Friday's Coombe Wood walk (bees and flowers)

My neighbour and I had a gentle walk in Coombe Wood. (I was quite tired after emptying and moving bookcases in preparation for some plumbing work this week... the walk needed to be gentle!) 

Irises by the pond - the usual butter yellow...

...and some more like lemon sorbet. 

Strange coloured ladybird-style creature. 

Big cistus

Little ones? Or are they rock roses? 

I was so busy photographing the bee coming in to land with it's little pollen sacs bulging with orange treasure that I didn't notice the pale green spider on the lower flower.

That spider looks like a little crab! 

Closely related to ordinary daisies - these tumble over rocks and create pink and white cascades.

Pink cistus

Foxgloves - so many different patterns. This one deep pink with little white blotches , each with a dot in the centre, like a diagram of a single cell.

These alliums are finishing but the seed heads still look impressive.

Enormous crown imperial frittilary seed pods. 

We did ask the gardener what this plant is but I have forgotten. The bees love it. The flowers are actually very pale pink. (I'm including it because I like the bee silhouette)

My neighbour thought she'd seen a ladybird - my photo shows there were two!

The big bumble bee looked huge on the little flowers which bobbed around as the bees landed and took off again.

A different variety of allium is still doing well and the bees are enjoying them.

These flowers are heavy and weigh the stems downwards but the tips are determined to grow upright.

The palm flowers looked like lungs last time I went - now some look like bunches of long grapes....

...and others are open further and have become more feathery.

I could hardly see any Korean pine cones this year - last year there were loads of them. What a beautiful structure - and colours.

 More foxgloves.

Rhododendron flower. I love the shape of the anthers at this stage. They're like little double containers.

Yellow scented azalea dripping with flowers that have fallen off and been left dangling on the stigmas.

Cornus

Philadelphus - I think. 

Red flowers dangling

Looking up from underneath.

 Spikes of white blossom beginning to open. 

Frothy pink flowers and slender burgundy leaves.

Looking closer. 

Allium growing up through the catmint. The bees were all over the catmint.

A different sort of allium. Big bright open starry structure.

The bees love these. 

Looking down on one of the big starry alliums.

Closer.

 Some more bees...

This one was going round and round the centre collecting every last little tiny bit of pollen/nectar. Did you know that one bee can carry about half her own body weight of pollen?

Cotinus - smokebush. Later the flowers will open and look like little clouds of smoke.

The tiny slender acer leaves and seeds seemed to glitter in the sunlight.

The patterns in these are more patchy than the previous foxgloves and have bigger dark spots.

I get very close when taking the photos and it made me jump when a bee popped out of a flower at great speed! (Too fast to photograph!)

Here's another bee going in. 

Tiny hairs catch the pollen and transfer it from insect to insect.

I have one of these in my garden. I love the way the buds begin as little white bubbles. A lady at Coombe Wood told me that the birds love the berries. (I happen to know they will be orange and I'm not keen on orange but I will have to keep it for the birds.)

"Snow in summer". 

Big poppies. I hope I'm there when one is open. (Might not be able to get there this week though with the plumbing work being done.)

Tiny little flashes of dark red among the green. 

Another bee going round and round in circles gathering every little delicious drop.

I like the soft floaty love in a mist against the pops of red.

Little Alliums and californian poppies. 

Bulrushes bursting with fluffy seeds. 

Thank you very much for joining me.