Hello all,

A very significant event took place a fortnight ago - our little Aria's Christening. It took place at St. Peter's Catholic Church, where Father Hayes officiated over a beautiful service and we later celebrated with family members at a Greek restaurant. 

Our little girl behaved perfectly the whole day and made us all proud. She wore the Christening gown I made for her mother 35 years ago which touched me deeply. 

My contribution to the event was to make the cake, below and the flower arrangement that was placed at the entry of the restaurant and which could be seen through glass from inside the restaurant. This meant it had to be 'viewed from all angles'.

At our recent Ikebana International meeting I was asked to fill in at the last minute as demonstrator. And whilst I was on the theme of 'to be viewed from all angles' I chose to demonstrate it. I started by showing how I secured this heavy piece of wood by wiring it to a horizontal bar which I put across the wider part of the inside of the container. This theme requires that the arrangement has some point of interest on each side, as per the photographs below.

The cold Melbourne weather continues, but as I'm writing this in the cosy warmth of my kitchen, I can hear hammering outside. Upon inspection, I find our new next door neighbour, Thomas and his son, Connor building a tree house on the golden elm which grows right on the fence line.

In this age of screens, computer games and all things electronic, I find it truly heart warming to see a father and son engaging in such a wholesome activity. With their permission, I have included this photograph. Although it's not actually growing in our garden, the tree is a favourite of mine and we have a swing that we hang from one of the limbs, that our grandkids love.

This tree - Ulmus glabra 'Lutescens' dominates one side of our back yard and four mature English elms dominate the opposite side. We consider ourselves very lucky to have these elm trees and over the years we have invested a substantial amount of money to have them treated for elm leaf beetle. Unlike other parts of the world that have had their elm populations decimated by Dutch elm disease, here in Melbourne we are still free of that scourge. The city of Melbourne manages approximately 6,000 trees including avenues of elms.

Bye for now,
Emily