PAYING ATTENTION TO THE CURVE

At the beginning of the week, Laurie and I went to Cape Schanck on the southern tip of the Mornington Peninsula. It is on the eastern side of Port Phillip Bay, an area of Victoria I had never visited before. 

The lighthouse at Cape Schanck has always held a particular fascination for me since my childhood. At night, the lighthouse's unique signal, its "light characteristic", is visible from the high cliffs on the west side of Torquay, 24km away. However, in daylight the distant lighthouse is not visible. 

This view is on the Bass Strait side of the peninsula looking west along the coast toward the narrow opening of Port Phillip Bay.

The cliffs below the lighthouse face directly west and therefore get the full force of the swells generated by the prevailing westerly winds.

Although the lighthouse is now automated, the original 1859 lighthouse keeper's residence is now maintained as a museum, with other historical buildings at the site. 

This is a view through some Moonah Melaleuca lanceolata trees showing a basalt sea stack, at the tip of the Cape, known as Pulpit Rock.

Here is a clearer view of the tip of the Cape, which is approached by a series of staircases and a long wooden walkway.

My attention was caught by the particularly writhing appearance of these branches beside the staircase to the Cape.

A short distance away, we were directed to a small area of remnant Banksia forest. The trees were predominantly Banksia integrifolia. I was really impressed to see the large girth and height of the trees.

 

Another delight was to come across this bright white Clematis. I think it is C. glycinoides. The flowers are larger than the pale cream C. microphylla which grows in our garden.

*          *          *          *          *

To ikebana:

Thanks to my friend, and passionate gardener, Fermi for identifying the branch material on the right in Lyn's ikebana from last week. It is one of the Eremophila genus. 

As I mentioned previously, I conducted a demonstration for a small group last month. In one of the ikebana arrangements I used a yellow Banksia praemorsa which had a strongly curved stem. The curve made it virtually impossible to arrange in any conventional vase. It is because of this sort of material that many Sogetsu Ikebana practitioners like to have vessels of unusual shape, or with multiple or oddly positioned openings.

Fortunately...

...I have some of those. This large heavy vessel with a single opening curves to an almost horizontal position. When I looked carefully at the Banksia inflorescence, it was best positioned curving upward to the right, so I placed the vessel in the opposite direction. Thus creating an "S" curve overall. As the inflorescence was small relative to the vessel I added some dried material; in this case a wide, curling length of Banana Musa acuminata leaf base.

The vessel is by the Victorian ceramicist, Graeme Wilkie, of Qdos Gallery Lorne.

Greetings from Christopher

21st September 2025