Coombe Wood with "birthday buddies".

Yesterday I met a friend at Coombe Wood for lunch and a very enjoyable walk together and we were joined later by another friend for a cuppa and cake, and another lovely walk. All three of us were born in the same year and the same month - our birthdays are 10 days apart. For a number of years we have marked the occasion by doing something together. 

I was surprised to see how much further the Aliums have come out in just one day.

It was pretty blustery and the plants were waving about a lot which made it quite hard to get a good photo - I deleted loads of blurry ones. I think the leaves of the golden rain tree look lovely against that patch of blue sky.

 This plant has dainty heart shaped leaves on delicate flexible red stems.

Puffy white clouds sped by. The sound of the breeze in the trees was like the sea and the feel of the blustery wind reminded me of coastal walks I have enjoyed in the past.

 A fence protects a young and tender red acer from the deer.

The gardener told me this is a Judas tree. It has fabulous blossom. 

The woods are transforming completely, almost from day to day. The red acer is springing into life again.

Bleeding hearts. 

A very good plant for the gardens at Coombe Wood - apparently they're deer resistant. 

Layers - looking across the flower beds at the tulips and underplantings of forget-me-nots. 

 This tulip looked as if it had been marbled.

On my Bank Holiday Monday blog post I talked about parents allowing their children to run riot in the flower beds, yesterday I saw something quite different. Two young boys were chatting with the gardener while he mowed. I've seen one of the boys many times enjoying Coombe Wood with his mum. She is fabulous at allowing her son to have great fun while he is learning about the plants, birds and animals. I hope that the enjoyment the boys were obviously having chatting to the gardener as he mowed will help increase their love of gardens and gardening too perhaps. 

When I got home a package was waiting for me. My lovely camera has come back - mended under warranty. I can't wait to get out and take photos on it again but today hasn't been that kind of day for various reasons. 

Thank you very much for joining me. 

 

Coombe Wood on Bank Holiday Monday

Perhaps it wasn't such a good idea to go on a Bank Holiday Monday . . . or maybe I should have made my visit much earlier. I know how hard the gardener works and I found it quite difficult to see people treating the gardens carelessly. A couple of children were kicking plants and stamping on them without any attempt being made to discourage them and several other children were playing hide and seek in the wide flower beds next to the lawn in front of the sundial - no attempt to stop them trampling through the flower beds.  bit later I heard a man say to a young boy "If you push her again I'll kill you." Nice!

Off-putting aspects of the walk aside - the tulips are looking fabulous.

Arch

Purple tree

 The aliums are on their way

A carpet of pink petals as the blossom falls 

Orange azaleas - I haven't noticed these before.

Tiny white flowers

More of the scented yellow azaleas are opening now. 

Red acer leaves with subtle little red flowers 

Pink rhododendrons

 Looking closer at the anthers

Last time I posted pictures of the hellebore pods I said I had only seen them with even numbers of pods - this time I saw a lot of them with five pods.  

I have no idea what this is but there's loads of it several tiers of delicate creamy white flowers which form little clusters of pale green berries.

Fluffy little white flowers.

Here come the lily of the valley

Back for another look at the May-tree - from underneath it this time.

These little flowers weren't much bigger than buttercups.

Back to admire the tulips before going home. 

 A closer look at the miniature euphorbia on the way out.

Thank you very much for joining me

Three little walks and Daily drawings update

First walk - Coombe Wood

I met my sister at Coombe Wood this morning and we had a walk together.

The tulips are very looking good. 

This plant is quite small - the stamens reminded me of pearl headed pins sticking out of a pin cushion.

This plant was covered with tiny yellow buds - most of them are barely open but the few that are open look like miniature daffodils.

 White and rose pink buds opening into delicate white flowers.

 Tender young acer leaves sprouting from red protective casing

 Scented yellow azalea bursting out

Azalea

I've been checking various websites - they say that all azaleas are actually rhododrendrons but not all rhododendrons are azaleas because "Rhododendon" is a genus (group of plants with shared characteristics) but Azaleas are a group within that genus, rather than forming a genus of their own. Most azaleas have only 5 or 6 stamens whereas most rhododendrons have 10 stamens. There are other distinguishing characteristics - leaf differences etc.

Rhododendron

Rhododendron

Azalea (I think)

Rhododendron

Looking closer at the stamens

I'm doing a 30 day photo challenge on Facebook starting today. This is the photo I used for today's topic which is "May Day". Hawthorn is also called the May-tree.

Hawthorn

Second Walk - Heathfield. I went to lunch with friends who used to go to my church. After lunch they took me for a walk in Heathfield which is very near to Coombe Wood. There's woodland and a rhododendron walk, ornamental gardens and ponds, and a house (not open to the public).

Wisteria

Aubretia

Rhododendrons

Underneath the new bright green leaves on this tree were long strands that puffed pollen everywhere if you brushed against them.

Third walk - Coombe Wood again. On the way home from my friends' house I was almost passing Coombe Wood so I popped back to try and get a couple more photos as the camera battery had run out in the morning - but I'd been able to charge it between the first Coombe Wood trip and the visit to my friends. 

I love the gentle pink of these tulips next to the forget-me-not blues. 

 Another look at the Hawthorn blossom. 

Daily drawings update - these are the drawings for April.

Thank you very much for joining me.