A 30 degree day earlier in the week brought out 'Spike' the echidna, who I caught fossicking for ants under the brick path.
The sudden heat also brought out a number of roses.
This photo shows the first flush of our Cécile Brünner, in the bed below the climbing Lorraine Lee.
My favourite rose for fragrance is this
Mr Lincoln, which I managed to photograph before the sun had burnt off the morning dew. I picked this bloom which lasted five days in a 'specimen' vase, wafting its perfume every time I walked passed it into the kitchen.
While out walking I came across this nasturtium growing through a fence and thought it looked like one of natures spontaneous ikebana works.
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Last weekend the Victorian Branch of the Sogetsu School of Ikebana held four workshops over two days. They were led by Mr Yoshiro Umemura, Australia's most senior ikebana teacher and a great favourite with the local Sogetsu members. The workshops were on themes from the new Book 5 of the Sogetsu curriculum.
This is my arrangement from the workshop theme, a 'floor position arrangement'. Mr Umemura explained a more literal translation of this theme is an 'arrangement rising from the floor'. The material I chose was really too short even though it was about 90 cms tall. In my arrangement I have used acanthus leaves, with a branch of acacia blossom between the two tallest leaves.
This arrangement, which I included on my last posting, is a more correct example of the same theme.
The other exercise on the first day was 'an arrangement on a table'. Using nasturtiums and Coastal Sword Sedge, I envisioned this low three vessel arrangement on a dining table. I reconfigured the dishes for the sake of the photograph and so the arrangement lacks the rhythm of its original arrangement. My intention was that the arrangement should be long and narrow for our dining table at home. The dishes are by Graeme Wilkie of Qdos Gallery.
Sogetsu workshop photos.
Greetings from Christopher
22nd October 2017
Lara Telford has a new post on her blog from Tokyo where she is the latest recipient of the Norman and Mary Sparnon Endowment scholarship.
I need an echidna for Florida because we have all kinds of ants down there, red fire ants in the yard, black ants that like to climb up the outside walls of the house and tiny ghost ants.
ReplyDeleteDoes Spike let you get close or did you take his picture using a telephoto lens?
The nasturtium growing through the fence is lovely