WINTER SOLSTICE

In the Melbourne Botanical Gardens last week we were surprised to see this black swan with three quite young cygnets. Undoubtedly the early breeding is a sign of how mild the weather was in late autumn.

The surface of the lake is covered in a water weed.  Earlier on the same walk, we noticed an amphibious machine thrashing across the main lake as it scooped up the water weed.  Later on it might get to this more secluded section of the lake.

However, here we are now at the Winter Solstice, in the southern hemisphere. After a very dry summer and autumn we have finally had some good rain. The garden is looking much greener and, in the morning, raindrops are sparkling on leaves and flowers.

I was especially surprised to see a single Forsythia flower open (complete with glistening raindrop).

I lifted the stem to get a look at the face of the flower.

This is the small shrub that was given to me a couple of years ago by my friend and former work colleague Shirley. If you have sharp eyes you will see the flower in the bottom left of this photograph.

A few days earlier, through the kitchen window, I had noticed a spot of bright red. It turned out to be the first of the red Japanese Flowering Quince Chaenomeles japonica.  There are only a few buds at the moment. However, I hope for a good flowering over the next few weeks. This is one of the beautiful sights of winter in our garden. Our Acacia will blossom a little later, at this stage there are only  buds to be seen.

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On Tuesday last, Elizabeth set our class the exercise of making an ikebana arrangement using unconventional (man made) materials. I scoured the garage for stored objects looking for something that might make an interesting subject and was pleased to come across a small roll of wire mesh. I rolled the mesh into a 'cone' form from one end. Then from the other end I created another 'cone' in the opposite orientation. Neither of the cones actually come to a point. This meant that the two 'cones' had their open ends on opposite sides of the mesh roll.

When doing this exercise the ‘unconventional’ material needs to be clearly integrated into the design and not simply a decoration. Therefore, either the fresh or the unconventional material should be the dominant subject of the ikebana, but the other material must clearly be necessary for the arrangement to be complete.

In this case the unconventional material is the main subject of the ikebana to which I have added a single white camellia. The vessel is a stainless steel cone with holes irregularly perforating the surface. 

Greetings from Christopher
23rd June 2019

The June workshop of the Sogetsu Branch was on the subject of making an ikebana arrangement for a particular location. Click here for photos from workshop.