May 13 2011

Mail Order

I ordered a few bits and pieces from Kaizen on Tuesday and they arrived today.

Mike Jones, Bonsai Passion recommended the bark cleaner.

I also fancied one of these spray pumps that you attach a coke bottle too. This will be handy around the garden.

I spotted this sharp knife for working deadwood and removing bark.

My mate Stephen needed a 1/4 inch collet for a Makita so i added this to the order along with 2 cutting bits. The Wood Weasel and a Mole. I also ordered a few spare cutting cups for my samurai and little Terrier.

Wood Weasel

Mole

May 12 2011

One less job to do today

Guess I don’t have to water the trees today. Just had the heaviest shower I seen here in a very long time and it lasted about 30 minutes. I braved a shot out of the window just as it was easing off 🙂 This is back to front week on my benches so the trees get even light.

May 11 2011

Identify Yourself!!

I would love to know exactly what this little fella is! I first saw them about 8 years ago when they started turning up on some of my own bonsai. They don’t seem fussy about what they eat. I have found them on Pines, Larch, Yew, Juniper, Elms and Hawthorn. They wrap themselves up in old needles and anything else to hand and eat the cambium in a ring around the finer branches. This obviously results in dead branches.

I haven’t had them for two years now as I’m pretty regular with my spraying with Provado. However, today at Stephen house, we found them on his Yew and a Larch. The Yew had obviously been a victim of them for years and it must have had them when Stephen bought it last year.

If anyone knows what they are, I’d love to know.

Hidden in his wrapping

pulled from his home

5P for scale

May 10 2011

Small Copper

I spotted this ‘Small Copper’ Butterfly in my Poly Tunnel this afternoon. I snaps a few pics, it didn’t seem to mind. I also checked online to see what the caterpillars eat, thankfully nothing in my Tunnel 🙂

May 10 2011

Potent Flowers

Working on my trees yesterday, even on a windy afternoon, I kept getting wiffs of a potent smell. At first I thought it was the chicken pellets but the smell was truly heady and overpowering. Looking up I spotted that the Rowan tree I grew from seed was in full flower and was the source of the smell.

May 9 2011

Beech Loving Wasp

I spotted this little fella on my Beech today. Not a common wasp, may not even be a wasp but it sure looks like one. He was oblivious to me and the camera. I was wondering if it was one of those leaf cutting ones but he never got around to it. Pretty in his own way.

I also have about 20 million of these feckers in the garden at the minute. They do there very best to land on bare skin or fly into your mouth!!

May 7 2011

Bonsai Focus

I just love it when the latest edition of Bonsai Focus hits the door mat 🙂

The latest copy arrived this morning but It’ll have to wait until tomorrow for a proper look see.

May 4 2011

May Flowers…

…and leaves.

At Roy’s today I also managed to get a few close up photos on a few of his trees.

The Hawthorn Flowers, also known here as the May Flower, are just beautiful.

A few older flowers that have lost their Pink!

Deshojo Leaves.

Golden Larch

Spindle Flower.

Pretty?

May 3 2011

Camera Addict

I know this is meant to be a Bonsai diary but I just can’t help playing around with my camera.(Nikon D5000). Here are a few tree and plant shots taken over the last few days.

May 2 2011

Noelanders Trophy Book

I was given a gift voucher recently and opted to treat myself to another book. I already have loads of bonsai books but just can’t help myself. I saw this one advertised in a mag and decided I would never spend that sort of money on a book if it was my own money (£35) so out came the voucher and a few days later it hit the door mat.

Covering 10 years of the Noelanders Trophy, I was expecting plenty of top quality photos of top quality bonsai. This was certainly the case. The early years had a few poorer quality photos but the vast majority of the book looks like this.

The one issue I have with the presentation is the size of a few of the photos. some of the pages seem to be doing the ‘arty’ look with small photos on a nearly empty page. When I study pics of trees I like to look at the detail of the work and design. What’s the point of leaving negative space in a book!? Below is an example of what I mean. How can you study a Shohin display when it measures just over an inch across!!

This is a nice Gallery type book with many top quality bonsai to admire and return to again and again. It’s great to look back on Europe’s best Artists and Bonsai and see how they change and progress over a 10 year period. I only wish they had opted for full page shots. I feel it a tad on the pricey side, but I’ll let you be the judge.