THE FEELING OF WINTER

On one of our daily walks recently I was delighted to see this small flock of Galahs perching in a Melaleuca lanceolata by the foreshore in Torquay. They had been tearing at the roots of some grasses before they were startled and flew into the tree.

 

On Thursday, in the Iron Bark Basin nature reserve...

...we saw this lone Kookaburra, perched on a branch. These birds are more commonly seen in forested areas and are now occasionally seen where we live because of the large number of native trees that were planted in the 1960s and 70s.

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Two of my students recently created ikebana on the theme of a winter arrangement. 

Ellie said she was inspired by the idea that citrus are fruit that start to be harvested in winter. Her contemporary style ikebana includes a lime, lemon, tamarillo and a bare branch in a black vessel. The use of bold colours and the black vessel set me thinking of the De Stijl art movement.

Eugenia has created a classic winter arrangement using a single pale pink camellia and bare branch in a black suiban. The reduced colour palate and bare branches evoke the stark beauty that can be found in winter.

This winter in Victoria has been quite dry. Only yesterday I decided it was necessary to water some of the plants in the garden to prevent them from becoming stressed. At the same time, and perhaps unrelated, we have been visited at night by Brushtail Possums. They have been ravaging the large Lorraine Lee climbing rose and eating the petals on the Japanese Flowering Quince, Chaenomeles japonica.

The flowering quince is one of my favourite winter ikebana subjects and I was despairing of being able to pick any this year. Three weeks ago I noticed a plump bud that had not been eaten so I quickly cut a couple of branches.

This is the first version of the ikebana I arranged, using two branches in a black plastic suiban. You may just see a small intense red-pink bud on the lower left  of the main stem.

Here it is in close-up where, in the warmth of the living room overnight, the flower opened to a beautiful cup of pink containing a mass of yellow stamens.

Several days later the buds had begun to enlarge. I repositioned the two stems and added some white narcissus from a small clump to give an added feeling of freshness and new growth. Because the clump of narcissus was small I did not pick any leaves as that would have deprived the bulb of nutrients for the rest of the season. The green leaves I have added are from a Crocosmia.

Two weeks later the narcissus had finished but the quince had blossomed beautifully. As you can see the flowers that have opened after the branches had been cut and brought inside are progressively more pale.

Greetings from Christopher

1st August 2020