A couple of days ago the weather was sunny enough to entice us to go for a longer walk than our usual routine. We went to Iron Bark Basin, a nearby part of the Great Otway National Park. The Park is a series of mostly coastal forest areas on the south west coast of Victoria that are managed under a single authority. It is a lovely time of year for the flowering of many plants including some of the terrestrial orchids.
As it turned out we saw only a few varieties of orchids. However, the Grass trees, Xanthorrhoea australis, were looking quite splendid. The inflorescence on these two...
...were a good 2 metres tall.
This close up shows the myriad of small flowers that cover the stem.
The only orchid that I successfully photographed was this Waxlipped orchid, Glossodia major. I took a couple of other photographs but ended up with sharply focused backgrounds and blurry orchids.
This was definitely the big excitement of our walk. A relative of Spike, I am sure. It froze just as Laurie noticed the movement from the corner of his eye. So, after we had stood stock still for a few minutes, the Echidna concluded we were not a threat and calmly wandered across the path.
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In a recent class in Melbourne Jacqueline had the exercise of making an ikebana to be seen from below.
It is surprisingly difficult to a make an ikebana look right when it is viewed from below the level of the top of the vessel. One of the most important things the student discovers is that the flowers have to be brought well forward so that their 'front' can be seen. Jacqueline made a design with a strong movement to the right using the leaves of the Clivia flowers.
Marcia's exercise was to make an ikebana incorporating Iris. Unlike in Japan, in Australia it is very difficult (just about impossible) to buy a quantity of iris leaves at a florist shop. To have sufficient leaves you have grow your own, and be prepared to cut the required number. Marcia's solution was to incorporate the Iris x hollandica with Umbrella grass, Cyperus alternifolius. Her simple looking asymmetrical design of crossing lines made a very sharp image and was a good alternative to a traditional iris ikebana.
During the week I made this simple, one-material ikebana using Jasmine from the garden. What really surprised me was that, for the first time ever, the cascading line was easy to arrange. In my experience when a stem of Jasmine is placed in a cascading position it twists and the flowers face down instead of up.
I was pleased that the small quantity of Jasmine lasted well, providing a soft fragrance as I walked past it from time to time.
On Monday last week the Sogetsu School, Victorian Branch held a workshop that was led by Emily Karanikolopoulos. Her subject was making ikebana to be given as a gift. Emily demonstrated a number of techniques to secure materials so that the ikebana can be carried while maintaining the integrity of the design.
Above is my ikebana made as an arrangement for a long table. I have used Coastal Banksia, Banksia integrifolia, from the garden. Unfortunately it is not easy to see in this photo that the materials were set in three cuboidal ceramic vases using florists foam. Using three vases meant that they could be arranged in a number of sequences to suit the size of the table where they could be placed.
Greetings from Christopher
1st October 2022
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