5th April, 2021

 

Hello all,

I had used the tips of the a number of monstera deliciosa leaves for the funeral flowers last week, so, I wanted to use a couple of what was left of the leaves. I cut them to a sharp point and placed them in a self-made, triangular container, then added one hydrangea to complete the arrangement.

I've been working on two new metal sculptures along the same lines as the one I did a couple of years ago and I went to pick them up from the fabricator. Around the edge of the car park were a number of shrubs that I don't have in my garden and, with Robert's permission, I helped myself to some branches. Here's what I did with them -

In the first, I used two different, orange coloured grevilleas. I think one of them is Grevillea superb and I don't know the other. The two ceramic containers are self made and I added dietes leaves for line.

In the second arrangement, I used only one kind of material - callistemon but I couldn't work out which particular one. I tried to emphasise the lines at the base, making sure that the stems, which I kept clean, do not touch the rims of the double container.

In the third arrangement, I used the pink berries from the peppercorn tree, which Robert hates and encouraged me to cut as much as I wanted. Apparently, it drops rubbish onto his ute. With the berries I used these spectacularly coloured hydrangeas in a tall, silver coloured, ceramic container.

My smoke bush has very long stems, which are mostly bare except for the leaves at the tips. The weight of the tips makes them bend, creating lovely curves. I used two stems in this tall, metal container with a stem of Oriental lilies.

On a personal note, last week I invited the four grandchildren to high tea at yiayia's. We all dressed up and used the good china and silverware and made quite an occasion of it. There were lots of yummy cakes and fruit as well as a number of different herbal teas to sample.

Their attention span being limited, we quickly moved to the next phase of our afternoon entertainment - watching a movie together. And, when that was over, all hell broke loose. They, obviously, needed to expand some energy after sitting quiet for so long. They ran up and down the stairs squealing and screaming so much so that I closed myself in my sewing room and Sam in his office. As much as we love them, we were not sorry to say goodbye to them at the end of the day.

Yesterday was Easter for most of the Christians churches around the world, except for the Orthodox. We will be celebrating Easter on 2nd May but I wanted to make a little arrangement to mark the day anyway. I used an agapanthus stem with two flower heads, from which I stripped the seedpods. I placed two eggs, which I had coloured a couple of years ago and, which are now quite light since the inside has dried. The leaf is aspidistra.

Bye for now,

Emily