BLOSSOMS

This prunus is in the street outside my office. Last week I noticed on Tuesday morning that a single blossom had opened. A week later and it is almost fully out.

A closer view shows there are a few unopened buds. Keeping in mind that Ikebana is an art form attuned to the seasons the sight of the tree prompted me to set my students the exercise of an arrangement of blossom in a suiban without a kenzan. Tonight we are expecting a return to rain and wintery conditions. Next week there may not be many blossoms left.

 The sun's weak and watery looking rays were streaming through the clouds on Thursday morning. The picture is taken from Point Danger at one end of the Front Beach at Torquay.

This was the sight looking a little to the left of the picture above, showing the front beach at Torquay. What a comparison to the pictures I took two weeks ago. Now the tide is low and the sea is as 'calm as a mill-pond'. 

This is the scene at next beach, the Surf Beach. With the tide out and the sea so still there is no chance for surfing. The most distant piece of land almost on the horizon is Point Addis. 

 Here is a better image of the wind-swept cypresses without any rain.

In the garden this white Japonica I planted last year is about to open its' first flower,

and the Echium (E. Fastuosum I think, from the Canary Islands) is also just coming into bloom. There is a larger plant in the garden and this one is a self sown.

The delightful, delicate Australian native clematis (Clematis microphylla) has also started to open its' flowers.

Here is a new arrangement of Japonica in the vase I used last week. Fortunately this is a much clearer picture.

I created this ikebana with the purple flowering Kennedia vine, in our entrance using a hanging bamboo vase given to me by Maatsura Keiko, a friend from Nagoya. I love the way the Kennedia cascades its' beauty in welcome. The arrangement looks better viewed from the side when you walk past it. However, I didn't photograph that angle because of the door in the background.

Greetings from Christopher.

7th August 2011