Hello all,

And welcome to the Christmas issue. You may well ask what am I doing writing the blog on Christmas morning but I worked so hard and ran around like a hairy goat leading up to today, I baked and gave away to friends and family hundreds of biscuits that, now, I'm relatively free. Of course, the fact that my niece and her husband are hosting Christmas lunch is the real reason that I'm free.

Our last class for the year always has the theme 'A celebratory Arrangement' and, those who attended, all chose to make a Christmas one.

The giant ball, above, measures 80 cm in diameter and took some doing to, firstly. get the materials inside it and secondly to hang in front of the stairs. But it was worth the effort s it is the first thing people see when entering our house.

Dianne, who just started lessons, used
Eucalyptus, Roses and hydrangea

Shaneen Used papyrus, cherries, pittosporum
and mizuhiki

Bredenia used pine, roses, agapanthus and gold beads

Vicky used a dried branch sprayed white with cyprus, Asiatic lilies and baubles 

Nicole used agapanthus, wisteria sprayed gold and baubles

Guy used holly, roses and agapanthus

Lei used dried material from the date palm, celosias, chrisanthemums
and Christmas lilies

Lucy used pine, hydrangeas, mizuhiki and beads

I used dogwod (cornus Norman Haddon), hydrangeas and mizuhiki

I leave you with these two, rather fun, arrangements in which I used garlic flowers. My beloved thought he had planted spring onions in the vege patch but they turned out to be garlic, so I let them go to seed and coaxed them to bend.

The flower here is a Crucifix orchid

Merry Christmas to all of you celebrating the day and happy holidays to al the rest. Catch up in the new year.
Emily