SUMMER HOLIDAYS

Torquay is a very popular destination for families over the summer holidays and the beaches are the main attraction. I took this photo today at about 4.00 pm. It was overcast with a gentle cooling breeze coming off the sea.

Because the tide is partially in, the holiday makers have had to spread themselves along the length of the beach.

Today the temperature has reached 34 C on our terrace and I was worried about how the Hydrangeas would cope. I have them growing in two large terracotta pots so that I can keep some water in the saucers beneath them. However if there is a north wind they can dry out quite quickly during the day.

This year they have grown well and produced very large flower heads. In one pot they are more mauve than the pink ones in this photo above. Because I feared they may be damaged by the heat, I picked four pink and two mauve flower-heads, then spent some time experimenting with massed arrangements.

Although I liked the lines in this first version, I thought the mass of five flowers was much too great and there is no space showing at the mouth of the vase making it look congested. The cylindrical vase is from the Qdos Studio in Lorne.

This second version with only two flowers and a visible space at the mouth of the vase is an improvement. However, the botanical materials are too small relative to the vase.

Maybe today's heat meant that I was the one who was wilting, and therefore it was not a good day to be doing ikebana. I made two arrangements last week that I felt were more successful.

This one above, which incorporated bursaria spinosa as the main subject, is in a large vase by Mark Bell from Maine, USA. 

I made this second ikebana last week as a gift to our friends Heather and John, with whom we had dinner. In the photo it is not immediately obvious, but there are two mauve hydrangea heads on the right. The large egg shaped vase is by Graeme Wilkie of Qdos Gallery.

Greetings from Christopher
7th January 2017