Another one from Valerie’s collection, this time it’s a Korean Hornbeam that has great ramification but was in need of some structural pruning.
This is it thinned out a bit. Needs a few branches wired to get things into position.
Tag Archives: Northern Ireland
Valerie’s Larch Group
I’m doing a little Winter care for Valerie at the moment and have her collection here with me. This Larch group is one of my favourites. Bought about 6 years ago from Willowbog Bonsai and had previously been part of a large collection of larch owned by an enthusiast in Scotland.
For personal reasons Valerie wasn’t able to get near her trees too much in recent years but is now all guns blazing and is determined to make the best of her collection. I saw this group a few months ago and told her it would need to be wired over the Winter. She took me at my word and had it fully wired for the December meeting. A great effort made with the wiring. A few issues with it as I pointed out to her on the night, a little too much wire and some not applied correctly but the biggest compliment I can pay her is that it was functional, I could place every branch without changing the wire. Many struggle to get this right.
I did a little shaping and pruning and this is what it’s Winter image looks like now.
This was it back in 2011
Normal Service Resumed
Those of you who are mad enough to check my blog daily, and are therefore as mad as me for updating it daily, will have noticed that I have skipped a few days. Well, it’s Christmas, and lets face it, things in the bonsai world have slowed down. However, I am endeavouring to get back on track with my posts.
I had a great/quiet Christmas at home with my family as this snap of an evening in front of the TV shows. Dinner over, fire lit, candles burning, tree lights illuminating, cosy or what 🙂 All that’s missing from this photo is the two dogs who are normally fighting with my son for the spot in front of the fire.
As most of you know I usually have bonsai friends around on the last Friday of the month to play with trees. However December is always a bad month to have one of these evenings as folk don’t want to come out into the dark, wet and very very windy night. I was chatting to Phil and Stephen, my two bonsai muckers, and the idea was floated for a smaller gathering but this time in the afternoon. After a quick email to a few friends it soon became apparent that some people were desperate to get out of the house lol.
I got the garage set up and ready to go.
Now at this point you will be expecting a photo gallery of all that went on… Well guess who was having so much fun that the camera hardly came out?! Yep, me. I have a few trees shots which I will share over the next few days, but very little else. I know Stephen had his camera with him as the flash was going off in my face a lot 😉 I’m hoping he has some nice photos over on his Bonsai Baker blog soon. But knowing Stephen……
In the meantime I will keep linking too and reblogging anything I find of interest about bonsai on the net. It saves you lot having to look anywhere else 😛
Hope you are all having a wonderful holiday.
Happy Christmas Everyone
Thanks for all your support this year. I’m now past the 900,000 hits on this blog.
Have a great day tomorrow and may all your surprises be good ones!
Winter Walk
Low Winter sun over Strangford Lough on Sunday.
Trees down in the recent high winds. The Park chaps did a quick job of finishing them off. I think this was 5 mature beech down.
New Website Norego.fr
Well worth a look and a follow as new material is added. Just click on the image to visit.
BONSAI at the BRICKLANE ART GALLERY, LONDON
A short video from Bonsai Focus taken at Peter Warren’s recent exhibition in London
Show Video
Back in the Hot Seat
After our club AGM on Friday I find myself back in the hot seat as chairman.
Looking forward to 2014 and what it brings in the way of bonsai. A new committee in place with a few changes taking place and a strong team ready for taking the club forward.
Bonsai on the Red Carpet – Bonsai Focus
Bonsai Eejit 