It amazing the difference a few weeks makes to a walk. I walk in these woods every 2 or 3 weeks and this time it was striking just how full the canopy has become creating that dappled shade.
Blue skies after very heavy rain all night. We wrapped up expecting rain and the heat left us cursing the layers!
Another Sunday walk taking photos for inspiration. Today was Redburn Park in Belfast overlooking Belfast Lough and the Famous Harland and Wolfe Shipyard were the ill fated Titanic was built.
David and Goliath Cranes at the Shipyard
By land sea and air. Plane coming into land at Belfast City Airport and the Stenna HSS Ferry sitting at dock waiting for it’s trip to Scotland.
Further along the Lough Side is Holywood, that’s our Holywood, and it was there first 🙂
Right, you know where I talking about now. Here’s some of the beautiful Beech and other trees in the Park.
I saw at least 5 rafts where fallen Beech have regrown.
The old root base can been seen on this raft.
A cracker raft but hard to photograph
Old rotten root base of the tree above
This one was falling but was saved by surrounding trees and remains healthy even with half the roots out of the ground.
There was a lot of deadwood on the ground and this was encouraging many types of Fungi.
How the mighty have fallen
Some other trees that caught my eye.
My usual collection of nebari and root shots 🙂
Loads of paths in every direction leave you wandering what’s around the next corner.
And a few natural deadwood features, a hollow trunk and a uro.
After looking at all these, you’ll feel as if you were with me and in Stephen’s case, he was 🙂
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.
You guessed it, my usual snaps from my Sunday morning walk. A few nice trees and an a few general shots to promote the scenery in Northern Ireland 🙂
I’m trying to play catch up with the video clips I have taken over the last few months. As yesterday was a wet one, I spent an hour or so putting together a clip from a recent visit to a friend and club members garden. Josh was my inspiration when I joined the club back in 1993. His trees were the best on offer even back then. His skills and experience in developing bonsai in open ground are amazing. He is also one of the nicest people you could meet.
Click on the photo below to link to the video clip. Enjoy.
Josh in full flow
Had my usual Sunday morning walk today and what a day it was. Only problem was all the fair weather walkers clogging up the beach!! The second part of the walk was in the woods and it was less crowded and a lot cooler. Here’s a few pics from the day including some inspirational uro’s and deadwood.
End of the Blackthorn Flowers along the coast
Mill Pond sea
The way ahead
Two brothers on the beach with blackthorn flowering behind
Drill Rig getting tug boated into Belfast Harbour for some work.
Some nice uro and hollows on a beech
waiting for the last bit to fall then it'll be a uro
Deadwood on a hawthorn hedge
more of it.
Emerging ferns
Some unusual bark on a Sycamore
A windfall beech thats had a little wood removed for logs.
Another nebari for my collection
Well, not big, a few hours out driving around speculating where there might be trees to collect. I wanted to get a few snaps of some trees in a field near where I live before they came into leaf. This is them.
No trees but nice all the same.
I took Stephen to see some Blackthorn that were amazing but totally un-collectable. Deep deep rooted into stone. To even attempt to lift these would be a waste of time and a sin for ruining a beautiful tree. Some things are better left alone. It was blowing a gale at the time but Stephen was still amazed at the quality of these wee fellas. The bark was to die for. We collected a few dead branches to use as accents. The movement and character in them is amazing.
WINDSWEPT STYLE LOL
Bursting into flower
We then came across these Ivy’s among the rocks. Not deep rooted 🙂
The place was covered with them!
Removal of a few stones resulted in a few keepsakes. This is Stephen doing his impression of Father Jack. DRINK!! 🙂
Back at the bat cave…
This one held onto a rock
I’m hoping for these to put out some decent root and then I’ll air layer a few small bits off here and there. I have a wee Ivy air-layer and they take easily. We picked up a few nice stones for display as well. I’ll post more pics tomorrow.
I took a photo of this tree today. All part of my quest for inspiration! It’s growing in a field on the road to Downpatrick which, being St Patrick’s Day, it quite appropriate.
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