Last weekend Laurie and I went for a walk in the nearby nature reserve called Ironbark Basin, part of the Great Otway National Park and so named because Eucalyptus tricarpa (I think) is the dominant species in the valley. There are many species of eucalypts given the common name Ironbark for their tough, dark and deeply furrowed bark.
The nature reserve sits above Addiscot Beach, a long sandy beach sheltered from the prevailing west to south westerly winds.
As we walked along the access road toward Point Addis we noticed a Grass Tree Xanthorrhoea australis, with two tall stems in flower.
This close-up shows the multiple spidery flowers starting to open. In a few weeks, the stems should be densely covered in flowers and visited by butterflies.
We also came across a Waxlip orchid Calandenia major, which was growing in a small 'forest' of the flowers, but sadly could not be satisfactorily photographed as a group.
Nearby was a Wallflower orchid Diuris orientis. We called them 'Bee orchids' when I was a child because of the 'wings' and 'legs' that hang down. After doing a bit of searching I found a lot of photos of '... Common Orchids of the Anglesea Heathlands' that you might want to look at through the link. Anglesea is the next coastal town only about 4 kilometres past Ironbark Basin.
Two weeks ago the Annual Exhibition of Ikebana International Melbourne Chapter was held in a vacant retail space in 'District Docklands' on the west side of the city. If you follow the link above it will take you to photos of the exhibition.
Above is my ikebana, reconstructed at home after the exhibition. I have used two lengths of Honeysuckle vine that I doweled together using bamboo skewers. The vine was about 20 years old when I had to cut it down as it was interfering with the operation of the garage door. I thought the lines in the vine were particularly beautiful and decided they should be my principal subject. By dowelling them together I was able to create a floating effect around the large vessel by Graeme Wilkie. Three maroon anthurium flowers served as a focal point to the linear arrangement.
Greetings from Christopher
12th October 2019
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