Oct 5 2016

St Fiachra’s Garden, Kildare

A few more photos, this time from St Fiachra’s Garden within the National Stud. A beautiful and peaceful spot. I could have sat all day.

Oct 4 2016

Japanese Garden, Kildare Ireland

Was down in Kildare last week and stopped by the Nation Stud to see the Japanese Garden. Here’s some snaps.

Sep 20 2016

It’s Over!

Time to reflect and recover from what was a very successful weekend at the NIBS Bonsai 30 Exhibition.

The club has loads of photos to follow in a few days and these are being added to the Bonsai 30 Webpage as we go. Check in there to see some now but more to be added soon.

Here are a few of my own trees from the exhibition. It’s not until you get time to sit and look that you realise that tweaking was required after transportation to the event, a few branches knocked out of place. Not that I would have had time to sort them at any rate. I think that would be my main disappointment over the weekend, not getting enough time to really look at the trees on display and walk around with friends. I think we had roughly 18,000 through the event over the 2 days and every club member helping out gave their all to make sure both the trees and the public were happy.

Yew, Golden variety, collected from my Uncles garden 8 years ago.

Japanese Larch

Japanese Maple

Scots Pine

Escallonia

Hawthorn

Yew grown from a cutting

Japanese Maple

Root over Rock Cotoneaster and a little Elm

Shohin Stand by Ringfort Design Studio –

Japanese White Pine, Pyracantha (not mine) Larch, Rose, Maple, Juniper.

Blue Cedar

Fuchsia

Japanese White Pine

Larch

Rose 50% Ownership 🙂

Japanese Maple

A few missing, more to follow.

Sep 16 2016

It’s Here

Bonsai 30 that is. Spent the day knee deep in trees and accents.

This was my front garden this morning taken from the back end of a lorry collecting the bits and pieces.

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And a big thank you to this guy, Jeff has been a star with transporting the bigger trees and getting the club free use of a lorry. Burning it at both ends a tad Jeff but just know it is appreciated.

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A big personal thank you to everyone who gave up their own time to pull this together. Two years in the planning with many major barriers put in our way but it looks like our plan C has come good with a great set up, some super trees never even exhibited before and all done by many many helping hands.

Some snaps from tonight as we were closing up. Flood lights are moody which was actually fun to walk around and see the trees in different light.

Robert Porch in there somewhere, trading at the show as well.

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A few monster trees being viewed in a sneak peek by one of our Scottish visitors. dsc_0086-2

The labels are the QR codes for 30 showcased trees within the exhibition. Scan them and you get taken to a web page with the trees history. dsc_0088-2

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Sep 15 2016

Show Time

You can tell it’s getting near show time, all my trees are covered in netting to keep the birds of my lovely moss!

Sep 7 2016

Shohin Japanese White Pine

Yes, I know, I’ve been very slack with my posting on the blog of late. A very busy period in my life with business, personal and bonsai elements going full tilt. I am hoping to have a quiet few months coming up and look forward to having more time for my own bonsai and pushing forward with my own education in this wonderful art.

I have still been taking photos and I’ll try and get a few more out over the coming weeks.

I’ve been up to my eyes in the prep required for Bonsai 30, the biggest Bonsai event Ireland has seen so far and have been prepping a number of trees for the exhibit. I would rather leave most of them until the event before sharing here though.

However, here’s a little Pine that was gifted to me by my friend Mariusz. It will be getting a new pot in the Spring but has just had a rewiring in case we need it for the shohin display at the exhibition.

Aug 4 2016

Workshop: MBC In Bunratty

Had a great weekend in Bunratty with the folks in the ever growing Munster Bonsai Club. A great mix of existing and new members on the day with lots of interesting trees to play with. Here some photos, some from myself and some stolen from the MBC guys.

Tight squeeze

Some sales items

Ray, the Boss at work

Busy busy

Tut tut Mark Tut tut 🙂

Piotr, another boss at work

More sales, Magic Ceramics

Harry’s little Larch finished

Kung fu fighting! Ninja Kieran

Finishing that Larch

How much for just the pot? 🙂

Mark’s Holm Oak finished

The gang minus Ilene who had to shoot off before the team photo. Thanks for supporting the workshop everyone, a very enjoyable and productive day.

Jul 1 2016

Kusamono Workshop

Better late than never, I’m posting a few photos from the kusamono workshop back at the start of June. June has been a hectic month for me and I’m only catching up on things now.

I must say that these workshops are probably the best days craic you’ll have here in my garage and that’s saying something. There’s been countless sessions here over the years, mostly bonsai orientated, but for sheer enjoyment these have been a treat to host. I only wish I could post a few of the other photos I have from the day but sadly I don’t want to offend anyone :-O

As you can see most photos have people smiling or laughing, just look at the delight on Ben’s face below.

Even from behind you can tell Kris is smiling. Just look at that high cheek dimple 🙂

However I did keep them busy…

We kept Bob outside… Only joking, despite his American origins he’s been in Northern Ireland longer than the Scottish and English contingent at the workshop put together.

Some of the efforts from the day, they’ve still to fill and mature but are all great starting points. First the kusamono.

Shitakusa

Even some Kokedama, mostly from the mossball king on the day, Kris 🙂

I’ll finish with Ben having a zen moment between his usual bouts of hyperactive verbal Englishness!

Next kusamono workshop will be Saturday 20th August.

Jun 30 2016

Peter Flint Found!

I posted the above photo yesterday showing this great character, Peter Flint. I was given the opportunity to visit him a few weeks ago and jumped at the chance. Peter had been in the UK bonsai scene up until roughly 15 years ago when he retired and moved to County Galway in the West of Ireland. He brought his large collection of bonsai with him. Over the years he has reduced this collection to match his changing circumstances but his passion for bonsai has never dropped. I had planned to spend a few hours with him chatting about bonsai but more so about the old days of bonsai in the UK. A few hours turned into nearly seven before I hit the road home! What a fantastic day we had swapping stories and catching Peter up on the last 15 years of the bonsai scene. We knew many of the same people, some who have moved up the ladder and some who have sadly passed on. Peter was involved in the first days of Fobbs and the National Collection in Birmingham as well as being a founder member of the Bedfordshire Bonsai Society.

Peter gave me the tour of his remaining bonsai and showed me the meticulous records he keeps for each tree showing when and where he bought it, or where the seed was bought from. Seeing mature bonsai started from cuttings or seed back in the 70’s was a pleasure, nearly more so than the bought trees that were still in his hands.

He has a fantastic Hinoki Cypress that has a great history, a story a half hour in the telling. I tried to persuade him to exhibit it in our Clubs Bonsai 30 Exhibition in September but I’m still waiting on an answer. 😉 The tree had been awarded a certificate of Special Merit by Fobbs back in 1992 at Dunstable. I told Peter I’d ask if anyone had any old photos of the tree from back then as he doesn’t have one. If anyone reading this was there or may know someone who has old photos from 1992 still knocking around, can you please ask around for me? The tree was also one of the first Batch to be loaned to the National Collection in Birmingham before they had permanent exhibits. Some photos of it there might be knocking around too. This is the tree below along with the certificate from the exhibition.

Peter showing us his tree records.

Some of his remaining trees. A Japanese White Pine on a Rock.

Purple Beech from seed

Red Maple bought in 1984 from Lodders

Cedar from garden Centre stock.

Birch from seed planted in the 1970

Another garden Centre Cedar 50 years in the making

I would just like to thank Peter for allowing me to visit and to Derek for doing the driving. Peter is a real character and sharp as a tack. I could spend a week with him just chatting about bonsai and his experiences. I am delighted that I had the chance to chat with him and it won’t be the last time either. If you used to know Peter and want to get in contact with him for a catch up, just CONTACT ME and I’ll try andput you in touch.