Cold gentle stroll in Coombe Wood

I always find it so encouraging to see flowers blossoming in winter. 

These are really tiny flowers - I love the colours

Puff ball mushrooms after their spores have exploded out

Rhododendron bud already showing its colour
(woops - a friend has since told me she thinks its a camelia)

Giant mushroom gills

With their heads hung so low it's easy to miss

the flamboyant structure in the middle of these flowers. 

Blossom

So much happening under the soil.

In a couple of months the flower beds either

side of the lawn will be bursting with life

More signs of life

Crazy seed head (wild carrot)

Jerusalem sage (?) flowers beginning to show

A lot has been going on under the surface

and things are already beginning to burst into life again.