Hello all,

Today I'm writing from my sick bed, or rather, 'sick couch' where I'm reclining, with feet elevated, whilst recuperating from surgery to my feet. This will be the status quo for several weeks, which means I will be very limited in what I can do, including ikebana. However, I have photos of some work I did in the past two weeks that I can share with you.

Below are two views of a Christmas table arrangement using gold wire, mahonia leaves, a rose and two dogwood flowers.

My stelitzias are in full bloom and had to be used. This is a case of 'The embarrassment of riches'.

Wall arrangement using strelitzias, young gyamea lily leaves and the mitsumata I used in Japan and then sent to my self by mail.

This arrangement using strelitzias and New Zealand flax is 1.5metres in height. However, the flowers were much taller and had to be cut down for the proportions with the container.

In this Christmas arrangement, I also used strelitzias with pine, gold wire and baubles.

Here I used the superfluous pine needles that I removed from the pine branch in the previous arrangement with two agapanthus buds that I 'encouraged' to bend.

Because I hate throwing away anything potentially useful, I had to find a new way to use the rest of pine needles from the previous arrangement and I came up with this weird 'UFO' creation.

And speaking of 'the embarrassment of riches', my agapanthus, of which I have many, are bursting into flower. I've been out in the garden tying down many of the buds whilst they are soft and pliable, which then grow with curved and twisted stems. I used 3 twisted buds together with 2 fully open flowers and a piece of weeping mulberry for the above arrangement.

Bye for now,
Emily