A SLANTING ARRANGEMENT of CROCOSMIA

At the beginning of the week, as I was preparing for bed, I noticed this small lizard, a Marbled Gecko, on the outside glass of the living room window. The grey lines behind the lizard are external louvers. This is a great spot for the little creature to catch insects that are drawn to the light inside the house. Many small flying insects land on the window and just stop there. It would seem that they cannot fly away from the bright light.

Today, several days later, the weather was warm with a strong easterly wind.

This was the view today from the west end of the Torquay Surf Beach looking toward Point Danger at the eastern end.

Looking west from the same place is Jan Juc Beach, which was closed because of the very strong cross-currents caused by the easterly winds. In the distance is Sunny Side Beach, with Point Addis beyond and very faint in the photo.

When we later went for a walk along the creek I noticed the brilliant orange of a flowering mass of Crocosmia aurea, an African grassland plant which is in the iris family.

It is  a garden escapee that is doing rather too well in the moist environment of the creek. The colour is striking, and I did not have to wrestle with my conscience about gathering some of this weed for this week's ikebana.

I have arranged three stems, with their leaves attached. Because of the forward curve of the tip of the inflorescence, I set them at an angle to better show the fully opened flowers. The shorter second and third stems are on opposite sides of the main, Shin line. The angle of the stems also gives the ikebana a more dramatic look in the Japanese ikebana vase. Three leaves at the front are set in the traditional style for arranging irises; that is, each leaf is of a different length and the central leaf is shorter than the two on each side. This configuration is not apparent in the photograph.

Greetings from Christopher,

19th January 2025

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