Tuesday 29 May 2007

Virtual tuition for computer illiterates

Visit http://wirral-bonsai.blogspot.com/ for the easiest tuition on cutting+pasting,aka adding branches foliage and pot's.Even i was able to follow Iain's easy instruction's,cheer's mate,we all owe you a pint!

The twisty one




After my first visit to gingko,with Tony Tickle,we stuck up a deal for me to take him collecting,and this was the first tree i collected with Tony.When you've collected a tree from the wild,nurtured it and looked after it for a few years,it almost feel's like a part of you is in there.I've offered this as trade a few time's,but it's still here for a variety of reason's.Maybe no one can really see what the future in the tree is?



This got me wondering,why? So with my new found virtual skill's(visit wirral bonsai's web site for some excellent free tuition)i got going on this the other night.This is what i'd had in mind for a while,i dont know what attracted me to it when i first seen it,other than the obvious first branch.So what do you think?



The 2nd pic is with a pot i "robbed" off Andy"stonemonkey" Pearson's site,quite a nice match i think.I also think it would look better with one of Doug Mudd's stands under it!

Thorns!




Post operative swelling seems to be going slightly now,and i'm allowed to work on my tree's again,woohoo!


So it's time to start working on my hawthorns,i've got too many,but i'm getting attached to all of them,so the next few week's are going to be a busy time for me.


From the very very big to the small,it's time to get going,a little late in the year,but nothing i can do about that now.

Friday 25 May 2007

Forget football,for 3 months only

Doesnt exist never heard of it blah blah blah

Wednesday 23 May 2007

Forget bonsai,for one night only!











Tonight's the big one,sashi eda's,tachi aga's and araki's will be forgotten for one night(and most of tomorrow while i nurse my head!),the beers are in the fridge lined up like soldier's!The pizza's are chillin before i fire the oven up later!The big telly is receiving a pre match warm up with liverpool matches of old,the kop choir are in full voice on the surround system!Then at 7:45 tonight a sane man will turn into a lunatic,hurl abuse at his telly,think that he can actually change a referee's mind from 2000 miles away,then when it's all over come back down to planet earth(hopefully tomorrow!)


Come on the reds,no apologies for the people born into stupidity and mediocrity around here,aka everton and tranmere fans! here we go gathering cups in may!

Sunday 13 May 2007

So you think you love bonsai?


How much? This much? Some people seem to wonder why collected tree's attract such a premium price,but when you injure yourself like this and then have to spend a lot of time off work,it makes you wonder why they are'nt more expensive!

This hernia(5in long!) was the result of collecting a monster hawthorn,which incidentally is doing slightly better than me at the current time!

And yes it was worth it,but your not seeing it yet,i never put a pic of a tree on the"net" until i know it is alive,but if i was asked again if i wanted to collect it,but was told beforehand of the consequence's,i would still have collected it,yes THAT GOOD.

I dont name tree's,but if it pulls through it's name will be earnest attaal,earnest because my sons couldnt get henia out properly,and ataal was the surgeon,wait till you see it,it could ruin your day!

Monday 7 May 2007

Andy's Juniper




I got this san jose off Graham Potter in a rather drunken moment,it is'nt actually Andy hardman's tree,but he badgers me for it and make's eye's at it like a young lover would,so it got it's name! I almost feel like i've only loaned it to myself!
I cut about a foot of growth off the top of it almost as soon as i got it,and chose the front based on the fact that 3 sides gave it a slight inverse taper,but over the last few years it seem's to have been stretched slightly at the soil line.
I spoke with Terry Foster at the burrs bash recently,and he suggested what i had in mind,but with more of a tilt,this seemed to work nicely so i set about it,and finished it off the next day.
I'm now left wit 2 decisions for the pot,a lovely walsall nan ban or a beautifull pre cambrian rock off Terry,if only all things were that hard!

The Kawabe Itoigawa




I read a long history once of the shimpaku junipers on the wbff site http://www.bonsai-wbff.org/shimpaku/shim1.shtml which inspired me to get one of these rare beasts,the man who has inspired me a lot in bonsai also is Takeo Kawabe,he rose from a similar job to the one i do myself to his current place around the table of bonsai greats!
To cut a long story short i ended up aquirring this tree from Steve Tolley,had a pot made by Gordon Duffet,a beautiful stand from Douggie Mudd and took it back to Steve for a workshop on it.entered into the newstead award,narrowly missed out on the award itself but it did qualify for gingko.
Better luck in sept at gingko hopefully,make yourself known if you see me there,cant wait for it!

Shohin Satsuki




I bought this utterly raw multi coloured flowering one from dai~ishii,a good few years ago,it was 18 in high then,had many branches as thick as the trunk which where unusable and other than the nebari i couldnt see anything in it,but it was cheap~ish!
When i got it home i spent a good while looking at it,and couldnt do anything with what was there,so over the next few months i eliminated everything i didnt want and ended up with.......
nothing but a bare trunk with a few buds on!
The tree responded well and popped out after 3 yrs into the little cracker it's becoming.it need's a pot next year,if one of my potter friends comes up with something i may be tempted to do it next year,it's on it's way to becoming a very likeable tree,and it may stay in my collection unless i get a good offer for it!
Obviously much more ramification is to come,flowering has been postponed again for this year to help with that,but things are looking good!
pic 1 18 months ago
pic 2 may 07