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?!
Here are after many small sessions of wiring some quickly made cell phone pictures of the almost finished result of my Old White Pine that was imported from China some 32 years ago and was one of the first Bonsai I ever bought! Her height is 87 cm/34 Inch so getting her to where she stands in this picture by myself to wire her proved to be a backbreaker for my bad back indeed! And that I had to stand on a small stool the whole time to reach the higher branches to wire them did not make things any easier for my poor back!! The wiring itself took me (in short sessions) more than one week! Below: Some big decisions were made to shorten or remove some otherwise good branches!
So after finally finishing wiring, lifting her to the place where I usually take my pictures was out of the question for me at this moment (sigh!) So the below pictures of her are shot with my cell phone at the place where she was wired! She is on her way to her older glory and needs just a few more years to back bud some more and hopefully double her foliage! And a new pot because the one it is in now is precariously cracked on opposite sides (frost-proof my ass!)! The now more than 30 years she has lived with us have aged her so well and she has become a part of our family!
Below: A close-up picture of the amazing mature bark on the trunk! And when I cleaned up and removed the top layer of old soil around the base, I discovered that the roots had widened a lot and almost doubled in size! The fled large root on the left bottom side and everything else below where that moss line stops on the lower trunk is all new to me O joy!!!
Now I have to find a nice new pot for here because after more than a decade it is time to repot here in some fresh soil in a new home! I hope you like my old Pine?!
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.
Maybe you all remember me telling you about how somewhere in the middle 9ties of last century I was lucky to collect some amazing field grown and more than 50 years old Chamaecyparis obtusa nana gracilis mother plants in Boskoop (Holland).
Below: Well, one of those that I collected that day was styled by me and some years later shown in the famous “Noelanders Trophy” in Belgium. That all happened well before the year 2000!
Two decades later I sold this Bonsai to my good friend and student Diederick, who during a styling session with me at his place (Holland) brought it back to a very promising Bonsai again! Diederick has become such a fan of this species that he is always searching the internet to find another promising one! And he did find one and what happened then is just unbelievable, but true!
Diederick found while surfing the internet for Bonsai and raw material a guy near Utrecht (Holland), who had a very old Chamaecyparis for sale. So he drove up there and when he saw that tree, he immediately thought that it looked very familiar to the one he has at home?! So he asks about its history and origin?! The owner then told Diederick that many years ago he collected it and a few other ones at a professional growers’ place in Boskoop (Holland)! And that it was like the other ones in that plot always used as a Mother plant that was grown to take many cuttings off. And that it grew on its own roots so it was not crafted and that it must be by now about 70 or 80 years old! He told Diederick: I remember that day well because Hans van Meer was digging up 2 or 3 of these Chamaecyparis Mother plants right next to me in that same plot?! Diederick was flabbergasted by this coincidence and told him that he recognized this story and that he now owned one of these Chamaecyparis trees that I had collected all those years ago right next to the one he was now planning to buy from that guy?! Diederick was more than happy to buy this tree and later wrote to me: Hans after more than 25 years of separation these so closely related trees are back together again in my garden…what was the change of that ever happening?! Now I know that they are just plants…but I find it a heartwarming story in these troubled times!
Below: The garden of Diederick where the (top-picture) Chamaecyparis that he just bought now closely lives next to his (below-picture) brother-sister again after all these years!
I hope you enjoyed this little heartwarming story as much as we did? Stay safe and healthy everybody! Cheers, Hans van Meer.
Above and below: In May of 2008, I was invited to come to the U.S.A to give Bonsai workshops and demo’s in 3 different states. The first state I visited was beautiful Oregon. Where on my day off my friendly host Jason took me up to the Japanese Garden! I say up because it is situated on a steep mountainside in Portland! These pictures were made with an old, not very good camera, but they came out good enough to show them to you.
Below: You can find tons of pictures from this stunning famous red Acer on the web!
Above: The mighty rivers the Rijn and the Maas come together to form the Hollands Diep, which further on becomes the Haringvliet that runs past our little island Hellevoetsluis! All the next sunset pictures are shot just a 5 minutes walk away from my home on the banks of the same Haringvliet. I only have to walk through a few short streets to reach the several meters high and many kilometres long dike that protects the whole of south Holland from flooding by the rivers and the sea! I actually have to climb stairs to get up this dike and then down the stairs again to reach the small patch of land and a small beach that lies in front of this Haringvliet! This is always very confusing for my foreign friends when I take them for a walk along the seaside! They often ask: do you have to climb stairs to get to the beach?! Ower house on the safe side of this massive and many miles long dike is built just around sea level! But when it storms or with high water it actually lays below sea level! Standing on this shore where these pictures are made and looking to the right you can see the world-famous Haringvliet dam that holds out the mighty Noordsea! It can be opened or shut-in sections. In the picture above you can see that one of these sections is open to let in saltwater so that saltwater vis can swim in and out to spawn. I hope you enjoy these pictures of this unique and often magical place?!
Above: 7-1-2009. “Haringvliet partly frozen”.
Above: 7-1-2009. “Swans in partly frozen Haringvliet”.
Above: 18-4-2009. “Larch in bloom”.
Above: 28-09-2009. Mushrooms growing next to my old Pinus parviflora.
Above: 15-12-2009. “Lighthouse at Haringvliet in Hellevoetsluis”.
Above: 15-12-2009 “Winter Sunset I” Haringvlliet in Hellevoetsluis.
Above: 15-12-2009 “Willow Sunset” Haringvliet in Hellevoetsluis.Above: 15-9-2009 “Winter Sunset II” Haringvliet in Hellevoetsluis.Above: 17-12-2009. “Willows” at Haringvliet in Hellevoetsluis.
Above: 17-12-2009. “Willow” at Haringvliet in Hellevoetsluis.
Above: 17-12-2009. “Willow & Sunset” Haringvliet in Hellevoetsluis.
Above: 17-12-2009. “Haringvliet in Hellevoetsluis”.Above: 17-12-2009. “Haringvliet in Hellevoetsluis”.Above: 20-12-2009. “Haringvliet in Hellevoetsluis”.Above: 20-12-2009. “Haringvliet in Hellevoetsluis”.Above: 1-1-2010. Location: Near “Rockanje” in South-Holland, some 15 minutes from my home. This is a picture of a small lake named “Tenella lake” that is situated near this small town. This lake lies in a rare wet dune forest named: Quackjes water.15-2-2010. Above and below: Swans hibernating in a small lake close to where I live.Below: 17-12-2010. Pond with an island in “Rockanje” in South Holland.Below: 17-12-2010 “Tenella lake” in Wintertime.
Below: 17-12-2010 “Tenella lake” in Wintertime.
Below: 17-12-2010 “Tenella Lake” in Wintertime.
Below: 17-12-2010 “Tenella lake” in Wintertime.
Below: 17-12-2010 “Tenella lake” in Wintertime.
Below: 12-4-2011: Bumblebee on my Blackthorn.
Below: 17-12-2010 “The Quackjeswater wet dune forest” in Wintertime.
Below: 4-2-2012 “Tenella lake in Wintertime”
Below: 4-2-2012. This is where the Quackjeswater wet dune forest finally reaches the beach of the North sea that was here partly frozen!Below: 4-2-2012. The North sea is partly frozen.Below: 4-2-2012. Cold Robin near “Tenella Lake”. Below: 11-7-2012. I was more than proud to take pictures at the fairytale wedding of my two lovely nieces. Below: 9-10-2012. Butterfly on Juniper deadwood.14-10-2012: Below. The beauty of medicinal herbs.14-5-2015: Below. Little lost Blackbird seeking shelter from the hot sun.14-5-2015: Cosy and safe under need my old Hawthorn. 8-10-2015: Spider sunbathing in my garden.Below: 8-12-2019: Wetlands along the seaside of the long dike. Thousands of births of different species spend the winter or live here permanently. In the distance, you can just see “Goeree overflakkee” the next big island of Zeeland.Below: 8-12-2019: These small windmills pump water to the sea and make sure that the water level in the many small channels those not get too high.I hope you enjoyed my pictures?! Cheers, Hans van Meer.
Way back in the early seventies, I must have been around 12 years old when my niece took me to the “Plaswijk park” in Rotterdam (Hillegersberg) that was and still is on another side of Rotterdam then where I used to live. This beautiful old large amusement/nature park was home to several animals like monkeys, kangaroos, births and horses that children could ride around a U-shaped parkour for 10 cents. There was a space tower overlooking one side of the park and on the other side the boats on the lake and the islands that surrounded it for a large part. You could take a trip on a longboat to see those lakes or hire a rowing boat to do the same. And it was home to one of the largest playgrounds I had ever seen! With crazy dangerous attractions that would not pass any safety check these days! And there was an ancient “mary go round” and several typical “Dutch” restaurants with Patat (chips, fries) with mayonnaise or Poffertjes (small pancakes) with melting butter and powdered sugar on top! 🤗😋MMMMmmm!! Needless to say that I had a great first day and was even allowed to visit the stables and help with walking around the track with the ponies! After that visit, I went back many a time to help and play and had many greasy adventures with the many human and animal friends there! Later I even had my first paid job there renting out the rowing boots or running the box office of the “Maze”, where I use to show pretty girls the way out for a kiss! 😁 But the best part was the interaction and helping to take care of the many animals that lived there!The often amazing adventures that I had in the “Plaswijkpark” were and still are a great lesson in friendships human and animal alike…it certainly was one of the best and most important times in my life! This park fired a lifelong love for animals, nature and pretty girls!😉
Thefollowing few pictures were originally made in 1974 by my dear Father who I proudly showed around the park. Some time ago my big Sister Hennie restored the following pictures from those original old slides. 😘Below: me aged 13 with “Lorre” one of several parrots that lived in the park.
Below: with “Sjacko” the cheeky little capuchin monkey.
Below: always going for the hair!
Below: with my dear old girlfriend “Anja” the Baboon. She was so lonely all by herself and was so thankful for any attention…that is to the right person! 😁 She could flee me (carefully scrapping off little pieces of skin) for as long as I sat with her!🥰
The often amazing adventures that I had in the “Plaswijkpark” (Rotterdam) were and still are a great lesson in friendships, human and animal alike…it certainly was one of the best and most important times of my life!Thanks, Sis!!!
yes, I know it is all a bit confusing for me to change between my old and this my new blog! But I was pretty glad that I kept this one running after the old blog that was kindly provided and run for me by the KoB (Knowledge of Bonsai) Forum became unreachable and appears to be hacked?! And I can’t seem to get anybody to respond from there through their website that is still running…but no reply?! Luckily I had a WordPress XML file made of all the content of my old blog when it reappeared the first time it went off the air for months! So after some surfing on the web to find out just how to get this huge file onto my new blog and would you believe…I managed to do it…without breaking anything!🥂🍾👏 Mind you though, I still have to organize everything so that my storeys are easy to find for everybody! I do realize that it will take many months before my old visitors will all have found this new location! But I have stories to tell and can’t wait any longer! So I will be back soon with the story of my Big Larch” the Elephant” trip to the amazing 20Th edition of the TROPHY in Belgium! So watch this space and forgive me for the work that is going on meanwhile!
and welcome to my all-new Bonsai blog! It now is almost a week ago that I came back all happy from my Bonsai trip to beautiful Slovenia all ready to post about it all, only to find out that my blog had disappeared from the web, without any prior warning whatsoever?! More than a decade of Bonsai adventures history gone without a trace?! After a day of frantic work, I managed with some help to find a site that had saved some 30 % of my latest posts that I will have to cut and paste back here onto my new blog! That will be done in the next few weeks…so at least some of the posts about my Bonsai adventures are saved! So that is good news after all! New posts about my Bonsai trips to Slovenia where I did a workshop and a demo, my visit to the Kei Bonsai Kai Bonsai show in Belgium where I entered my “Elephant” and other Bonsai stuff will be posted soon on this my new blog…so watch this space!!! For now, I would proudly like to show to you a video of my “Elephant” Larch that was kindly made by Evoluzione Bonsai. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do! Thanks, Rodolfo!!!
over the last week, I have been busy looking over all my posts here on my blog if there were pictures missing and for poor grammar and spelling. I have found almost all of the missing pictures and reinstalled them back into the stories and while I was at it I enlarged all the pictures as well for better viewing! It was fun to reread all my old posts again and it made me decide to repost a few interesting ones again. Over the last weeks, I have been preparing a lot of my Bonsai and a couple of them found new happy owners and homes. Over the last month, I did a few workshops and a fun private first styling session that I filmed to be posted on youtube after the second and last styling session in a couple of weeks is done. I am very happy to say that there are some future workshops and demos planned abroad for early summer next year and I am preparing one of my Bonsai for the next Noelanders trophy (B) in January and two other Bonsai for the second edition of the “KEI BONSAI KAI” ten and ten “DANNY USE & FRIENDS” on 26 of May in “GINKGO” Bonsai centre in Laarne Belgium!!! This mega “Ginkgo” show will be completely filmed again by me, with a much better camera this time… so watch this space! So things are rolling again and that makes me more than happy! 🙂 Thanks all for visiting my blog all these years, it is highly appreciated! 🙂
The Bonsai Blog of Hans van Meer 