BELLADONNA

Harking back to last week's posting, the bee-keeper, rescuer, did arrive. No more bees in the compost bin.

This is Garry lifting the bin off the compost heap.

Later, he cut the large pieces of honeycomb from the side of the bin and placed them in a prepared beehive box. I really admired his cautious and gentle approach, taking great care not to stress the bees.

Changing hemispheres...

 

...two days ago, my internet friend Amos sent this picture from his garden in Maryland, USA. "... four inches of snow so far..." he reported. I checked the temperature at the time and it was -7 Celsius. 

Meanwhile, in this hemisphere, the ducks looked very comfortable on the golf links at Torquay. I wonder whether the golfers were using their presence to take a breather.

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Last week the senior students in my Geelong class were set the topic of an ikebana arrangement on the theme of 'Summer by the Sea'. As one should expect, there were a variety of interpretations of the theme. Here are some examples.

Maureen used a large piece of driftwood, to which she added fresh material including Pigface, Carpobrotus virescens (which grows in our sand-dunes), a red Lucadendron and an unidentified green material.

Christine arranged some dried kelp in an opaque green glass vase. The contrasting fresh material is a succulent, I think perhaps a cultivar of Crassula arborescens.

On the edge of a bowl that suggested a rock pool, Helen arranged a piece of drift wood. Beneath the water is a shell which is partly screened by Samphire, Crithmum maritimum,

An arrangement using direct fixing was Tess's exercise at the class. This means that no mechanical techniques can be used. It is a surprisingly difficult task in a tall nageire vase, especially a glass one - because the surface is slippery. She has used bamboo and Plumbago auriculata. 

In our garden...

... the first of the Belladonna Lilies, Amaryllis belladonna, has flowered. It is a favourite of mine having come from my parents garden and, by family tradition, being associated with my birthday. Last year I missed the opportunity of using it in an ikebana, so I was determined to do so this year. My grandmother called this the Naked-lady-lily because the flowers appear before the leaves, the long bare stems producing an elegant line.

I have tried to capture the simple elegance of the flower by arranging only one stem with two bullrush leaves that I have curved to create a flowing movement around the flowers. As I was setting up to take this photograph the sun broke through the clouds creating a shaft of bright light. So I patiently waited until it began to cloud over again to capture this softer light.

The small ceramic bowl is by the South Australian ceramic artist Jane Robertson.

Greetings from Christopher

13th February 2021