Today is Boxing Day, the day after Christmas Day. Yesterday we had most of Laurie's family to lunch at our house, 36 people. Fortunately one of his nieces and her husband are chefs so they prepared all the food. In the quiet of the day after I took a walk along the beaches toward Bell's Beach. This is Jan Juc Beach in the late afternoon, with the township of Torquay in the distance, looking east.
This view is further along the coast where the cliffs are not quite so high. The light yellowish colour is the seaweed that covers the rocks that are exposed when the tide is low.
At the bottom of these cliffs the trees come down quite low.
As you can see they are twisted into fascinating shapes by the prevailing winds.
Sometimes after heavy rain there is a landslide and the trees are washed down onto the beach. The wood then becomes bleached by the sun and the sea. This creates wonderful ikebana sculptures made by nature.
Today there were a couple of white faced herons fishing among the rocks.
They may have been looking for these small starfish. I've always been fascinated by their pentagon shape. They do not have obvious 'arms' like most starfish.
This is a brown sea-anemone that I noticed,
and here is a red one, as well as some sea-snails and a small green starfish.
Inspired by my teacher Elizabeth Angell I made this ikebana for Christmas using pine, 'Chrismas Lilies' and red painted bamboo.
This second ikebana is at the end of a corridor. The pine was given to me by a neighbour from his garden. The wood fired vase with a Shino glaze is by Sergio Sill from New South Wales.
Wishing you peace at Christmas.
Christopher
26th December 2011
Christopher, thanks for the wonderful pictures of your seaside. Michael and I had a nice Christmas dinner at his mother's with two of his brothers. Your Christmas arrangements are wonderful. Love using pine when I can get it. Hope you and Laurie have a wonderful holiday season and a healthy and prosperous New Year. Yours, Michael
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