QUEENSLAND SILVER WATTLE

 

Last week I wrote my Blog post while in an aeroplane flying to Queensland. Laurie and I have now spent the first week of our "Progress" up the southeast coast visiting friends and family. 

Initially we stayed inland from the Gold Coast, where one day we had a morning walk along the "The Broadwater".

I had never seen such a dense and beautifully spreading Casaurina as this one along the path.

I was surprised to see this Brushturkey. However, I soon realised that they have adapted to parts of the urban environment with its abundant food supply.

 

 This is also true of the Australian White Ibis.

Our friends, who live about 10 kms inland from the Gold Coast, have a house with a back yard that overlooks a reserve of remnant bushland. That is home to a small mob of Kangaroos.

In this photo, in the sunlight, the mother kangaroo has a Joey in her pouch, while her previous year's off-spring is in the foreground. The leaves at the bottom of the photo are plants in the house garden.

We are now in Brisbane and staying with a friend who has a small terrace garden with a wonderfully lush tropical feel. Dense planting along the fence line includes palms and Heliconias.

Over-flowing pots of succulents, Bougainvillea,...

...crucifix orchids, and more, make up for the lack of garden beds.

It is certainly enough to bring on a spot of what one of my students described as "Ikebana envy". Many gardeners would recognise the feeling.

Last week I mentioned that the Victorian Branch held a workshop that was presented by Vernisher Wooh from the Queensland Branch of the Sogetsu School. The theme of the morning workshop was, "using one kind of material...branches with fruit, berries or flowers on them." The focus of the workshop was on trimming. Given that it is winter, fruiting or berry bearing branches were not an option on the Surf Coast in Victoria.

However, I spied a beautiful Queensland Silver Wattle, Acacia podalyriifolia, in a friend's garden and was permitted to pick a branch.

In the event, the trimming turned out to be rather more radical than I, and some colleagues, had expected. The word 'simplified' was used and I realised that I had to do a major re-think of my 'trimming' expectation.

As you can see I completely removed all of the leaves from the branch, revealing the fine silvery branchlets but leaving the blossom on one of the branches. I really liked the transformation of the branch as it showed a different aspect of the beauty of the material.

Unfortunately, the change in my expectation of the anticipated workshop exercise revealed that my large vase was unsuited to the now-transformed material. The vase is too heavy-looking for the now fine-looking material. However, this was a workshop not an exhibition and workshops are where we have opportunities to learn.

I plan to publish photos from the workshop soon and will provide a link on next week's post.

Greetings from Christopher

17th July 2022