AROUND and ABOUT

I was back in the Royal Melbourne Botanic Gardens earlier this week I noticed that the first of the various narcissus had sent up leaves and were raising their heads underneath one of the large oaks.

As you can see this area where the bulbs have been planted has been roped off to protect the plants and perhaps reduce the temptation for children to pick them.

These are the first flowers which must have opened only a few days earlier. They make a bright spot in the middle of our winter. I will try to monitor the progress of this planting as it is large and will look especially beautiful in a few more weeks.

On Thursday Laurie and I headed up to Sydney for a few days.

This image is of a Japanese wood block print that I noticed yesterday in the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Appropriately, it is a winter scene showing a flock of birds flying over a river in a snowy landscape. The weather feels slightly cool to us, but of course it is not remotely snowy in our part of the world even though it is midwinter.

A brighter scene was this one of a large work by the late Rosalie Gascoigne. She enjoyed a well-regarded reputation for her assemblages of found objects in her rather late-life career as a contemporary artist. She is well known among Australian Sogetsu practitioners as she had studied ikebana with Norman Sparnon.

This work is made from sections of road signs she had gathered.

I am showing this other beautiful sculpture so that you can clearly identify my location!

On Saturday some friends took us to Ku-ring-gai Chase, one of the national parks north of the Sydney. I was delighted to see many banksias in flower.

The rich orange flower of this banksia was especially abundant.

To my delight we were shown some figurative Petroglyphs made by the original Aboriginal people of this area. The images carved into the flat sandstone included male and female figures, hunting and ceremonial objects, as well as fish and a line of wallabies. 
   

Unfortunately it was very difficult to get a clear photograph of the glyphs because of the barriers protecting these precious images. However, it was moving to be able to observe them and feel the extraordinary depth of history that they represent.

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In the world of ikebana a couple of weeks ago I attended the June meeting of Ikebana International, Melbourne Chapter. The theme was 'Mediterranean Gardens' as our guest speaker was the international President of the Mediterranean Garden Society, Caroline Davies. 

I made the arrangement above using materials from our garden. The Rosemary grows along the garden path and I am pleased to say it has started to self-seed elsewhere around the garden. The large leaves are Acanthus, growing well in a shady position on the south side of the house. I have made a massed arrangement with space on the right side showing the surface of the water. The Chun-glazed suiban is by Jane Barrow, a New South Wales ceramic artist.

Further photos from the I.I. Melbourne Chapter meeting.

Greetings from Christopher
30th June 2019