SOME AUTUMN COLOURS

A week ago there was a strong cold front that swept up from the Southern Ocean. It produced very cold weather for a couple of days and a large swell on the sea. I was really surprised to see the large volume of water that washed over the sand bar into Spring Creek at Torquay's surf beach, when there was a particularly high tide. The next three photos show a wave washing into the mouth of the creek that had been blocked for a couple of weeks by the sand bar.

   

   

The weather brought by the cold front had a distinct feeling of the coming winter. The autumn has been fairly mild with some extra rain, so there has been some out-of-season growth; and the autumn colours, such as they are, have been slow to develop. In our garden it is only a few exotic plants that develop autumn colour. None of the native plants, which are the majority in our garden, lose their leaves in winter.

  

This is a later-flowering scabiosa atropurpurea that I couldn't resist photographing this morning.

However, here is true autumn colouring on a small self-sown apple that caught my attention in the late afternoon sun yesterday afternoon.

This is a Pomegranate punica granatum that I have covered with a net so that the birds do not eat the bright red flowers which they mistake for berries. Unfortunately, the net also prevents insects from pollenating the flowers. So no fruit! Once it is big enough I will remove the net and see what happens. I am not optimistic.

The Hydrangea, that originally came from Laurie's family home, does colour beautifully and may feature in an ikebana if I get my timing right. 

This Hydrangea flower, from Rosemary and David's garden, was late forming and as a consequence has been slow to colour. It may become quite a bit more red.

Here is a simple ikebana which is not strongly suggestive of autumn. However, it is an interesting combination of a delicate flower and a large leaf surface which provides a background for the curving stem of a hybrid Abelia, Abelia x grandiflora. The vessel is a small, shino-glazed, ceramic suiban.

In this Ikebana I have used the only large Hydrangea flower that survived last summer's hot days. The leaf is from a Strelitzia reginae plant and has a maroon central rib that matches the deeper reds in the flower.



This second photo shows the line and mass of the arrangement as well as the profile of the vessel more satisfactorily. The vase is by the USA ceramic artist Mark Bell from Maine.

Greetings from Christopher
17th May 2020