On my walk this morning it was obvious that the high winds from a few weeks ago had taken their toll on this particular trail.
An old Hawthorn stump exhibiting some nice deadwood.
The trail ahead.
Category Inspiration
More Tree Inspiration
As usual for a Sunday, I snapped a few pics on my walk today. It was an early start to get down to Gosford Forest Park in Armagh. Here are a few of the trees that caught my eye within the park and on the way back home again.
A big old fella in the open area of the park.
His little mate.
Some of the farmed deer lounging around in the open grassland area.
Some beautiful trees to admire.
A stand of Scots Pine
Old Beech
Tall Fir of some sort.
An ivy choked Larch with very unusual upturned branch tips!
Deadwood on a large Hawthorn.
The previous generation, beautiful in it’s own way.
Moss choked beech.
Two branches that fused many years ago creating a hollow on this old beech.
Same tree, beautiful in the sunlight this morning.
And the beech next door, tree after tree worth admiring.
An old heavy limb that has fallen in the high winds. The top of the branch has ferns growing along it. Using the moss as soil.
I can’t take a walk without getting some fungi in there somewhere.
and a nice nebari to finish off.
Hope you enjoyed the walk.
First Walk of the New Year
Sunday just happened to fall on New Years Day this year and, never to be deterred, we had our usual walk. About 9 miles along the coast from Holywood to Bangor, I must admit I could feel the holiday excess eating taking a toll!
As usual here are a few snaps taken along the way.
Some of my usual attempts to capture birds in flight or otherwise.
A goose
A hooded Crow
A normal black crow picking through the rock pools for sea snails .
and most unusual, these two different types of crow were together. First I’ve ever seen this.
Perfect wind for little sailing on the lough.
Hawthorn still carrying it’s harvest.
A nice mixture of moss, grass, heather, sedum etc growing in among the rocks. Natures kusamono .
Most important on a good walk is good company. My two brothers..
My mate Stephen, out with his new camera. Watch this space for his new bonsai blog coming very soon 🙂
and lets not forget my two best mates, Smudge and maggie 🙂
Caught in the Act…
of taking a ….. photograph of course. Why, what did you think I was doing??!!
This was me last week whilst out tree hunting. Phil sneakily took this one while I was trying to get a shot of some fungi on a log. Now on his Facebook page under the title, ‘Mushroom Man’.
This was the result.
Winter Bloom
A few photos taken around my parents home. My Dad’s a real plant lover and has the greenest fingers of anybody I’ve ever met. He could make a fence post shoot roots. 🙂 There’s always colour in the garden somewhere if you are willing to look.
and finally, Mum’s Christmas Cactus.
Eejits on Tour Part 3
The final instalment.
At one point on our day out, Phil took me to a river that he fishes on for Salmon. A beautiful spot. We lingered there longer than planned thanks to a show put on my 3 Dippers fighting over the same set of rocks. Must have been good fishing there 🙂
The water reminds me of a pint of Guinness getting poured. The colour comes from the peat in the area. The foam finishes it off 🙂
In the shot below you can see a branch that has been placed in the river as a perch for kingfishers. None on view today sadly.
What was sad to see was that some idiot was dumping into the river from the road side above! There was even the remains of a car in the pile. A strange pipe also drained into the river and nothing much wanted to grow below it 😦
Some nice beech trees along the riverside as well.
Some deadwood and a fallen Beech 🙂
We stopped for a Fish Supper on the way back at a lovely little Fish & Chip Shop beside a Harbour.
The fish was rather on the large size, but we both managed admirably.
That’s it! The day in photos that took 3 days to share with you. Hope you enjoyed viewing the images. You’ll have to wait for the yamadori photos 😉 but they’ll be on here in the Spring. I’ll leave you with a photo of a Heron winging it’s way along the coast.
Eejits on Tour Part 2
Some more shots from our tour of the North.
This was a rather strange one! A tree surrounded by a large stone wall. I assume that the wall was there first, some sort of hill fort or burial cairn. The tree probably self seeded in there and it now looks like this.
The whole area is covered with long abandoned crofts which add to the look of the place.
Some of the terrain that we find collectable Hawthorn on.
A rather unusual hawthorn hedge. Up, down and up again!
Nice in the Summer but bleak in the Winter!
Spotted some very interesting fungi along the way. I don’t know why I’m so fascinated by them! There must be some sort of support group out there for me 🙂
I loved this little fella growing in a hollow on a tree. Tree had an entish look to it 🙂
Yet more to follow!!
Eejits On Tour Part 1
Today Phil and I went on a little tour of Northern Ireland. This wasn’t a random thing, we did have a purpose. We were looking for new collecting sites and checking on a few old ones. We planned to get the required permissions needed to collect legally, so we could devote the day of collecting to just digging trees. We also wanted to touch base with the land owners who previously had allowed us to collect on their land, just to let them know that we’d be back in the Spring.
It was a very successful day and we achieved everything we wanted, and more. I’m not about to broadcast to the world exactly where we collect, that would be rather stupid!! We are eejits [idiots], but not complete eejits!!! 🙂 However, I did take plenty of photographs along the way that won’t compromise our plans. I plan to share these over the next few days. Some are trees for inspiration, some wildlife etc.
It was a long drive with most places not yielding much in the way of decent yamadori, however, many nice trees were on view.
A common sight in Ireland, a hawthorn in a field. Untouched due to superstition that it’s a ‘fairy tree’.
A few Birch.
Some of the views along the coast and up in among the rivers and Glens, are truly beautiful.
The mountain in this image is shrouded with cloud. It kind of looks like a volcano that has spewed forth a cloud of ash!
Sheep grazing in the glens.
A panoramic of the last two shots.
Rathlin Island
Stay tuned, plenty more to come….
Ice Ice Baby
Only the mad and insane walked today!! The footpaths and roads in my home town of Ards were pure sheets of ice. Rainfall during the night froze quickly and the police had actually closed the road on which we normally park for our walk up to Scrabo Tower. Wise people were turning around and going home.
Anyway, us four eejits just carried on. 😀 If we could make it to the gravel paths, we would be fine. Two cars side swiped the kerb and others had been abandoned. After watching the dogs running then sliding for 30 feet at a time, and watching my brother fall on his hoop, we managed to make it to the gravel surface.
Here are a few photos of the walk once it was safe to bring the camera out! Gravel paths a must 🙂
Tarmac paths to be avoided!!
Scrabo Tower was our first target.
Some nice views from the tower. Only from the bottom as the Tower is closed over the Winter months. Below is Belfast in the distance and the snow covered hills behind.
The drumlins of County Down.
Comber Town and the Mournes beyond.
Trees spotted for inspiration.
Ivy seed heads.
Confused Gorse.
Fungi Branch
Larch Cones
Regeneration
Blog of the Week
Over the next few months, while my own bonsai exploits are sitting at idle, I’m hoping to point you in the direction of other good websites and blogsites. I have an extensive list of blogs that I follow on Google Reader that can be subscribed to at the click of a button once you have got your reader account set up.
However, by featuring my favourites here, I hope to share the love 😀
Today’s offering is Jonas Dupuich’s blogsite, Bonsai Tonight. Jonas, is a Californian Bonsai Enthusiast and he’s currently spending some time at the Aichi-en Bonsai Nursery in Japan. He shares new posts every Tuesday and Friday and some quality bonsai can be seen throughout his blog posts.
Just click on one of his images below to visit his blog. As usual, it’s now been added to my favourites list on the side panel.
Bonsai Eejit 