This gallery contains 31 photos.
Saturday saw us driving to Mark’s home where he kindly agreed to host the workshop. His large tunnel was cleared out to give us room to make a mess. Each of the people taking part picked a tree to discuss … Continue reading
Ok, so it’s Munster not Monster, but these things start small and build. This group are keen to learn and we spent a very wet and windy Friday night in Blackrock Hurling Club waiting for the roof to blow off!! We also covered potting medium and what we are looking for in a mix, carving bonsai, tree critique all at the same time as a Juniper was being styled.
Today sees Phil and I head back to Cork for a workshop weekend with the Munster Bonsai Club. Looking forward to seeing the chaps again.
We are even stopping off on the way down to see Owen who’s starting up the Leinster Bonsai Club.
The Munster Bonsai Club have just launched their new Website/Blog.
Give them a little boost and give them a follow.
Click on the image to visit.
Also check out their social media links.
I always like to do one of these to look back on. Good times…
After the Friday Night and Saturday workshop with the guys at Munster Bonsai Club, there is the so far untold story of the rest of the weekend.
Did we go back to Piotr’s and get an early night before heading straight home on Sunday morning? Of course not, where’s the fun in that 🙂
When we got back to Piotr’s home his wife had made us a beautiful Polish meal, the name of which I can’t even pronounce never mind spell! Before long the beers were flowing, both Polish and Irish. Then something amazing happened, Piotr’s 5 year old daughter challenged Phil to a game of chess ❗ She won with a little help from her Daddy 🙂
As the night moved on bonsai yet again came to the fore and Piotr had his own private bonsai session finishing at 4am! Just look at the devastation on the floor. It’s easy to remove branches when pissed Piotr .
Next morning, bright and early Piotr and I had breakfast together and discussed club events while we waited for sleeping beauty to wake up. Once we were all ready we headed back to Cork to visit Mark, one of the guys from the workshop. Mark has been into bonsai for about 10 years but mostly on his own as the old Cork Club folded years ago. Now this turned out to be further away that we were lead to believe, Irish concept of time and distance seem to differ from us up North! These are a few photos taken around Mark’s garden. He had a major drama last year when the local farmer sprayed the field with roundup weed killer and the spray drifted onto some of his trees. Some are still recovering!
After Mark’s we headed back towards Piotrs and he was kind enough to show us one some of the trees he’s preparing for collection this Spring. Sadly I twisted my already bad ankle hopping in and out of the van and had to sit a lot of this out 😦 I did spot one nice tree in the van though 😉 A few bags of moss collected in preparation for Spring air layers.
After another bit of a drive we made our way back to Piotr’s home via some rather unusual place names, at least it was only one Nad 🙂
All that was left was a cuppa and the long drive home.
That’s Munster not Monster!
Phil and I travelling down to Cork City on Friday, roughly 300 miles. The Munster Bonsai Club is only up and running 5 months and is keen for new members and hope that by bringing us down for regular sessions that we might attract a few others to the club.
Plans were for a meeting on the Friday night were Phil would do a little demo on a Scots Pine showing a few techniques while I worked my way through some of the members trees doing a critique. Those attending on the Friday brought plenty of trees to chose from and we had a great night. It was obvious that the guys there are totally in love with bonsai, many of you already know that feeling. When people start talking about trees, you could feel the buzz in the room.
After the meeting we travelled home with Piotr our host for the weekend. He lives 50 minutes away by his driving standard 😉
On our return to the club for the workshop on the Saturday I was delighted to see everyone there and raring to go on time. We always start with each workshop participant picking one main tree for the day to discuss before we begin actual work on the tree. This way everyone can learn for everyone elses tree. We had a real mixture of trees to work with from large raw pines to a small Hinoki Cypress. We also covered a few other topics as a spin off to the tree critiques like repotting and feeding.
As time moved on we all got working on trees and again the enthusiasm showed in their application to the tasks at hand. In some cases one tree was enough while others were able to work on several during the course of the day. It’s important to state that work done was what was best for the tree on the day, not trying to achieve a finished image, the only target for the session was maximum learning and I think that was achieved. We managed this while having some great craic in the process.
I would like to thank Piotr, Adam, Matt, Mark, Ray and Peter for making the day so enjoyable. Your openness to having two eejits from the North cut lumps out of trees was truly inspiring.
A full run down when I actually make it back up the road but while I’m stealing Piotr’s neighbours wifi signal I thought I’d do a quick post about our weekend. New friends, great times , good craic. Can’t wait to do it again 🙂
Ok, not quite as good an option as Noelanders 😀 but as far as pushing bonsai in Ireland, this is an important step.
Phil and I are taking the drive down to Cork on Friday to spend the weekend with some of the chaps from Munster. I think we even have a few ‘blowins’ from other areas too! I have only met a few of those attending, some I know from chatting via the blog and from Bonsai Ireland Hub. I’m looking forward to making some new friends and helping share knowledge about this great hobby. It’s a bit of a drive down:
I’ll do my best to keep you up to date with our exploits , but that will depend on my wifi access over the weekend! Sadly once I cross that grey line on the map my network disappears! Hopefully this will be the first of many events and fingers crossed we can get a club up and running in Dublin asap.
Myself and Phil are on our travels in January all being well. We are popping down to Cork, Munster, to run a demo and workshop with the newly formed Munster Bonsai Club, part of the bonsai Ireland group. I’m really looking forward to it.
If you are viewing from Ireland, please give Piotr a shout and get booked in, even just for the Friday night perhaps. It’s so important that we all support him and Adam with the new club. Everyone has been crying out for one for years, now it’s here it needs to grow and your support is vital. If this workshop is a success then other will be planned for later in 2014.
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