Coombe Wood with my cousin

I just got home from a visit to my cousin and fellow photography fan Angela - we went to Coombe Wood, a garden and woods not to far from where she lives and had a nice walk before a better lunch in the cafe.  I've joined her there before but not for some time

As I changed buses in Croydon (where I used to work many years ago) I snapped this picture of one of the newer tower blocks

 and of the decorations in one of the shopping centres

After a cup of tea and cake at Angela's, we headed for the woods

 the little pond by the gate was full of reflections in the sunshine


the duck weed was forming pretty patterns too

 I'd travelled light with only one lens

 the sunlight was casting beautiful shafts of light through the trees in the woods

(phone)

 hydrangea seed heads

I was able to get a great close up on my phone as I didn't have my macro lens with me

 as we walked back through the woods we found a tree covered in little funghi

I got some better ones on my phone

whilst I was photographing them, my cousin caught me working!

 the formal  beds are mostly "put to bed for winter"

but the sunlight was dappling nicely

It was a lovely day (and lunch)  and good to catch up again. 

Kew for a final time in 2019

It was great to get out and have some fresh air today after a few days of sitting and eating!  There was quite a queue behind me who obviously also wanted to walk off the excesses.

 there was no sun, however but it wasn't very cold

still some good reflections in the pond

 thrilled to see the fountain is still on even if no sun for the spray to shimmer in

 walking down the Broad Walk some early hellebores are flowering

 I cut off half way down the Broad Walk


and went into the Princess of Wales glasshouse

where I paused at the grevillea inside the door

 not sure what it was today about the close up mode but it kept firing the flash

 pretty little pink (blurry) flowers


the rock by the water had no water dragon sitting on it today

 but through the tunnel I found not a dragon sitting on the grating, but the smaller one sitting in the branch on the tree

 I had real trouble focusing on it though

 but managed a few

 walking through the cool orchid area I found some pink flowers

(flash fired again!)

 better representation of the colour here

as I came down the steps by these beauties (remarkably hard to photograph well)

I saw why the rock was empty - he'd obviously scampered along the top to the edge of the path

 I walked out through the desert section

 and whilst I don't really like the cacti as such, I did like the patterns

 I walked past the sculpture

 and as always was fascinated by the texture

they've put up a board to explain a bit about it

 there was a single rose bud left on a bush in the evolution garden

 I walked round some of the beds looking for texture and patterns

 out into the Rock Garden, the acer with the snowdrops underneath

 the into the alpine house

 Nerine

 scillia developing

more patterns
(the wall that supports the Japanese pagoda tree)

 looking through the seed pods at the corner of the Broad Walk

 the Christmas shop in the cafe

hot chocolate and a Chocolate Orange loaf cake


very sweet!

 I walked down the path towards the Temperate House and remembered I hadn't checked out the witch hazels last time,


they were looking amazing,

yellows

 pale oranges

 more yellow ones

 salmony pink ones

got a better close up on the phone

 then into the Temperate House

 my favourite silver daisy bush

 In what used to be the evolution house but is now an extension of the Temperate House across the path, I found some more grevillea

I hoped for reflections at the lake but it was a bit too dull


plenty of ducks and geese though

 hornbeam tree

 walked through the Palm House

 then back through the woodland bit past the funghi

 into the POW again

 the small water dragon had disappeared from the branch and a large one was lounging at the edge of the water

and the other one was back on his rock!

 I was heading for the exit now


this is the giant wisteria. devoid of leaves and it's gorgeous twisty bark

 is it just me or does it look like stick men with their arms out?


Love it

treeful of cones of some kind



thanks for looking - let's do it all again in 2020!!