Wednesday of last week was rather warm, in the mid 30's at Torquay.
As we walked along the Front Beach I was really surprised to see a long band of rich pink in the water. It was an algal bloom being carried onto the beach by an easterly wind.
I have read about 'red tides', however this was the first time that I had seen one.
As the algae washed onto the beach the waves became pink and streaked with the colour. A newspaper report the following day advised avoiding contact with the algae because of the risk of skin irritation.
Two days later we had a single hot day right across the state and the maximum temperature in Torquay was 45.1 Celsius. This was the highest daily temperature ever recorded here. My thoughts go out to people in the other states where conditions have been much worse for a long time, and where bushfires are raging.
One day later, with a strong southerly wind, the temperature is now below 20C. The windsurfers were out in force at Point Danger making the most of the conditions.
In anticipation of the extreme heat on Friday I soaked the more vulnerable plants in the garden and picked five of the nine Acanthus mollis flower spikes that have grown this year. I usually miss the opportunity of creating ikebana with these flower spikes and was determined not to this year. I correctly judged that the remaining flowers would be crisped by Friday's expected heat.
I arranged the long spikes with two dried artichoke flower heads. Because of the slant of the irregular box-shaped vessel I decided to continue the sense of movement by aligning the stems with its sloping sides. I used internal fixing techniques to support the stems at a slant without having them rest on the sides of the vessel.
The ikebana vessel is by Yutaka Nakamura from Echizen in Japan.
This year's Christmas tree was created with dried leaves from Ficus lyrata and F. elastica, that grow in the conservatory. I have painted the back of a couple of the leaves red and added some red and gold baubles.
Wishing you good health and all the best for the holiday season.
Greetings from Christopher
21st December 2019
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