AGM and CANADA

On Tuesday this week the Melbourne Chapter of Ikebana International held its Annual General Meeting. As is the usual practise at the AGM, the heads of each of the different ikebana schools in the Chapter gave a brief demonstration. Being the director of the Sogetsu School branch I participated with a nageire free-style, horizontal arrangement. 

I have used materials from our garden all of which are Australian native flora. The main branches are the beautiful orange leaves of Bushy Yate, Euclyptus lehmanii. I have been watching these leaves from my bathroom window over recent weeks. Their colour, which is quite autumnal-looking, is most unusual. I suspect those branches are infected with a fungus or have been attacked by some insect. Stretching further to the left are some stems of Swan River Pea, Gastrolobium celsianum. This is a semi-prostrate plant with bright red pea flowers in late winter/early spring. Below are photos of the plant taken in our garden.

I have removed all the dark green leaves to emphasise the warm colour palate in the arrangement. The third material is Golden Wattle Acacia pycnantha, which grows in the reserve at the back of our garden and is the national floral emblem of Australia.

I re-set the arrangement when I returned home. The tapering porcelain vase is by the Victorian ceramic artist, Arnaud Barraud.

For more photos from the AGM, click on the blue text.

Yesterday Laurie and I set off on 'The Canadian', VIA Rail's four day train from Vancouver to Toronto. 

This photo is taken from the 'dome' car on the train as we travelled through the Canadian Rockies. The 'mist' is actually smoke from the 500-odd wildfires burning in British Colombia.

The red dot at the top of this photo was how the sun looked at 9.30 this morning when we stopped at Jasper.

Greetings from Christopher, 
enroute to Edmonton.
18th August 2018