WINTER COMES

A couple of weeks ago we finally had some good rain after a very dry beginning to the year. In fact, for a whole week we had some rain on every day, which was most welcome.

The result of all that rain was the boardwalk along the mouth of Spring Creek at Torquay became flooded. Appearances are deceptive as Spring Creek, which has a small catchment area, is actually intermittent and only flows into the sea occasionally.

The sensation of walking across the water so close to the surface feels strange as we are more used to walking along the sand looking out to sea at the waves.

This view, back toward the sea, from further along the boardwalk shows the high level of the creek and the sand bar that stoped the water from flowing into the sea. A week after this photo was taken we had one night of very heavy rain and the sand bar was broken through...

...leaving very little water and a large expanse of sand. 

  

Now when the tide is high it flows up the creek for about 300 metres, and then out again at low tide. That is until the next storm that washes in enough sand to create another sand bar.

The welcome rain has turned the dry grasses green and brought a flock of Galahs (Eolophus roseicapilla) to feed on grass roots on this playing field . 

    

In the garden we have been blessed with a visit by some Gang-gang cockatoos (Calocephalon frimbiatum) which were feeding on the flowers in a eucalyptus. We are indeed blessed to be able to enjoy these riches of nature.

When I turn to my practise of ikebana I am again drawn to the variety of nature's beauty. But when I do, I engage with it in a quite direct way. For example, last week I attended a class with my teacher Elizabeth. Our exercise was to make an ikebana arrangement using two vessels. Following Elizabeth's example when she set the exercise at the previous class, I thought I would use two vessels that do not match. I chose two circular bowls by two different ceramic artists. The larger, by Jane Barrrow, had a pale blue (chun?) glaze and the smaller, by Alistair Whyte, has a pale green celadon glaze.

My thought was to make an ikebana work that drew out particular qualities of the materials I chose, in this case a white camellia. The finer stems, of this particular camellia at least, are very flexible, the leaves glossy and the flower is a fresh white. These are the elements that I wanted to show. 

Here is the beginning of my work, (too many leaves). My plan was to place a single white flower in the smaller bowl. However, I could not make it sit looking up.

My solution was to place all the materials in the blue bowl. I removed many leaves so that the materials were only a few centimetres above the rims. This enabled the flower to look up showing its whole face and the branch lines to show around the inside of the blue bowl with one extending the curving line horizontally outside the bowl. The elimination of most of the leaves makes it easier for the viewer to see them and the lines, especially as there is only one flower. The smaller celadon bowl contains water only. 


Greetings from Christopher
8th June 2019