CURVING LINES

A few weeks ago we noticed the unusual sight of a couple of black swans swimming on one of the dams on the Torquay golf links. The dams are a relatively new feature, created to help provide a more reliable water source for the links.

In this photo there are a couple spreading their wings on the opposite side of the dam.

In this zoomed photo, the birds are actually two of four cygnets that hatched only a couple of months ago.

These are the parents, just out of view to the left of the first photo, who are still keeping a watch over the youngsters and would undoubtedly make threatening noises and gestures if I had been much closer.

*          *          *          *          *

  

As we sat down to dinner two nights ago I just happened to look up and noticed the light from the setting sun bouncing off one of the windows and back-lighting this leaf of a Canna Lily "Tropicana". It was a beautiful but fleeting moment that I couldn't resist trying to catch.

Also in the garden is a self-sown Feverfew, Tanacetum parthenium. A very small plant just suddenly appeared a couple of years ago and I thought it would be worthwhile to keep it for use in ikebana. I am surprised that such a dainty and delicate looking plant survives quite well in our garden with just a little water. 

At the end-of-year celebration for my Torquay and Geelong students a week and a half ago, in addition to the ikebana I included in last week's posting, I had made a second ikebana.  I decided to use the first of this year's hydrangeas.

The ikebana was an example of a 'mass and line' exercise using the greenish hydrangea with a variegated aspidistra leaf. I curved the leaf to follow the line in the glass bottle-shaped vase and shredded one half to create soft flowing lines. The other side of the leaf, which was left whole, had a single broad cream coloured band.

 

The placement in the room meant that it was seen from two angles. This is the second view, where the flowerhead is seen through the lines of the aspidistra.

The hydrangea had a shorter vase life than the aspidistra, so...

...I re-used it in the arrangement above using a mass of Feverfew for the first time. Here it is arranged in a shallow vessel by the Castlemaine ceramic artist Dean Smith.

Greetings from Christopher

13th December 2020