has pendent racemes (I didn't know that's what they were called!) of 4-petalled flowers which appear on the bare branches before the leaves. I like the way the sun illuminated this shower of translucent creamy bells.

A while ago I noticed a "stick" in the ground - wondered what it was there for - I know now - it is sprouting leaves!

Tiny pale leaves - not leaves though - looking closer they are flowers.

More of those little orange flowers (maybe a berberis of some sort?)

Little white flowers in clusters. 

Another Magnolia ready to burst into bloom. 

Tiny leaves and flower buds

Little pale green buds growing up through old pods and a network of fallen pine needles.

Interesting array of cars behind Chateau (restaurant)

As I went into the woods I noticed more and more fallen twigs and branches brought down by the high winds over the weekend.

The camelias had stood up well to the gusts. 

Pieris - lily of the valley shrub - flowers just beginning.

New leafy shoots just emerging on the candy floss tree. 

Some bigger branches have come down too. A piece of pine/fir tree. (I don't know the difference.)

A tempting pathway but I didn't think it wise to go deeper into the woods today. (I'd probably trip over a fallen branch!)

Foxglove tree buds - it looks as if there will be some good clusters of flowers this year.

Deep red camelia. 

An even bigger branch down. 

Magnolia buds - like candle flames. 

Forsythia adding brightness to a dark corner. 

Tiny leafy shoots lit by the sun. 

More magnolia buds - not as advanced. I was interested to see my cousin's photos from Kew this weekend - Kew seems to be at least a couple of weeks ahead with its microclimate.

Tape across the path. I could see people further along. At first I thought it was the gardener and some tree fellers because maybe another branch had fallen - and being interested went round to that sunlit path I saw earlier on (between the daffodils and crocuses) to have a look.

Yes a branch was down, a big one - and there were a couple of mums sitting on the fallen branch chatting while their children were climbing on it. I was concerned that it wasn't safe under the tree specially because over the last few years it has lost a lot of branches and I mentioned the tape. One lady said that it was there to warn people that there was a branch blocking the path. I thought it was more likely to be there to keep people out because it wasn't safe. I took my photos and left. 

White crocuses - I watched for quite a while as a bee popped in and out of the flowers making them bob and bounce.

You can see the bee in this photo. 

Anenomes - most of them tightly shut in the shade. 

Quince (amazing middles!) 

Moss on a wall caught my eye. 

I liked the mixture of colours and textures. 

Bulrush by the pond - exploding with fluff. 

I hope no more has fallen off that beech tree today. The wind has been very strong and I hope that if there is any danger that the tree is unsafe that more tape has been put up like last time when you couldn't get through without deliberately ducking under the tape - which made it very obvious that you shouldn't be there.

Thank you very much for joining me.