AUTUMN PINK

During the last couple of weeks we have had some days that were quite warm and dry. I have taken advantage of the weather to repaint the garden bench and the table on the terrace. Yesterday, I managed to paint a small deck at the back door before the rain that arrived overnight.

On one of the warmer mornings Laurie and I had a walk on the beach before breakfast. I took this photo of a rock pool in a cave that passes right through a large rock at the end of the beach. The water from the previous high tide was still dripping from the roof of the cave.

In the garden a Japanese Windflower anemone huphensis has flowered for the first time. It was a given to me by Margaret L., an ikebana colleague. The flower is very small probably because the soil is so poor and I planted it in the shade to protect it from the summer sun. 

None the less, it looks charming like its common name.

One of the last Lorraine Lee roses to escape the ravages of the possums this year has just opened. Its survival can be attributed to being on the end of a long thin branch that could not support the weight of a possum. And the Albertine rose, which is being buried by a pandorea pandorana vine, has produced an out of season autumn flower. 

I decided to use these flowers in a small arrangement on the dining table because their fragrance is so beautiful. By placing the small black egg-shaped vessel on a larger celadon platter, the soft pinks had a more suitable background than the wooden table surface. For the purpose of the photograph I have put a white card underneath the platter. 

The Hydrangeas, which I have to grow in pots, have started to take on their autumn colouring. This one, above, has a large pink flower when it first comes out it then slowly goes green and then develops autumnal colouring. Last week I used one of the unexpectedly-late-forming fresh pink flower-heads with some of the fading flowers. Today I picked the last of the fresh pink flower-heads and arranged it with the blue-grey foliage of the Cootamundra Wattle Acacia baileyana. 

I have created a horizontal ikebana with these materials in a large slab-construction vessel made with soft-pink marbled clay. The ikebana is dedicated to the memory of Doreen Schofield, a Sogetsu practitioner who studied with Norman Sparnon in the early days of his teaching in Melbourne. Doreen was an active member of Ikebana International Melbourne for 55 years and a committee member for 39 of those years. She donated many of her ikebana vessels to Ikebana International and the one shown was from her collection. The vessel was made by the New Zealand ceramicist Keith Blight.

Greetings from Christopher
11th April 2020