Jan 24 2013

Drama! and We Haven’t Even Left Yet!!

Popped over to Phil’s place today to drop off my tree for the weekend and give him a hand lifting out his rather larger one. We are travelling in Phil’s van which he had unbelievably cleared of all the usual crap he carries about in it 🙂

His tree had to be secured at an angle to get it to fit and he spend a little time screwing wood around both trees to stop any movement.

Here’s a few photos.

We managed to get all this done and the van fully filled and I drove off to leave him to pop home. About a half hour later I got a call to say the van was dead and we were now stuck for transport. This started a frantic session of phone calls to the AA [That’s Automobile Assoc not Alcoholics Anon :-)] Stenna and a van hire company, to try and cover all options. We had a 5pm deadline to get things sorted one way or another. At 4,30pm after changing the boat time from first thing in the morning just in case, the AA guy found the fault and has made a temporary fix. No part available in Northern Ireland but we hope to make it as far as Carlisle tomorrow before it quits. The part awaits us there!

All very dramatic, lets hope it starts in the morning. A £27.50 part was better than a £300 van hire!!

Next Stop Willowbog Bonsai, fingers crossed everyone 😀

Jan 24 2013

Tree for the Weekend

This is the Scots Pine that I’ll be doing in the workshop with Ryan Neil next Sunday.

I did some prep and removed some of the older needles for wiring.

After needle removal

Even remembered to cover up to catch the needles 🙂

Jan 23 2013

OK, Very Pretty, Now GO AWAY!!

You can’t fail to have noticed the white stuff everywhere this week. All very nice but I want to see the back of it before we travel over to Willowbog Bonsai on Friday.

I’ve been lucky here to be honest. At sea level we rarely get much and at no point has it been more than a few inches. Pop over the hill to Belfast and it’s a lot worse. Most countries that are used to snow seem to cope with it but the UK is hopeless, everything grinds to a halt.

I did snap a few shots just to record the dates here on the blog. Always interesting to record when we get the snow and what the weather has been like. I is meant to be a Bonsai Diary after all and the weather plays a big part in how our trees grow.

Empty benches

Even in the greenhouse!

Jan 22 2013

Old Joe Yew Update

Time to rework this Yew called Old Joe after my Uncle. See HERE and HERE for background and older photos.

This is it now. Grown well in the last while. Decisions to be made about the future height of the tree. Initially keep tall for a bit of carving practice on a poor tree. Now as it fills out I might be tempted to create the tree from the bottom few branches. However, tall and straight is part of my memory of my uncle, decisions decisions.

Jan 20 2013

Noelanders Trophy 2013 Winners

Trying to piece together the winners of this year’s Trophy. From what I can glean, this is it. If there’s any mistakes, or others I’ve missed, please let me know.

First prize, Luis Baliño (picea)

First prize (Deciduous): Luis Vallejo (Fagus crenata)

Second prize (Deciduous): Udo Fisher (acer palmatum)

First prize (Shohin): Marc & Rita Cooper

[Edit – Looks like this display actually was in second place with Mark and Ritta’s other display shown below getting First. Not that it matters as both are quite stunning.]

Second prize (Shohin): Marc & Rita Cooper

Third prize (Shohin): Nanci Ball

Will update as information comes in.

Jan 19 2013

Noelanders Trophy 2013 Photos Part 7

And finally Part 7, the last batch from Harry. It’s a bumper batch too with a few extra 🙂

A big thank you to Harry on behalf of all the folk who have been hitting the like button and sending private messages. For those of us not lucky enough to be there, this is as good as it gets. If anyone here’s about the other winners, let me know and I’ll post the trees here for all to admire.

I and I have also added a link To Jerry’s FlickR Set with quite a few photos from the Trade area for those interested. As others add their photos on the net I’ll add links here too. Save you all hunting about ❗