I Am Only Making One Post Today,

for two reasons, 

firstly it is Diana's day off, so we are out and I took way too many photographs, no change there then!, secondly I will be leaving first thing on Wednesday to visit Duncan, in fact I am making a start on the post on Tuesday evening as I will not have enough time on Wednesday morning, so back to Tuesday, we were out driving past some of the homes in the park,

and the wisteria at the side of Foxgrove Lodge,

we made our way towards Elmers End, where in a strange coincidence just this morning a box junction actually made National news in the UK with the headline and  I quote, 

"Revealed: The single yellow box catching out 8,110 drivers a year and making a council up to £1MILLION in fines" 

Bromley council making a fortune out of motorist, and yes Bromley is the council I live in! I guess councils have to milk the motorists to keep their gold plated salaries and index linked pensions coming in! thankfully to be forwarded is to be forearmed, we passed the box junction as normal with no issues, 

past the Addiscombe dragon, it is a Crazy Golf course,

we were soon on the road that the car park is in to visit Coombe Wood,

and here we are in the car park opposite the wood, just a small word, be carful crossing the road it is very busy and there have been numerous accidents here, not so much where pedestrians cross, but at the 'T' junction a few yards further down, as can be verified by the number of broken plastic parts that were once a part of a car littering the verges nearby, and if you like used wheel trims, there are normally, like today two or three or be picked up,

crossing the road, a post box for the few residents that live nearby,

and here we are,

straight away, 

I was busy snapping away,

not a breath of wind, 

the fish pond like a mirror,

except where the pair of ducks were feeding,

we are visiting a lot earlier than we normally do, looking down the giant or Chilean rhubarb, (Gunneria maculata), has barely started to grow, 

then at the bottom right of the photograph, 

I noticed this,

a large koi carp, there were in fact a number of large fish here, but being native their natural colours makes them not stand out in photographs,

we walked into the grounds,

last years bull rush,

still had seeds on the stems,

a quick pose,

we started our walk towards the café,

but then turned left,

up this pathway,

that skirts the end of the pond,

the ducks followed us round, well I did have some peanuts on me which the female ate, the male just totally ignored them,

Diana stopped to photograph some flowers,

pink bluebells,

we followed the path,

looking back.

as the path ascended,

it followed a small watercourse,

with a slow moving stream of water in it,

which looked really delightful,

a quick pose, 

before another stop,

this time for white bluebells,

this looked nice,

a part of the land by the waterfall left to go native, in the woods there are many areas like this,

this gorse bush a riot of yellow, it would be even more so in strong sunlight, but today was grey and overcast,

a couple of nice stands of black bamboo, (Phyllostachys nigra),

onwards and upwards,

time for a pose,

and then into the rockery, 

twice!

which opened out into a area with bedding plants in,

I had an idea of what they are,

it may sound strange, onions! well ornamental onions, (Allium),

but I should point out that while these plants are not edible, their leaves do have a slight onion-like scent when crushed,

in the distance a magnolia tree,

the flowers still putting on a good show,

nearby another area left to go 'wild', I am guessing much to the liking of insects and birds,

we knew we were earlier than usual, this bed normally filed with flowers, the big house that I think was once a restaurant in the back ground, but alas due to covid and other factors has now closed, 

we passed some more wild areas,

as we made our way towards the rhododendron and pine wood area,

and there they were, 

well one at least, many of the rhododendrons were still in bud,

as I mentioned before we were a tad early as far as the garden was concerned,

I should also mention that many of the trees here are of a real age,

we could smell this rhododendron for some time before we got close to it, 

the aroma filled the air on the windless day,

and pretty it was too,

we continued our walk,

past one of the greens,

looking back towards the café,

another early rhododendron,

this one white, the flowers like the yellow scented one a lot smaller than we are used to,

and speaking of the scented one,

here were lots more,

and a giant upright rhododendron, they normally grow outwards rather than upwards,

beside it two unusual pines,

I zoomed in,

but did not want to walk on the other plants under it, 

back to the giant rhododendron,

one of the nice things about walking here is the drainage, no unpassable muddy areas, even in normal shoes, the area must have a underlying gravel or pebble base with just a shallow layer of moisture holding leaves and compost,

we knew one of these was nearby!

past another huge tree,

the photographs really do not do justice as to how big and old they must be,

we took a different path for this visit, and found a disused water fountain,

and lots more bluebells, although it has to be said nothing like the numbers in Beckenham Place Park,

but what Coombe Wood does have that Beckenham Place Park does not, is these,

Lily of the Valley, (Convallaria majalis),

one of my Grandmothers favourite flowers,

we started uphill towards the pine wood,

it does not look it, but it is a tad steep,

but before the pines, another huge old tree,

I wonder how long the moss has made this tree its home?

from a dead tree a new one grows,

well it looks like two in fact,

looking up towards Diana I made a panorama,

we were now really into the pine wood,

along with a few birches, 

the ground undulating in small hills and troughs,

looking down,

one of myself,

and looking up one of Diana,

looking down the hillside more yellow rhododendrons, 

a small camp, the boy scouts must have been here!

Diana had started on the downhill section,

bur first, 

a quick pose,

then start down,

as it happens it is a lot steeper than it looks,

so easy does it,

opposite another set of steps lead up,

half way down,

Diana below me, to break my fall, just in case!

on the right another huge pine,

and looking down Diana had made it!

as I brought up the rear,

just a couple more to go,

it does not look that steep looking up, 

neither does the one going up on the other side of the valley,

and what has Diana found?

amongst the bluebells some more Lily of the Valley,

we decided against going up the others side,

and started to cut through the wood to the café,

but we still had aways to go,

another quick panorama, although it has to be said it was rather dark in this part of the wood,

but the trees soon opened up to let in more light,

another different specie of pine,

and then Diana found these delightful flowers, 

so small and delicate,

looking just like a lovers heart,

we knew where we were,

as we found one of the two greens,

in the border this plant growing,

we were not sure what it was, at first we thought it was a type of grass, but it was not,

near the end of the green to the right of this huge tree,

the now disused restaurant,

not far now,

through the formal garden at the entrance,

and then Diana found some more love hearts, but this time in white,

we could not get as close as we could to the pink ones as they were in the middle of a flower bed,

into the courtyard, I should say that in our entire walk we saw exactly 3 adults, one with a child, it was so peaceful and in a real bonus, no dogs allowed past the gardens entrance, total peace and quiet,

in case you get lost,

into the café,

where we were greeted with cakes,

ice cream,

and more cakes! there is also a menu with a number of hot meals,

we decided to sit outside,

we had the whole rear courtyard all to ourselves,

we ordered 2 latté coffees, one Orel slice and a plain shortbread cake,

all set to tuck in,

'Cheers!', from myself,

then Diana's sandwich arrived,

with chips, whilst sitting at the table in a raised flower bed next to us a small frog entertained us, then a door mouse,

so I had ot try to take his photograph, 

but before I could focus he was back in his home you can just about make him out on the stick in the lower part of the photograph, but he is so out of focus,

our meal came to £20.00, which given where we were is not to bad,

as we left we noticed a wall covered with wisteria on our way out,

it should be putting on a grand show in a couple of weeks,

this was a strange one on us,

it looked like last years fruits on a tree, with this years new growth just starting,

but the thing was the old fruits looked live silver globes, I do not have a clue what it was,

as we left and started our walk in the pathway by the road, the female duck came over,

and enjoyed a few peanuts,

on the way home we stopped at Marks & Spencer, also Lidl, as we had the car we bought lots of heavy items, melons, apples, boxes of wine and bottles of sherry, so up the hill,

past the church,

and into the park, passing Foxgrove Lodge,

and along the road,

turn right by the snail mail box and we are on our way home, after our evening meal I made a start of the blog as I knew I would not have a lot of time tomorrow as I was visiting Duncan, I completed most of it before we started to watch one of the most enjoyable Midsomer Murders, we had to look through a few of the many series' before we found one we had not watched before, thankfully we had the free ITVX box set channel, so a Midsomer it was, which we followed with a Have I Got More News For You, before we were off to bed.