Lunch at Wendy's

Hello all,

At the end of each year, my class and I have been going out to dinner to celebrate. This year, however, my student, Wendy, invited us all to lunch at her lovely new home. She and her husband, Frank, provided a warm and welcoming atmosphere, not to mention some delicious traditional Chinese dishes. You don't get food of that quality at Chinese restaurants.

We all contributed to the lunchtime fare, which we all enjoyed, some of us (me really) overindulging but that's what Christmas is all about. Great food and Great company, what more could one wish for. Well, there is one thing, I wish all the students were able to attend.

Some small but thoughtful gifts were exchanged as usual. Dianne, who lives in Trantham, also brought a rose for each one of us from her garden. She has many beautiful but also healthy roses. I picked the exquisite orange one in the photograph, below and had to find some way of arranging it. Enter the gold bamboo structure, which I featured in a previous post.

My two dogwoods are almost in full bloom and, as I've been watching and waiting for this for so long, I wasn't going to miss the opportunity to cut some to play with.

The wall arrangement, below is from the tree I call 'Hazel's dogwood', since I have no way of knowing its real name. It's quite charming the way the flowers develop a pink blush as they age, so that the tree has, amongst the creamy coloured flowers, pink ones dotted through it.

 The off cuts could not be disposed of, so they make good powder room arrangements

This larger arrangement is from the other tree, the name of which is 'Cornus Norman Haddon'. The flowers on this tree are smaller but more plentiful. We've had a searingly hot day today, which left all my roses singed at the edges. When looking for flowers to go with the dogwood, I was beginning to despair, until I noticed the good old geraniums. They were completely unaffected by the heat. To quote the gardening guru, Peter Cundell, "You can't kill them with a brick!" I was, also, able to find some iceberg roses with some life still left in them nd put them to the back of the orange geraniums.

For the first time since I started growing the horsetail (Equisetum hyemale), I had enough long 'tails' to make an arrangement. Having had no experience with it, I discovered certain properties, of which I was not aware. Firstly, they are hollow, which means they don't fasten well in a kenzan. Secondly, they are weak and unable to hold their own weight when bent. I worked around the first problem by inserting a skewer in the last few inches of each stem. As for the second problem, I inserted wire to stop them from flopping. I thought all was well but I was disappointed to discover that they dried up rather quickly. I used the last of my Hanashobu iris to finish the arrangement.

And, speaking of the Hanashobu iris, here is a photo of my 'purple corner'. It's outside the office door.

I've mentioned many times that my ikebana is often opportunistic. That is, I use materials that I come across by chance. This is one case in point. As I was driving the other day, I was confronted by this. rather common, scene. The severe weather we have been experiencing and which broke my nectarine tree, has been responsible for countless broken trees and branches all around the city.

My first reaction when I drove past this tree was "Oh no!". But, then, I thought of the opportunity it afforded. So, on my return trip I stopped and took some branches. I'm not sure of the variety of gum tree.  It might be Eucalyptus sinuosa. I will have a better idea when it flowers. Anyway, I made the arrangement, below using the leafy branch extending to the left and the flower buds and seed pods close to the container on the right.

I've included a close-up of the flower buds. If anyone recognises this tree, please let me know.

Bye for now,
Emily