16/18 of September 2016 our’s mentors club has celebrated they 30 anniversary. The NIBS has put a lots of effort to put together the best bonsai show in Ireland ( Norther Ireland and Republic of Ireland). Big applause lads. All of you worked very hard to make the top class exhibition, and let us celebrate your’s day together. It was a huge pleasure to be a part of the day and be able to put some of ours members trees on display. Thank you for invitation. I hope we will able to pay back in the future. Here we have some of my pictures from the day.

Sep 26 2016

5 Lessons Learned from Bonsai on Raising a Child

BONSAIKO

Just recently, my wife and I had to deal with an issue related our 16 year old daughter. It started as a seemingly minor issue of mom’s rule of “no nail polish”. Not to bore you with the details but the rule was broken and it escalated into a bigger drama and it involved some crying. Wow, you say! How is this blog post on bonsai relate to raising a child and what’s this mom and teenage daughter drama going to lead me to? Okay, I know, this is a bit of a stretch from bonsai, pruning, wiring, etc. Child Development experts will probably have my blog shut down after this post because I’m sure from their perspective, I don’t have a clue what I’m talking about. Okay, I admit, I don’t have a clue, but hear me out first and see if later I make sense. If you say I…

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Sep 25 2016

Bonsai 30 my trees

Rustedrootbonsai

dscf7943-600x455 I had a great weekend in belfast last weekend where bonsai 30 was held.here are some of my trees.this is my scots pine

dscf7923-600x413 Robert porch gave me some great tips on improving my trees.this is my chinese elm

dscf8022-600x431 This is my white pine

dscf8012-600x525 This is my white pine

dscf8227-600x520 This is my field maple

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Sep 20 2016

It’s Over!

Time to reflect and recover from what was a very successful weekend at the NIBS Bonsai 30 Exhibition.

The club has loads of photos to follow in a few days and these are being added to the Bonsai 30 Webpage as we go. Check in there to see some now but more to be added soon.

Here are a few of my own trees from the exhibition. It’s not until you get time to sit and look that you realise that tweaking was required after transportation to the event, a few branches knocked out of place. Not that I would have had time to sort them at any rate. I think that would be my main disappointment over the weekend, not getting enough time to really look at the trees on display and walk around with friends. I think we had roughly 18,000 through the event over the 2 days and every club member helping out gave their all to make sure both the trees and the public were happy.

Yew, Golden variety, collected from my Uncles garden 8 years ago.

Japanese Larch

Japanese Maple

Scots Pine

Escallonia

Hawthorn

Yew grown from a cutting

Japanese Maple

Root over Rock Cotoneaster and a little Elm

Shohin Stand by Ringfort Design Studio –

Japanese White Pine, Pyracantha (not mine) Larch, Rose, Maple, Juniper.

Blue Cedar

Fuchsia

Japanese White Pine

Larch

Rose 50% Ownership 🙂

Japanese Maple

A few missing, more to follow.

Sep 16 2016

It’s Here

Bonsai 30 that is. Spent the day knee deep in trees and accents.

This was my front garden this morning taken from the back end of a lorry collecting the bits and pieces.

imag2386

And a big thank you to this guy, Jeff has been a star with transporting the bigger trees and getting the club free use of a lorry. Burning it at both ends a tad Jeff but just know it is appreciated.

imag2387

A big personal thank you to everyone who gave up their own time to pull this together. Two years in the planning with many major barriers put in our way but it looks like our plan C has come good with a great set up, some super trees never even exhibited before and all done by many many helping hands.

Some snaps from tonight as we were closing up. Flood lights are moody which was actually fun to walk around and see the trees in different light.

Robert Porch in there somewhere, trading at the show as well.

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A few monster trees being viewed in a sneak peek by one of our Scottish visitors. dsc_0086-2

The labels are the QR codes for 30 showcased trees within the exhibition. Scan them and you get taken to a web page with the trees history. dsc_0088-2

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Sep 15 2016

Show Time

You can tell it’s getting near show time, all my trees are covered in netting to keep the birds of my lovely moss!

Sep 9 2016

Retirement

No, not from bonsai 🙄 , from my real job I have served my community for the last 27 years 1 month and 17 days, and today at 5pm I am out. Due to ill health I have had to walk away but the good news is that I have several new irons being pulled out of the fire. For now though I think I’ll take some time to enjoy life on the other side, perhaps a holiday with my long suffering wife Allison, and perhaps play with wee trees a little more. Perhaps a little more blogging too.

I was tricked into calling at my friend’s, Stephen and Vanessa’s bakery this morning. This is what awaited me.

Sep 7 2016

Shohin Japanese White Pine

Yes, I know, I’ve been very slack with my posting on the blog of late. A very busy period in my life with business, personal and bonsai elements going full tilt. I am hoping to have a quiet few months coming up and look forward to having more time for my own bonsai and pushing forward with my own education in this wonderful art.

I have still been taking photos and I’ll try and get a few more out over the coming weeks.

I’ve been up to my eyes in the prep required for Bonsai 30, the biggest Bonsai event Ireland has seen so far and have been prepping a number of trees for the exhibit. I would rather leave most of them until the event before sharing here though.

However, here’s a little Pine that was gifted to me by my friend Mariusz. It will be getting a new pot in the Spring but has just had a rewiring in case we need it for the shohin display at the exhibition.

Sep 6 2016

Late Birthday Present

My wife surprised me with a late Birthday present. After having the privilege of viewing the online content from the Artisan’s Cup, I now have a hard copy for the coffee table.