After our tour of Fallingwater (see last week's blog), we travelled with my ikebana friend Michael and his partner Mike to spend a couple of days with them in their Florida home. What a change of climate. Orlando is at a similar distance from the equator to Brisbane in Australia and seems to have a similar climate, though the latter is a bit drier. I was rather amazed to see huge lengths of Spanish Moss trailing from trees (and power lines). Apparently it rarely kills trees, but I saw groves of orange trees covered in it that looked decidedly unhealthy.
Above, it looks beautiful framing this view of the lake at the bottom of our friends' garden.
Above, by climbing on a wall, I managed to take this photo of a single petal caught among some Spanish Moss that had attached to the spikes on the tree trunk.
Two weeks ago, when we were in Maine, I picked some miscanthus that I later noticed had a white stripe down the central rib. I thought I would like to emphasise this feature so I cut the flowers off and arranged, it in a glass salad bowl, leaning well forward to show the stripe.
Then I added a long stemmed hydrangea stripped of leaves to preserve the emphasis of the lines in the design.
Greetings from Christopher
1st November 2014* click on the blue text for further information
Thank you for sharing all the lovely photos you have taken during your travel adventures. You have made me want to go to some of these places and I have enjoyed seeing the arrangements you have made along the way. I especially like this one with the grasses and hydrangea.
ReplyDeleteDear Gail, I am please you enjoyed this weeks ikebana and postings from the US and Canada. You live in a beautiful part of the world with a lot of lush vegetation inviting ikebanists to be creative. Regards, Christopher
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