As Soon As I Looked Out Of The Window,

there they were,

three of them,

two ducks,

and a crow,

blog posted, exercises finished and as it is Diana's day off, we were on our way,

to the garage!

a warning light had come on,

the tyres needed air, as it happens they did not, I had a similar thing happen last year, I guess it is a faulty sensor,

we soon arrived at our first destination,

Coombe Wood Garden and café, as it happens we have been here a few times before,

from the road we looked across the ornamental pond,

it will look so nice in a few months time when the water lilies flower,

a couple of the pools carp,

just below the surface,

we started our walk through the garden and woods on our right,

the pool on the left,

before leaving it behind I noticed the bull rushes had already gone to seed,

the heads bursting with almost lighter than air seeds,

we made our way through the rockery,

posing along the way, naturally!

the euphorbias looking nice in flower,

known as the Euphorbiaceae, the spurge family, comprises some 7,500 species and 275 genera of flowering plants distributed primarily in the tropics,

but I do not have a clue what this one is,

all I know is that it looked very attractive,

have wheelbarrow will travel!

one of the gardeners keeping everything under control,

some more of the ball type flowers I had just commented on,

underneath the arches! well one of them,

I took a photograph of the same place with Diana's telephone,

I did like this,

on both sides of the pathway a area has been set aside as a natural meadow, for wildlife to take a hold,

it was a glorious day,

as we made our way towards the house,

what a fabulous place to live,

looking back towards the meadow,

we started towards the woodland,

and could not have timed it better,

everywhere we looked,

masses of rhododendrons in flower,

looking stunning against the blue sky,

some in the most delicate shades of pink,

Diana just had to have a pose,

and a selfie,

and another pose,

 we did not know that when we planned the visit it, coincided with them flowering,

but there will still be many coming into flower over the next few weeks if you are planning a visit,

here a surprise,

a yellow rhododendron,

standing out from the more common purple ones,

and as it happens the air was delightfully perfumed, much to the surprise of both of us,

walking through two of the mature trees here,

the woodlands opened out to where we were early looking at the gardener,

turning left,

we stumbled on this beauty,

also I thought the yellow flowers were not common,

there were several bushes of them here,

this photograph does not do these justice,

the flowerheads were huge,

everyone bigger than Diana's head,

each pathway we took,

was an avenue of flowers,

some pure white,

each in the dappled sunlight worth a second and third look,

many of them filled the air with their delicate aroma, 

neither of us had thought that rhododendrons were scented,

but with the air so still it was unmistakable,

how nice they were in the scent department,

and big some of them were too,

one more for the album,

and some,

so strong in colour,

it almost seemed like they could not be related to the others,

but they were,

as we walked along another tree lined path,

we almost missed it,

the only magnolia in the woodland area, and it was in flower,

through the tunnel of flowers,

and out the other side,

where these purple flowers were basking in the full sunlight,

we came across another stand,

of yellow rhododendrons,

well I just had to,

twice!

another little gem,

there was almost no end to them,

which suited us just fine,

and there in the middle of purple flowers,

one head of solitary white flowers, how did that happen?

next a mystery tree, 

what is it?

it has these red bell shaped flowers,

hundreds of them, I do not know if they open up or this is it, fascinating, I am going to stop here as I took so many photographs of Diana's day off the post takes a long time to respond, but if you would like to see the next part of our day, please click the 'Older Posts' at the bottom right of the page.