The changing view from our balcony. The large elms are almost denuded but
the weeping elm and Japanese Maple are still holding

On the other side of the garden, from left to right - Walnut, Viburnum opulus and my
favourite, the ginkgo

Hello all,

Well, Autumn has morphed into winter but here in Melbourne, gorgeously coloured trees can still be seen. The ones with the most spectacular colouring in our area are the Manchurian Pears that line many of our streets. I don't have any in my garden but the two photos above show how much the Autumn colours can brighten a garden even on a dull and cloudy winter's day.

I wanted to mention that I will be flying up to Brisbane next week at the  invitation of the Sogetsu group there. I have the honour to be asked to run workshops on Friday and Saturday and I'm looking forward to reconnecting with people I've met before and to meeting others and to immersing ourselves in ikebana. The warmer weather will be an added bonus for the couple of days that I will be there.

 Below are photos of some of the work I did for the last couple of lessons.

The theme for the above arrangement is 'Repeating similar Forms or Shapes'. In the 27 years that I have been involved with ikebana I've used almost every type of material available to me, so coming up with new ideas is a challenge. Here I joined loquat leaves from opposite sides of the stem to create circles, having first removed all the in-between leaves.

Composition of surfaces by using leaves

'Intertwining Plant Materials'. I re-used the top part of my Easter arrangement
and added large rose hips and Clivia flowers to make this new arrangement

Easter Arrangement

'Composition of curved lines'
Siberian Dogwood stems and roses

I'd like to finish with this quite large arrangement featuring Strelitzia nicolai flowers. These flowers are very heavy and have a short stem, making them rather difficult to arrange. They are also difficult to access because they grow high up on the plant and require a long ladder to reach them. For this, I have my long suffering, Ikebana husband, to whom I am very grateful. Here I used a heavy, ceramic container and dried Echium flower stems, which I lightly sprayed white.

Bye for now,

Emily