20th December, 2021

 

Hello all,

So, we're on the home stretch for Christmas, with plans for get togethers, food and drink but there's, also, so much uncertainty that the plans will eventuate. I've had to cancel two events this week due to illness, one because my sister is unwell and the other because my friend's husband has covid. I'm so desperate to see family at Christmas that I'm taking no chances - I wear a mask anywhere outside my home and sanitise constantly.

The garden continues to produce interesting materials and I've been enjoying playing with them. 

As you probably already know, I love the distorted and malformed materials that appear every so often. These calla lilies, without spathes, caught my eye and then I noticed that some leaves were also mutated, so I put them together. The first photograph is the way I had arranged them but the next day one of the leaves had moved and I rather liked that too.

Apart from ikebana from my garden, there is, also, opportunistic ikebana. As I drove home last week, there was traffic banked up allowing for some works along the road. As I approached, I noticed that the power company were cutting trees around power lines and, would you believe it, they were cutting my neighbour's tall grevillea robusta. I parked the car, grabbed my cutters and rushed over, before everything went into the chipper. I was not allowed to approach but I begged, as only an ikebanist can beg, and I was given one piece. So, here it is with my first two white agapanthus.

On our way to our Christmas lunch, I had occasion to drive past the home of my student, Wendy Sun. I saw a tree I hadn't seen before in her neighbour's garden and was quite excited. New material always does that to me. I asked Wendy to get me permission to cut some and she did. In fact, she was told I could cut as much as I wanted. It took a bit of time on the internet to find its name but I managed it. It is a Kashmir Cypress (Cupressocyparis cashmeriana). I love its pendulous form. And what better way to use it than in a Christmas arrangement.

The last meeting of Ikebana International was a couple of weeks ago with guest speaker, Robert Dodson from 'Fifty Shades of Hostas', with the topic of discussion being, of course, Hostas. Unfortunately a medical appointment prevented me from attending but I wanted to make an arrangement using the hostas I have. They are looking better than ever because I remembered to put down some snail bait when they began to emerge. The plant was given to me many years ago by my colleague, Lee Johnston. The red flower is a Jacobean lily.

I have a large clump of strelitzia reginae, which is quite prolific. I don't remove the dead flowers straight way. I wait until I have a number of them, then I cut them, remove the dead petals and I'm left with the 'beak' part of the flower. I find them quite interesting and like using them on mass, such as in the large, trough arrangement, below. Sam really likes this. He says it reminds him of pink flamingos.

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish all of you happy and, most importantly, safe holidays. And to those of you celebrating Christmas, may it be as merry as you can stand!

Bye for now,

Emily