The area around where we live has changed from open farm land with bare paddocks to an urban forest in the last 60+ years. The suburban development occurred in a period when garden fashion favoured Australian native plants. The consequence has been good for the enrichment of the environment and good for the wildlife that live in this area. I am particularly conscious of the much greater diversity of bird life compared to the time of my childhood.
A couple of days ago, while walking along the track by the creek, I noticed a family of Gang Gang cockatoos feeding in a tree. I find it rather intriguing that these cockatoos are less disturbed by the close presence of humans compared to many other birds that we see. This juvenile male was calmly shredding the fruit of a Bushy Yate Eucalyptus lehmannii, while I stood on the path and took photographs.
In our garden...
...I was surprised a week ago to notice that the Japanese flowering quince, Chaenomeles, had started flowering. It is rather early, which I attribute to the dry autumn with some heavy rain a couple of weeks ago. I am looking forward to there being more of these lovely flowers to make some ikebana with them.
In my Geelong class recently...
Jo's exercise was to make an ikebana using a glass vessel. She had brought a long Pomegranate branch with a number of fruit at the end of fine very flexible stems. The solution to the question of balancing the branch was to have the weight of the fruit within and very close to the vessel, with the branch stem cantilevered outside it.
The senior students' exercise was to arrange Autumn materials.
Maureen had also brought some Pomegranate branches. She arranged them naturalistically in this white vase that allowed them to hang in graceful curves.
Ellie made an interesting interpretation of the Autumn materials theme. Using glass box-shaped vessels she placed: Chestnuts, Japanese maple leaves (acer palmatum), and Persimmon fruit; all floating or submerged beneath the water. The vessel at the back is half-filled with water only, for the refracted images it created.
Helen used a bare stem of Grape vine Vitis, three Canna leaves and a single Pomegranate fruit which is partially visible at the mouth of the vessel.
Christine used a couple of branches of Claret Ash, Fraxinus angustifolia, and some Hakea seed capsules in a large red-coloured resin vase.
My ikebana this week is one of the arrangements I made in the demonstration for the Geelong Gallery. It is a single material ikebana using the stem, flowers and leaves of Pincushion Hakea H. Laurina. In preparation I have stripped about 40 percent of the leaves from the two branches so that the flowers can be seen clearly. I have also positioned the branches so that the lance-shaped leaves are, in the main, curving upward. The lines of the stems and leaves, and the curve of the vessel, create a strong feeling of movement.
The vessel is by Graham Wilkie of Qdos Gallery in Lorne.
Greetings from Christopher
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