Wednesday 13 October 2010

Day 5 - Outdoor Meditation in Action

A friend of mine has an allotment not far from my house. I went there today to help planting bulbs for next year's flowering season. This kind of monotonous work is quite meditative - a good preparation for the outdoor ikebana work that I had planned to do with plants growing on the allotment.

Outdoor ikebana. Sunflower, Curly kale and a Marigold in a glass drop.

As we were pulling weeds and withered plants I found a Sunflower that had made a loop in the ground when it started growing out of the seed. With the roots still on it had quite an interesting shape. I fixed the stem upside down between some granite blocks that will be made into a patio, and added a leaf of purple Curly kale. Then I hanged a glass drop filled with water from the Sunflower loop and placed a single Marigold in it. The arrangement still needed weight at the base, so I took the top of the Sunflower and placed it under the Marigold so that the glass drop "falls down" into the seeds like a dew drop.


It feels different to work with ikebana in the outdoors. It involves your whole body as you are assembling, cutting and fixing materials and transforming the space. Like weed pulling and bulb planting it becomes a meditation in action.

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