Below: I just wanted to share this cell phone picture that I made of 4 small candles hugging an apple on my old Pinus parviflora. She responds very well after her repotting and is covered with bright green candles! The 2 most minor will be removed in favour of the 2 stronger ones! Always leave a maximum of just 2 end buds at the end of each Pine branch so that they will not become too coarse in the future!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.
One morning last year I found this welcome visitor relaxing on my big Yamadori 5 trunk Fagus raft and just had to quickly take a picture of him with my old cell phone. Hope you like this poor shot as much as I do?! It’s freezing here tonight and snow is predicted! Poor just repotted trees!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.
My earlier post about my favourite Prunus was so well-read that I thought she and the readers of my blog deserve better and sharper pictures! So when yesterday the sun finally broke through the clouds I shot a few dozen pictures by hand with my (real) camera! I hope you all will enjoy them.
Above: The deadwood of this young top section neats more work and ageing, but that’s for later! I will start work on it early next growing season in the warm sun! Around that same time, I will start the ageing project on that still-jong-looking bark…I have a cunning plan to help that on the way…mmwwaaahhahaha!
Above: Close-up of the natural deadwood! Besides being photographed and worked on here in my makeshift photo studio, she is also sheltered from the rain! So that all the deadwood can become dry! Then I can impregnate it to protect it from rotting away! The still-too-young bark on the upwards stump needs some more ageing of course! But who cares?! I am pretty happy so far with the fast progress of this tree…this little tree makes me happy!
Above: The deadwood on the left was worked on some more with a hammer and chisels. The rest was cleaned with tweezers and different brushes until all that was clearly rotten and not saveable was removed. In the top section, some of the living bark on the left side was cut away to break up that straight lifeline between the alive and dead section some more to make it look more natural. Some cut paste was applied to protect the wound!
Above: And there she is (for now) in all her glory! Colouring orange in the setting sun! To prevent further rotting she will spend the next couple of wet and cold months here underneath the shelter of this makeshift photo studio! During that time I will start further styling the deadwood on that straight section with power tools and hand tools! I will make sure to take pix of that process and post them as soon as possible! Oh, how I wished I had a good pot for this one?! I hope you enjoyed these somewhat better pictures?!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.
* Picture: Light House of Hellevoetsluis (NL).
Yesterday late afternoon I decided to take a long walk along the “Haringvliet” river and follow the long “Zee Dijk” (sea dyke) that runs along with it! This river is the last link between melting snow in the Alps and the North Sea (NL). While climbing up the stairs up that dyke, I was pleasantly surprised by a beautiful multicolour sunset! Luckily I had my old cellphone with me to take some pictures of some distant people that were running their dogs before dinner. They were all standing still to stare at that constantly changing colourful spectacle! I hope that this picture can convey that feeling that I had for you ?!
Cheers and stay safe,
Hans van Meer.
For the last two days, this Trident maple was trying hard to hold on to its leaves, while I was waiting for some sunlight to make a decent picture! And this afternoon there finally was just enough natural light to shoot some quick shots of this amazing coloured foliage! And just in time because now, just a few hours later, the wind has blown off a lot of the orange/red leaves! I hope you enjoy this picture of this colourful messenger of the coming winter?!
Below: The fast-sinking sun creates surreal colours!
Below: After two nights of low temperatures almost all leaves dropped off, creating a different scene and feeling!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.
Now that I can’t work for long on my trees anymore and have to sit down for a while when my knees and back give in again! I find that I have much more time to really, really look at my trees and try to enjoy them as if I would see them for the very first time! More annalistic and aware! I most often do that while taking pictures and then end up completely overlooking all details and the whole of those details, the Bonsai! Doing so I got stroked again by the upwards-twirling old deadwood (Shari) and the beautifully aged bark with all its cracks! The Shari at the right top of this picture was made over 25 years ago and was during that time bleached several times with Lime sulphur with a few drupes black inked added to leave more of a greyish white after it did its bleaching work! But it still those not have the right greyish/white colour that the twirling old natural Shari has! So I shall have to bleach it again and again until it has the right colour!
Below: That’s how old Hawthorn bark and deadwood (Shari) look!
Below: She looks a bit top-heavy with all those red berries and the old cell phone those do not help much in this case either! 😉
Cheers,
Hope you enjoyed these quickly-made pictures of my baby and forgive me for the poor quality?!
Hans van Meer.
Earlier I posted a picture of the tinny mushrooms that hat overnight suddenly appeared around the root base of my Taxus/Yew. Well today, while busy removing all of the unused photos that I had made from my cell phone, I made an unbelievable discovery on one of them!!! Little SOOT SPRITES!!! 😱😉
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.
This morning I discovered these very lovely tiny shinning white mushrooms growing in front of my Yamadori Yew/Taxus and I just knew that I had to make some pictures of this magical scene with my cell phone as soon as the sun came out!
I hope you enjoy these images as much as we do?!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.
A few days ago it was such a sunny day that made my colour-changing Trident maple from Japan almost glow… so I just had to shoot some quick photos of her. It proved to be a race for time because the sun was on her right side quickly sinking behind my house! It proved to be a great year for my two maples (the above one and an Acer palmatum deshojo) that I both have had under my care for some 26 years orzo! This unique pot (that I like a lot) is by Isabella.
Cheers and stay safe,
Hans van Meer.
The Bonsai Blog of Hans van Meer 