CURVES and SPACE

  

This morning was bright, sunny and windless. As I was preparing breakfast, I became aware of a very noisy chattering of a small flock of birds and went to investigate.

Sure enough some Rainbow Lorikeets were having a lovely time feeding on the nectar in the flowers of the Angophora costata that I mentioned in last week's posting. Most of the blossom is in a large mass on the crown of the tree and is not noticeable from ground level in the garden. Below are a couple of photos I took of some small clusters of blossom.

   

This second one was conveniently caught in the early morning sun. As I took the second photo... 

...I noticed this Australian magpie sitting silently while basking in the sunlight.

In the week before Christmas we had one day of 41.5 Celsius which somewhat ravaged this pale pink Hydrangea. I am thinking of removing the damaged flowers in the hope that it will promote some new flowers.  

The two pots of richer pink and the pale blue/mauve Hydrangeas did not suffer so badly in the heat as their flowers were not so developed. 

I am looking forward to an opportunity to use them in some ikebana before too long, because in February and March we usually have more consistently hot weather which could damage them.

In the meantime, I raided our neighbour's garden (with permission) for some South African Agapanthus which now are at their peak. One of the flowers had a beautiful natural curve and a smaller secondary flower on the curve of the stem.

Using an unusual contemporary-style Japanese ikebana vase, I set two stems of the Agapanthus at a slight angle to emphasise the graceful curve. The lowest flower is actually a second stem with a small flower that had just shed its calyx and placed in-line with the larger flower. I have added a contrasting mass of Bursaria, from our garden, behind the main stem. 

The Bursaria was a little past its prime and soon started to drop tiny white petals all over the shelf.

So five days later I slightly re-worked the ikebana after removing the Bursaria. This time I have increased the lean to the left, further emphasising the curve in the stem, and separated the two stems. I was really pleased by the narrow space created by the two parallel stems and find this version more satisfying than the first. 

Greetings from Christopher

25th January 2020