A very cold, frosty morning walk (Coombe Wood)

It was so cold this morning that my car doors were all frosted firmly shut. I could only open the boot so I took the parcel shelf out, clambered in (with difficulty!) and thumped the back door. As the door began to work loose one of my neighbours came to the rescue and tugged on the door from the outside, then helped me open the front door as well. Later on, after the necessary food shopping trip, I drove to Coombe Wood quite a bit later than usual, not expecting there to be much frost left. How wrong could I be? 

Harsh frost and ice as well! 

Icy pond

The ice on the pond had tiny melted pools in the ridges which reflected the sky.

Bare branches covered in thorns and frost. 

Frosty figs in the sun.

Icy puddles on the path/ 

Strange icy patterns. 

Frosty seed heads. 

Planes left vivid short trails which vanished fast.

Frosty arm of a wooden bench.

Frost crystals on weather worn wood. 

Another icy puddle. 

The remaining callicarpa berries are such deep purple now.

 I dawdled looking at the frosty leaves on the ground.

Red stems showed up brilliantly against the sunlit green.

Frosty leaves in the sunlight. 

Frost on a bench - such long crystals! 

The cold has made some of the leaves collapse onto the ground.

Magnolia buds and beautiful blue sky. 

Each frosty leaf an exquisite work of art. 

The dying plants in the herbaceous borders transformed by white crystals.

The cases of the spindle berry cases were in the sunshine - all the bright orange berries have fallen off now.

The frost has finished these off leaving shaggy bundles of wilting leaves decorated with sparkling crystals.

Long frost crystals on the broken sundial gnomon.

These were probably the longest crystals I saw. It always amazes me that the winter pansies and primulas recover from this.

Yew arch, sundial and winter bedding plants. 

Bright red leaf, edged with frost with a shiny area of ice near the tip.

A tangle of frosty branches. 

Another icy puddle. 

More long crystals. 

Frosty starry seedpods. 

Frosty roof tops lit up in the sunlight.

Thank you very much for joining me. 

A little sunshine on a bitterly cold walk (Coombe Wood)

Blue sky to start with and fast moving clouds

 

Tiny white flowers - pink tinged

Judas tree seed pods

White papery honesty seed pods - having dropped almost all of their seeds.

Bird in a bare tree. 

I went to the place where I have found mushrooms in previous years and found the ashes from a bonfire, like a big pool in the middle of the crisp fallen leaves..

In the shadows behind the ash heap there were a few large mushrooms - not as many as in previous years though.

Sunlight on mossy branches, grey clouds rolling in. 

Long trailing birch branches blowing in the wind. 

How does a bird manage to perch at  the top of a tree when the wind is buffeting it about so much?

 Reflections.

Thank you very much for joining me. 

A walk on a grey day (Coombe Wood)

Yesterday late morning - grey sky but not as cold as it has been...

The flower beds near the entrance are filling out with a lot of greenness and a few tiny splashes of colour.

Silhouettes of figs and their curly tendrils. 

All that's left of a pom pom hydrangea (- I think that must be what it is from the way the petals are decomposing). 

Among all the decaying leaves tiny green buds are showing.

I didn't realise why the shape of the liquid amber tree looked a bit different until I met the gardener and he told me that he had cut the lower branches off because they were in the way when he was mowing around it. It looks very neat. I found out that it's a memorial tree.- I've forgotten the exact details apart from the fact that he had planted it himself when he worked at the Nursery before he became the Coombe Wood gardener. I tried to find out online how long ago that was later on but reports vary - it's definitely been growing there for more than 11 or 12 years.

Contrasting textures and colours - tall slender straight stems and fluffy crinkly white seeds.

Further on - the seeds on these grasses were more golden and less crinkly.

The little hut in the background - still no repair on the front. Perhaps they will leave it like this?

Curling leaves and little green buds. 

There are still some gorgeous colours left in some of the fallen leaves.

Funny little tiny seed pods.

I took this one because of the colour of the leaves - didn't see the little red bits hanging underneath each twig till later.

Bare branches and grey sky. 

Hydrangea petals and a tiny little snail. 

This was a leafy archway not long ago but now most of the leaves on the left have gone.

Winter flowering honeysuckle - tiny white flowers. 

Iris berries

Colourful leaves

The gardener told me he had been doing "a little light pruning".

I thought these were bird's nests but the gardener suggested they might be squirrel dreys. I think he's right. (This information is not going to help my bird project for the art group I belong to. I thought I had been photographing bird's nests but now I don't know if any of them are birds nests after all.)

Looking closer - and the buds on the beech tree can be see around the nest.

The gardener has dug out the irises and the flower bed is looking very tidy.

The gardener told me that he has removed the old and decrepit rosemary bush - this is it's "footprint". He will plant something else there. 

As I was about to leave a bird caught my eye. (Art group bird project?) It posed...

then pecked at the moss...

and was joined by a friend for a while. 

Seed pods by the pond. 

Figs

Grapes shriveling up. 

Thank you very much for joining me.