After the frost and sunshine last week, today was much duller and cloudy with a hint of dampness in the air as I left.
and you can see the difference in my opening shot - not a hint of blue today!
the fountain was off again but still plenty of reflections in the pond
I headed off down the Broad Walk - the pink hellebores at the top nearest the Palm House are gorgeous
the euphorbia are starting to bud up
(funnily enough whilst I was there, my cousin posted some pics on FB of the euphorbia at Coome Wood)
I went to check out how the Orchid display is coming along..
they are doing timed ticket slots this year and all the weekend ones seem to have been booked, although there will be some available on the day
this was just inside the door... Some kind of bird I think
Lens kept misting up .....
the main centrepiece in the pond
the feathery top (with slightly misty lens!)
they are obviously still working on it - a couple of weeks till it opens
still blooming misted up
the arch, upstairs
view of the pond from upstairs
lots of animals around.. I think these are going to be orangutans by the looks of things
some kind of cat .... probably
one of the pillars
back in the main bit
that plant stem again, they do look like eyes don't they (someone commented last week)
the leaf from the stem
the centrepiece - finally un-misted!
well, I go out past it, would be rude not to..
they had moved the scillia up onto one of the rocks in the Alpine House, I nearly missed it --
looking gorgeous though
small euphorbia, in the Rock Garden
Glycyrrjizza yunnanensis... what a mouthful
in the Evolution garden
the trees were making striking pictures against the sky
early daffodils starting to flower
heading back round the pond for food!
I love the war memorial bench from all kinds of angles
a very expensive spray of seedheads in the shop...
today's cake was blackberry and lime... yummy
and hot chocolate, as is my norm these days
then went and checked the hellebores
lots of different varieties
as they mostly hang their heads down making photographing them hard, I was lucky to find one flower fallen off, in the edge of the flowerbed
what a gorgeous colour!
raspberry ripple!
looked for the label again, still can't find one
the (large) shrub is covered in them though
with the Temperate House in the distance
they kept the original signs at the doors
jasmine, smells delicious
orchids in pots
the silver daisy bush I love, starting to flourish again
from the stairs up to the viewing platform
back down on the ground - above my head
quite a lot of yellow in the Temperate House at the moment
back out into the solidly grey sky!
huge clumps of snowdrops in the arboretum
heading for the lake....
the ones in the rock garden are fading now
wibbly-wobbly reflections
looking towards the Palm House
mossy tree trunk
I was actually trying to take snowdrops, without using the viewfinder (ground too muddy to get low enough) but I quite like trees I did get!
camelia
the rhododendrons that were flowering so nicely last week were badly damaged by the frost and had gone brown. good job there are loads more to come.
more gorgeous deep purple hellebores
tangle of branches in the sky...
coral bark maple... beautiful colour!
there were lots of geese resting in the grass
more pretty stems, this one's an acer
mossy-lichen covered branches of an ash tree
I walked through the Palm House, and for the first time in I don't know how long, climbed up to walk round the top..
had a real problem with the lens misting,
these are the best I could get - despite wiping with my lens cloth!
there's a lot of rust about!
I could hear birds singing but couldn't spot any - they do have a robin and wrens inside here - I've seen the robin once or twice
back outside, the gulls were flying around
I went back to the hellebores at the top of the Broad Walk again
before cutting across to the Princess of Wales glasshouse past another mossy tree trunk
went a different way round this time inside
in the background, some wicker baskets for part of the orchid display
I love these every year
orchids covering a pillar
that arch from before, not misted up this time!
had to take this over people's heads!
I think he's going to be a favourite!
It's great to see the work in progress, no doubt next week a lot more will have been done!
thanks for looking!
