Jan 15 2013

Belvior Forest Park Belfast

Some photos from a recent walk in Belvior Forest and along the Lagan river.

view from carpark

oak still in leaf!!

big ole cedar

Lagan

on it’s last leg

nice knarly tree

water dipping willow

A fantastic old Oak

oak

beech

oak

amazing nebari on an old beech, great around the full 360

I love you too

swans

you’ll be missed

cold!

graffitti?

Jan 14 2013

Ian B’s Zelkova

Another one worked on with Ian on Saturday. A Zelkova that he has had for a very long time, from seed kit I think!

The before image looks great with lots of fine ramification but if left unchecked it will go backwards this year. We gave it a haircut removing some dead inner branches and thinning out the outer canopy.

Before

After

It’s in an old Lark Lane pot, if anyone remembers those. They used to be in every garden centre in the country about 20 years ago, some crap ones but I love this one.

Jan 13 2013

Ian B’s Larch

Our dedicated club treasurer was at my house yesterday and we worked on a few trees, mostly minor tweaks and a little wiring.

This is his Japanese Larch that has thickened a little in a few places and we removed what we could replacing branches with a finer structure.

Before original front

Before slightly different angle

After

Jan 12 2013

The Magnificent Seven +1

As expected, last nights club meeting was a very low turn out due to the road blocks and protesters across Belfast.

However 7 brave souls and me managed to get there. We used a smaller room and managed to have a great nights craic 🙂

Phil with the usual hat glued to his head.

and his usual two fingered salute. Ben appears to be taking steps with side branch cutters to cut Phil off in his prime. Also note, a rare sighting of Harry on the left most camera shy guy I know 🙂

Is that a Christmas jumper Michael? 🙂

Ben slightly traumatised having been beside Phil all night!

A special mention must go to Alan who after hitting his fourth roadblock gave up and went home. Good try Alan

Jan 11 2013

Club Night Tonight

I know bonsai clubs are not for everyone. However the NIBS has given me a lot of help and satisfaction over the 19 years I’ve been a member.

Tonight’s meeting will be interesting as I haven’t a clue how many will actually turn up. January is usually one of our busiest nights for some reason but tonight we have protesters and civil unrest in Belfast. So I have no doubt that many will avoid any possible trouble. I however, will there 🙂

Jan 10 2013

European Bonsai Forum Read This!

I’m on the European Bonsai Forum among many others. I tend to read and lurk more than post there. Something I should Try and do something about!

I felt compelled to share a link to this post titled ‘Enrico Savini. Progetto futuro bonsai school’ I’m pretty sure everyone can read it without being an enrolled member. That said, it’s worth signing up to for those of us with Native European species.

Why am I sharing a link to this post? Simple, It is refreshing to read an honest account of bonsai in Europe. Enrico’s thoughts on Yamadori, tree pricing really struck a cord with me.

Don’t take my word for it, read it for yourself. Just click on the image below to visit the post.

Jan 9 2013

Boat Booked!

That’s the boat booked for our trip over to Willowbog Bonsai on 25th January for the Ryan Neil Demo and Workshop.

Looking forward to getting over there and seeing some old friends and a few new ones to boot. Funny this internet carry on. I chat with folk every day who I’ve never met. It’s always interesting to actually meet them in the flesh and see if they match up with who you thought they were 🙂

I have my driver lined up, Phil is taking his van over as both our workshop trees are rather on the large side, however they might not be on the way back. If you follow this blog, you all know Phil ‘The Fingers’ Donnelly.

Joining us as a passenger on his first trip to Willowbog is Ben. I’m not sure he’s wise getting into a van for a long drive with Phil as these two constantly banter when together. I think I’ll have to sit in the middle 🙂

Ben will be gutted when he realizes that the chance of getting a mobile phone reception at Willowbog is practically zero! I think his expression will be similar to this 🙂

Or this 🙂

The children playing together 🙂

Enough about that pair, what I’m looking forward to is a good walk around Peter’s benches to get another look at some great bonsai.Here’s a gallery showing my last visit.

Jan 8 2013

Warren Video

Interesting snapshot on video of Peter Warren grafting a maple. It says field maple on the video but it looks like a field grown Japanese maple to me. May be they mean’t field grown maple.

But hey, I could be wrong, I often am 🙂