Sep 10 2012

Walking Again

You’d think a dodgy shoulder wouldn’t stop you walking, but it did! I have been back at it for a few weeks but didn’t take the camera. Yesterday normal service resumed.

Our usual path on this walk has seen a few changes. Plenty of big beeches have taken a tumble. This one took a smaller one with it.

I love fungi at this time of year. Never miss a chance for a photo.

The green grass of home

Onwards to the beach at Helen’s Bay

Stephen had an extra dog for the walk

and just to repay the favour, here he is contorting himself for a photo.

Sep 9 2012

Rossii?

I swapped a few accents with Xavier back in the Spring and one of them was this chap. I can’t seem to actually find out more about it. It was labelled Mukdenia Rossi. I was expecting the Rossi to refer to red flowers at some point, but as you can see, there appears to be a red tinge to the leaves starting as we come into Autumn. I have since read that it’s now to be called Aceriphyllum rossii. Anybody know any more about it as an accent?

Sep 8 2012

Happy Snapper

A few days ago, I mentioned that I was trying to recover photos from Stephen’s memory card after an accidental delete has wiped out every photo he’d taken since March. [Remember to back up 🙂 ] I was successful.

While I was looking through the recovered photos I noticed that he has been sneaking around on our Sunday walks, taking photos of me taking photos! Here are some of them and a few others besides.

Me getting a shot of the Mourne Mountains from Scrabo Hill, Newtownards

I appear to be getting a shot of some Hawthorn Berries up Cavehill, overlooking Belfast Lough. My Springer Spaniel, Maggie is never far from my side on a walk. My other dog deserts me and ranges ahead.

Taking close up shots of bluebells in Killyneither Woods, Comber.

I think I caught him on in this one 🙂

A colder day walking the beach at Gray’s Point, Helen’s Bay. My squint is probably me trying to spot Smudge running ahead causing havoc, stealing tennis balls from other dogs!

Maggie and I in the Bluebells again.

The best way to discuss bonsai, with a tin of beer in the hand 🙂 Taken at a visit to Josh’s garden.

Taken on our Spring Pine collecting trip.

Cavehill again. Stephen and I walk with my two brothers. That’s them on the path ahead of us. We usually split up as Stephen’s dog and my brother’s dog hate each other!

Capturing Forsythia flowers this time I think.

More plant snapping.

A rare photo of me with my two brothers. As you can see I got all the good looks in the family. Hair is in short supply 😀

I’ll end with this one. It shows the end of one of our walks at Bangor Marina. My dog Smudge’s favourite spot. He’ll race ahead to get in the water waiting for someone, anyone, to throw a stone for him to chase.

Sep 7 2012

Phil’s Garden

Well not quite, some from his and some from his Dad’s place were he keeps a lot of his trees.

Some of the wee ones he keeps at his own place.

And a few bigger ones there for some work.

and now up at his Dad’s place.

Checing the filter to see why the pond has dropped 12″!

A bit of everything

Collected material

The magic tunnel

Some of the smaller trees.

Scots Pine

Yew

Scots Pine

The setting of the sun, time to go home.

Sep 5 2012

Bonsai Baker’s Benches

There used to be a guy called Bonsai Baker, he even started his own blog but despite abuse from those who love him, he hasn’t posted in a while. Perhaps a few pokes and prods to him on his blog Bonsai Baker might stimulate him into action again. 🙂

I had called down to Stephen’s last week to scrounge up a few cardboard boxes for posting trees in. I managed to snap a few photos in his back garden just to keep you up to date until he starts posting again.

His Arakawa Maple

His Repanda Common Juniper root over rock. This has grown vigorously since the styling here at my house earlier in the year.

His ever growing collection of hostas.

Sep 4 2012

Yew Two

The second yew styled was also on the ‘to go’ bench. I can’t even remember where this one came from, possibly a club auction many years ago.

It had previous been styled by someone but not very well. It had also been very weak. It was now back to full health but the manufactured ‘s’ bend on the trunk was terrible to look at and the foliage was far removed from the best feature, the base of the tree. I wanted to bring the two together to make a more compact and interesting tree.

This the after image. I applied raffia to the upper trunk and bent it down making more convincing movement bringing all the areas of interest closer the the best part of the tree, the lower trunk. The jin to the left needs to be reduced but is currently acting as a wire anchor point. With some back budding and a little more refinement, this is going to be a rather nice tree with interesting trunk movement. The jin can be extended into a shari down into the lower trunk making a nice feature and perhaps even extended along the upper trunk to link up with the small jin there.

Sep 2 2012

Fright Night?

Or should it be Friday night? I think the former looking at this photo 😀

Had a few mates around to play with trees on Friday night. Not a big turn out as I only gave a few days notice. You would think that it would be quiet then but that’s not possible with Michael and Phil in attendance!!

Phil showing his speed trimming technique.

Far too much laughing going on here, you’d think they were actually enjoying themselves!

Bertie’s little berberis got a major haircut. This is the before image.

Some pruning, what a hoot 🙂 Get it?

Ian B’s juniper got a thinning out and is now ready for a refinement wiring.

Michael brought this Japanese White Pine for advice. There was several options. He could keep it full size and just rewire in an attempt to hide some of the faults. He could reduce the height and make a shohin sized tree or even take it back further as Phil was showing below to create a mame/Shohin tree. Not was the right time to do such a drastic chop so Michael has some time to think about it.

Phil brought 3 trees along for me to photograph. He saw I was selling a few on here and asked if I’d add his as well. What are friends for. I’ll add these to the For Sale page. Keep an eye there if you are interested.

Sep 1 2012

Buddleia Visitors

Snapped these visitors to my buddleia the other day.

My two dogs made good use of a few hours of sun too.

Aug 21 2012

Mame Dwarf Willow

I lifted this little willow out of the grit tray for trimming. I think a better pot next year might be in order 🙂

Before a light trim.

and after with the other side selected as a better front.

Aug 19 2012

Try Try Again

I saved this cedar from the chop back in 2008. It was growing as a tall tree in the middle of a lawn. The owner wanted it removed as it was ruining the lines created by his lawnmower! There was 4 of them but this was the only survivor from collection. They had strimmer damage and very poor roots.

I wasn’t sure if it would even make a tree and to be honest the jury is still out on that point!! It is very straight and resembles a fence post. I don’t have the photos from the first shaping back in 2009. It was just branch selection and some primary branch wiring done to drop the branches.

A short time later I wanted to practice my carving and decided this would make a good practice piece. I wasn’t too worried about it and I thought that carving might add interest to the trunk and take away from the straightness.

You can see that I need the practice!! I then wired the tree to replace the branches at the right angles. This all took place over a 4 month period.

I wasn’t overly happy with the result. I considered lowering the height of the tree and perhaps creating a jinned apex like the virtual below. However, I wanted two tall trees that would eventually sit either side of a gate into the bonsai section of my garden. I have another one of a similar size and style and decided to keep it the full height. This meant keeping the cheat of an apex.

This is another virtual done back in2010

Yesterday I brought it into the garage and started to tidy up the weeds in the pot and and remove old needles. Before I knew it the wire was out again! Lots of growth in the last year with enough extension that I could hopefully improve the image. Branches have sprung up and needed to be brought back down again.

Me for scale.

After four hours this was the best I could come up with. I had to take it slow and steady with my dodgy shoulder but I got there in the end. I was able to use foliage to hide the bad apex.