The Bonsai Blog of Hans van Meer

Finally ready to give my old Yamadori Taxus it’s first styling! (part I)

Hi, everybody,

I would like to share the story in pictures and words of the first styling of my old Taxus Yamadori! It was ready for it’s first styling at least 2 years ago….but because of my poor state of mind during that time, I did not dare it somehow!? I just could not make up my mind those days and my natural ability to see a Bonsai in even a piece of straight wood seemed to be completely gone! So the tree grew and grew and without really realising it, it got better and better! Mind you, this was never an easy tree to design! There was so much going on in this ancient tree and so many thing and possibility are to consider and the longer I waited, the harder it seemed to get to find the tree among all those branches, foliage and amazing but difficult deadwood?! But about a month ago my shutters were finally opened and more of the old me came back…and one of the first things I did was creating a workspace in the open air and pick up this Taxus and without any plans, I started to work like I use to do in the old days! And this is the story of that amazing afternoon in my garden and the birth of a future Bonsai! Hope you enjoy it as much as I did?!

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Here are some old pictures from 31-3-2012 when the Taxus was repotted into its present pot. It had grown an amazing amount of healthy fine roots and I had no problems repotting it!

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Here it is already planted in its new home. I used a mixture of Akadama, Kiryu and Bims. This is what I use with success for all my Taxus and other evergreens! When I was sure that all possible air pockets were filled with soil, I watered until the water that came out from the holes in the pot was clear!

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Here it is in its new home just before watering it. Just look at that amazing and unique deadwood that was created when the poor tree was almost cut in half by a large boulder that still covered most of the tree when I found it all those years ago! That covered section amazingly stayed alive for many decades, before it finally died back to leave all this natural deadwood! No matter what, I wanted this artwork from mother nature somehow in my future design…but it would not be easy! In this picture, the branches on the left were not bigger than my pinky and one of them was brought into place to the right to later form the trunk and top out of! And one branch on the bottom left was bent behind the trunk too, in years, end up as a branch just above the long jin on the right side! My plan then was to somehow create a windswept tree! In the following pictures from a few weeks ago, you will see just how fast a healthy yew can grow!!!

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The present front side of the tree. How amazing is that?! It has grown into a bush! Some of those branches were almost a meter long and the former pinky-thick trunk/top branch is now almost as thick as my wrist! That new trunk needed over the past years a lot of force and heavy copper wire to be bought and held into its desired position!

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The right side of the tree with a view over the long jin. Just how amazing are all that beautiful deadwood and all those healthy branches to choose from! I can’t wait to go in there to find out!!!

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Backside view of the tree. The red arrow points at the back branch that I had let grow from the (here right) front side to end up as a branch over that long jin (here on the left of the red arrow)! That branch had grown at least 50 cm in the last 4 years!

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Close up from behind the tree of that same long branch (red arrow). The right red arrow points to where this branch originates from at the front left side! By now I already had my doubts about this branch?! It those not looks naturally and it those not fulfil the purpose I had in mind when I came up with that idea! By now I realise that it would always look man-made and strange…so!!!

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Front view. Red arrow: this is the point on the left front side where that same branch grows from, you can just see it disappearing behind the trunk. It’s just those do not look right…right?! The small branches that grow toward us from just below that red arrow look just fine to create the first hanging branch out off!

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Red arrow: here that branch is already cut off, leaving a stump to allow die/dry back so that those promising small branches won’t die! Better safe than sorry!

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Front side view. The red arrow points at the point where the cut-off branch used to be, just above that long Jin. Now there is a more natural open space and a clear view of that unique long Jin!

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Red arrow: these branches that grow on the left middle side of the trunk just above the branch that I just cut off, are too straight and grow directly upwards and therefore impossible to bend in a believable way! And they were not needed, there were other branches to fill that gap! So off with their heads!!!

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Backside view: The branch I am holding is a useful left or front branch. The left red arrow point at a stump left from the middle right side branch that was already cut off because the right side branch where the right side red arrow is pointing at was better placed on the trunk to fulfil that same purpose! The middle red arrow points at a Jin that is in the way of just that branch and feels very weak …so!!!

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Red arrow: Here that Jin is already broken off by hand. As you can see it was just hanging on by a small piece and would probably have been broken in the future anyway!

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Front side views again. White arrow points at the future top left branch. Green arrow points at the future top branch. The yellow arrow is pointing at the first right-hand branch. The red arrow points at an in-the-way front branch stump that was removed. Blue arrow points at a better-placed front branch. And the purple arrows point at the long Jin section that is beautiful but in the way of the branches that need to fill that space!

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Purple arrow points at the place where Jin will be cut off with a saw! Leaving enough off it to bring in some strong screws to support the thick copper wire that will be needed to hold down the branches in their place when they are bent down with great force! I know that this is a great-looking Jin, but removing it is necessary so that the branches can be brought into their desired position! It will also open up the view to the rest of the dead wood in the back and the branches that otherwise will be hidden! And open space is very important in my Bonsai designs so .. some time you have to break the egg to make an omelette!

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So thick Jin is sawed off with a hand saw. That took some force because Taxus wood is very strong and this piece was very old. Big decisions, but necessary for my design!

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Cut off after hard work. Amazing that just a few weeks ago I could not make any decisions or had any ideas or even interest in this work…now I am very happy that this period is behind me…I missed this so much and it was so far out of reach at one point! I’m a happy man!

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The cutoff Jin. It was necessary to be removed, but now I find it hard to throw it away!!! Yews make such beautiful deadwood and this piece is so stunning! I will keep it at least for a while to hold it every now and then and use it as a model for my deadwood work or students! I must be getting a bit sentimental at my old age !!! But seriously it those not becomes any easier to decide to remove something old that mother nature has created so wonderfully!

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Backside view again. The red arrow points at the just cut-off stump. The green arrow points at a nice branch with a large Shari running over the full length of it. Blue arrow point to the spar’s little tin branches that grow only on the tip of this old branch! Although it is a great unique branch, it can not be used in any way in the design and would even look silly seen from the front! It would always be a long bare branch with some foliage on the tip of it! And bending it is also not an option…believe me, I thought long and hard if there was a way to use it, but there wasn’t! So then you have to make a decision and I did!

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Left red arrow: Here you can see from the front how awkward this branch is placed and how strange it looks, it dwarfs the trunk! The top arrow point at the only small branches that grow on the tip of it!

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Here the branch is sawed off. I leave a long piece that might be shaped into a Jin, I can always remove it more or completely in the future if necessary!

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The sawed-off section. As you can see: it only had a few tin branches growing on the thick tip…but still it wasn’t an easily made decision! Creating a Bonsai often means that you have to make big decisions! If you don’t do that it will bite you in a few years’ time and life is too short to do that!

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Red arrow points at a branch that grows directly opposite to the other one! The other one is important to the design, so this one loses and needs to be cut off!

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This Jin is half-rotted and loose! It is broken off by hand, and this leaves a natural look as if it was always so! this tree has beautifully deadwood everywhere…I am so lucky with this material!!!

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The front side of the tree. Most branch selection is now done and I shift my focus for a while to the deadwood sections! There are a lot of distractions in the flow of that long jin that need to be dealt with!

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The right side of the tree, looking over that long Jin. Here you can clearly see just how many branches and foliage are removed from the tree! But still, there are one or two branches that might have to go when I am bringing it all into the desired positions!?

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The back side of the tree. Now that all obscuring stuff and branches are more or less removed, all become much clearer! It now is so much more obvious where I am going with my plans!

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The left side of the tree. In this shot, the branch structure is very clear and even the open spaces are nicely visible from this angle! The branches are way to long now, but they will be shortened in the future when there is enough foliage to work closer to the trunk on those branches. For now, there is more than enough foliage removed to keep it safe…the tree’s health is important now!

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Wow just look how much branches and foliage are removed…must be more than 75 %! Now light and air can reach the hundreds of tiny buds and small branches that are on branches that remain on the tree! I am sure she will do just fine and will recover quickly! Next is the styling of this great tree…but that is for part II! I hope you enjoyed it so far and join me in the next edition?!

CU soon!

Hans van Meer.

Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com

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Pictures of Wolfie the Mugo pine and a giant Prunus mahaleb in full bloom.

Hi, everybody,

I would like to show you some new pictures of Wolfie the Mugo pine and the other one of my Prunus mahaleb Yamadori.

I just made this picture of Wolfie, it was the first real dry day with some weak sun every now and then! The last week was colder than it was last Christmas! We even had snow! Wolfie’s buds are swelling nonetheless and he looks like he suffered no ill effects from the repotting that I did earlier! I planted some moss around him and that looks immediately a lot better! I am glad that I found a solution for the rotted root, it would be such a shame if Wolfie could not be shown after all the work it was to get it this far! I hope you like how it looks?!

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This giant Prunus mahaleb is another one that my dear fare away friends and I collected in 2012. It is doing amazing like the other 3 and it has a lot of sweet-smelling flowers! This massive tree has an enormous root base and is top to bottom covered with beautiful old dead wood! All of the branches that I need for my design are new and are coming along nicely! They have been rewired last Fall.

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I made this virtual to show you the twist that I have planned for later next month! The red part will be the (mine) future tree! It has a killer base, natural jin, beautiful movement and stunning deadwood from top to bottom! And here comes the surprise…the yellow part will be separated by air layering it, only leaving the red stomp that will be turned into a jin that will match all the deadwood! This yellow section that is also covered with amazing deadwood and movement is already promised to my dear friend Tony Tickle, who can’t wait to get this beautiful future mahaleb Bonsai! I hope the air layering will work so that one tree can become two trees?! I will keep you posted when I have done the air layering and the separation…fingers are crossed that it will work?! I hope you like this post and see you hopefully at the next one?!

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com

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Repotting some of my Shohin bonsai!

Hi, everybody,

here are some pictures I made from my Shohin repotting session.

Above: The first picture (little Tony) is from my Shohin Prunus Spinosa Yamadori from the UK. This was many years ago a gift from my dear friend Tony Tickle (UK).

Above: The second one (little Terry) is a Taxus Yamadori from the UK and was also many years ago a gift from my good friend Terry Foster (UK).

My old Bonsai friends have always been very good to me and lots of the trees that are still in my collection today are aether a gift or are collected with them in the wild!

The third one shows little Tony (left)next to another old UK Yamadori Prunus spinosa that also was a long time ago a present from Terry Foster.

The fourth one shows (little Tony) in full bloom. This was first trained for many years as an informal upright Bonsai but was a few years ago radically changed into this more dramatic style!

And the last one shows them along some of my other Shohin, a Punica granatum and my old Dutch yamadori Potentilla fruticosa that won 1 price at the Dutch Bonsai association some 20 years ago.

Shohin are a real joy in my garden, especially the once that bloom in Springtime!

I hope you enjoyed this little impression of my Shohin!? Sorry for the poor layout, this is the best I can do for now!

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com

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Wirring my two Prunus mahaleb yamadori.

Hi, everybody,

here are some pictures of the rewiring and styling sessions I did on my two Prunus mahaleb yamadori that were collected in 2012.

Below: Both old Prunus mahaleb had grown amazingly during the past season and the wire had to be taken off before it would dig into the bark! But the branches did have enough time to grow more or less into their desired position and stay there! Now it was time to loosely rewire all branches again and to reposition them where necessary!

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Below: Just look at all the former suckers that last season was bent down into the ground to create new roots! This is a very easy but important technique to use on these species that create tons of these suckers during the whole growing season! The ones that form every were along the trunk need to be removed immediately when they are not useful in your design, otherwise, they will leave ugly scars!

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Below: Remember that I told you earlier in the repotting story of Wolfie about the lucky stone that I had found by chance in the soil of one of my Prunus mahaleb? Well, it was in this tree when I was removing unwanted mosses and weeds from the soil surface to expose the roots to light and air so they would thicken more quickly!

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Below: The red arrow shows a branch that grows straight and ugly directly upwards and although I wired it before, it still needs to be removed completely because bending it won’t make it look any better! This branch is much too prominent in your face and it is impossible to make sharp bends in a branch like this and I don’t want it to look like an arch!

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Below: Here the branch is completely removed and now the lines and the flow of the branch are much more natural and pleasant! The eye of the observer can now follow the flow of the branch unobstructed right to the tip of it! Lines and even more open spaces are very important in Bonsai! Even in the more natural-designed Bonsai like these two! I believe that branch structure is of the utmost importance in Bonsai design even in the more natural-looking ones! Creating a bushy tree to save time and then calling it a Bonsai is wrong! Proper branch building is an intricate part of Bonsai art and should not be neglected to get a quick result or to fool the public! At least that is my opinion!

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Below: Here most of the branches are wired and bent and fixated into their desired position. On the right side, two main branches still look a bit stiff in this picture and most likely will be bent some more next season with the help of raffia! The red arrow point at a to strait looking branch that grows from the old hanging branch that over the decades had rooted into the ground! This gnarly-looking branch full of stunning deadwood plays an important part in my overall design and a straight line that the new branch that grows from it is very unwanted and looks unnatural and ugly…so it needs bending with the help of raffia to protect it from breaking!

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Below: Here the branch is wrapped with one layer of water-soaked raffia, this will protect it from breaking or cracking! Soaking raffia for a while in the water is important when the water evaporates the raffia will shrink a little and embrace the branch even tighter, therefore working better!

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Below: Just one on an old removed branch stump secured layer of 3,5 mm wire is applied and the branch is carefully bent into its new more natural-looking position! Some light moving up and down was also created to make the branch look less stiff!

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Below: Top view from that same branch. To hold the branch into its new place a strong copper wire is secured to one of the many ground Jin that stick out off the ground in front of the tree. The branch looks more pleasant now and because it is now automatically brought closer to the tree, it has become more of a part of the overall appearance! So a win-win situation!

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Below: All work done! I know it is not a very good picture and things are a bit hard to see…but this tree is very heavy and I can’t lift much these days! But I hope you can still make out the overall impression of this very promising tree?! The stumps sticking out off the ground in front of the tree are mostly natural Jins, left from old branches! They will stay to play a big part in this old tree’s natural design!

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Below: Here the old tree is in full bloom! The very late hail storms we had the last couple of days have sadly removed most of them! I am very happy with the progress of this tree…only finding a pot will be a crime! I think I will have to let one be specially made for me in the future! I am afraid a normal-shaped pot will not fit it?! But that’s for later!

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Below: Here you see the second Prunus mahaleb that is already wired here and the branches are brought back into their desired position. This old tree was like the other one burned by forest fires and the amazing old deadwood is all scorched, this created beautiful black and grey tones all over the incredible deadwood that man cant copy! The top and top branches are hugging the amazing deadwood section from behind to emphasise it!

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Below: Here you can see the, for now, finished tree. The thick jin in the bottom middle still needs some work in the future to make it more elegant and a lot of the by-now dead bark below it needs to be removed as well. I am not yet sure what to do with the ground Jins that stick out off the ground in front of the tree..but they can always be removed later when I am sure! On this Prunus, there were also created new roots from suckers, but not as much as on the other one.

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Bellow: The old Prunus in bloom! It needs to be more tilted to the left like in the picture above, but this picture is all I have! I like this twin trunk design, it looks natural and honours how this old fighter looked when we found it! With some more years to create finner ramifications, it will look amazing and unique and I can’t wait to find a fitting pot for it and show it to the world! I am so immensely grateful to my dear friends who allowed and helped me to collect these stunning works of nature! They brought joy into my live and I have these beauties in my garden to remind me every day of how wonderful live, nature, friends and doing Bonsai can be….thanks guys!!!

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I hope you enjoyed this story of my two Prunus mahaleb, it took forever to write, but I found a very long way to at least get it right for you all to read! I am glad that I am able to do my hobby again with joy and a head full of ideas and I am glad that I can again share it with you all! There is more to come, so watch this space!!!

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com

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Repotting and saving Wolfie the Mugo pine.

Hi, everybody,

here are the pictures from the repotting of Wolfie the Mugo pine.

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About a year ago I noticed that Wolfie was slowly falling over to the left! On closer inspection of what was causing this, I discovered that the thick root on the right side of the trunk (red arrow) was completely rotten and could not hold the pulling weight of the tree any longer. Wolfie was supported with a piece of wood to prevent it from falling over and to save the roots that were still trying to hold it in place!

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Close up from the right side of the rotted root and trunk from which the dead bark was removed. No wonder Wolfie was slowly tipping over to the left! There was not much left to hold him upright at all!

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Close-up of the rotted area from further to the right side. Notice the natural rock on the right side of the dead root that is embedded in the trunk and in the soil.

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With a concave cutter, the rotted root was cut off. If you look at the space above the embedded rock you can see just how much Wolfie has fallen over! That rock used to fit tightly in the truck above it!

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Here you can see that the dead root is cut off. Now all the rotted wood needs to be carefully removed and treated to prevent further rotting in the future, making sure that the stone I found still fits the wound!

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The red arrows show a stone that I by luck found in the soil of my Prunus mahaleb yamadori from Slovenia when I was wiring it this spring. I immediately knew it would fit in the wound that would be created when I removed the rotted root from Wolfie!

Man, I could not believe my luck, it fits like a clove! It looks like Wolfie has grown against this rock his whole life! And it makes the base of the truck look so much wider! Big problem solved! What are the chances of finding this rock in a pot of another yamadori that I found years later in another part of the world…AMAZING!

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Here is Wolfie in its new pot after a difficult repotting! securing it to the pot needed some thinking and trickery! A screw was placed out of the side between the new rock and the old original small rock on the right of it from which a thick wire was secured through the hole of the pot! This wire was tightened until Wolfie was in the right position and prevents Wolfie from falling over to the left again!

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I hope you forgive me that this post is a bit messy but I have a lot of trouble posting these days…but I still wanted to share my work with you all after all this time! I will post a picture of Wolfie after it’s been in his new pot for a while!

More posts will follow soon…if everything keeps on working?! I think I need a new computer?!

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com

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Illness, more bad news and a new start!

Hi, everybody,

it has been a while…again, but this time it was for a good reason! I have been ill for many years now and that kept me more and more from doing Bonsai and living a normal life! After many years of not receiving the proper help from many doctors and so-called specialists, I finally found early this year a special clinic that could provide me with the specialist help that I had been surging for more than a decade! Help and support were finally given and I had new hopes of finally getting my old life and myself back! But then when I was building down an old (wrong ) medicine things went completely wrong and I got critical sick to a point that I had never reached before! It took me 2 months to get through that hell….but then things slowly cleared up and I started to feel better than I had in years! Turned out that the prescripted medication from the so-called specialist, that I had been taking for years, had been making me ill instead of any better. Live suddenly had meaning again and I could see the beauty of living again! But then disaster hit again, when during a checkup because my heart was racing like mad, they discovered that I had diabetes! So on top of everything I have to follow a strict diet now! low carbs and fat and no more sweets, salty snacks, drinks and other shit that made my life pleasant! But on the bright side, I lost 9 kilos since then and I can see my toes again when looking down! And I still feel so much better than only a few months ago and made new plans and for the first time in years started to work again on my neglected babies with pleaser and ideas and a smile on my face! So despite everything, things are finally looking up again! So the first thing to do was remove the long beard that I had let grow when I could not care less anymore about how I looked! And then repotting, styling and maintaining my trees again like I use to do! I AM BACK!!!

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Ginkgo Bonsai Centre “KEI BONSAI KAI” International Bonsai Exhibition

Hi, everybody,

boy o boy do I have great Bonsai news for you all!!!! Just a few weeks ago I received a totally unexpected call from my old Bonsai friend Danny Use (Belgium), who I had not spoken to for way too long (I admit in shame)! He sounded all excited when he asked “what would you think of another “Ginkgo Award” ?????!!!!!!! I said “YES” way too hard, before I asked in disbelief “are you serious?”! We got in contact again only a few months ago after I emailed them the link to a funny Bonsai video, featuring my friend Carlos van der Vaart and me, interviewed and followed around many many years ago while working on Danny’s Bonsai in the old “Ginkgo Bonsai museum”. This video went small-scale viral after I emailed it to Ingrid and she posted it around Belgium! Seeing this old tape brought back a lot of great memories of the friendships and the adventures we all had together in those early days! And that was just what Danny was planning: trying to revitalise those old times by bringing back some of the people of these early days and letting them show their Bonsai together with the Bonsai of Danny’s Bonsai club/school “Kei Bonsai Kai”! Well, I should have known better and realised that dream follower Danny does not wait long to for fill his wishes and dreams! But still, I was surprised when only yesterday I received the poster of the “Kei Bonsai Kai” Exhibition 2016!!! And look at the names of Bonsai artists from all around Europe that Danny hat invited to show their work along with the Bonsai from his students!!! And then there is Danny’s own amazing private collection in his museum to see and all the Bonsai stuff you ever want to buy in your life on sale in their megastore and much more…….and it’s FREE!!!! You just got to take this opportunity and visit the Ginkgo Bonsai centre and the “Kei Bonsai Kai” Bonsai exhibition! I sure like to C U and all my old friends there on Saturday 28Th of May 2016 (see poster below)!

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com

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Noelanders Trophy 2016 revisited.

Hi, everybody,

it took a while for all the impressions from this year’s Noelanders to sink in! What an experience the long ride leading up to it was again! The last 2 seasons preparing my little Hawthorn for this show, being relieved that it made it into the final show, having a custom-made pot made for it by John Pitt and a last-minute custom-made table by Christoph! The long night ride to bring it into the show, the early photo session with Willy Evenepoel and the feeling of proudness and amazement when I walked with my small tree in my arms into the enormous exhibition aerier! Finding my prominent and perfect exhibition space and building up my display all alone and in total peace…over the years I learnt to cherish these moments that pass in a moment! Walking past the almost endless rows of stunning Bonsai before anyone was there, the feeling that came over me when I saw the many beauty in Bonsai designs, material and maturity! And the feeling that came over me when I saw trees with just a few years of ramification growth and work? Being warmly welcomed and congratulated by old Bonsai friends and shaking many hands of many new ones….making it o so hard to get from A to B! Having a meal and some drinks with friends from all over Europe and beyond, like if you had last seen them yesterday! Walking amazing past the endless rows of traders, who had Bonsai for sale that could be placed directly into the main show!!! And not 1 or 2…no 30 or 40!!! It was sometimes hard to find the traders under the need of all the world-class Yamadori that they had brought along in their hundreds from every were in Europe !!! Being a bit sad that I had to leave early…but really happy to have made it in the first place to bring in my Little “Hawthorn” my self into this high-class Bonsai show where now a day’s you need a “Kimura” styled Bonsai to win a price…that should make me even prouder, you would think? Wouldn’t you?! While I aim my car towards Holland again a song comes on the car radio…Girl you know it’s true!!! Oooow, oooow, oooow…!!!

The next Monday, my dear friend Tony Tickle came to visit me again before getting on the boat home here close to were we live! He had brought along my Little Hawthorn, table and accent from the show! As always we had a fun afternoon, Tony is one of my oldest friends….whe had some amazing adventures together and I consider him more like a brother from a other mother! Tony gave the Fagus yamadori that I had here waiting for him in my garden a short shave (see the branches in my arms in picture) and made this selfie afterwards…such a shame that we live such a long way apart!

So to sum up: Noelanders Trophy XVI (2016) was a amazing show and a amazing experience to be a little part off! I congratulate Mark Noelanders and all the volunteers that made this all possible again so that we could all enjoy this Bonsai heaven on earth that gets better and better every edition! Until next year….I hope!?

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com

First picture from my hawthorn at the Noelanders trophy 2016

Hi, everybody,

just got back from my long trip up to the Noelanders Trophy 2016 in Genk Belgium to bring in my Little Hawthorn for the show and to see amazing Bonsai and best of all: my Bonsai friend from around Europe! This morning I had to get up at 4 to get there at 8 just before the show would open its doors to the public, only then there would be a small window of time to make the pictures of the trees for the commemorative book… I made it precisely in time! Yes!!! I was the first to arrive off the last exhibitors to arrive and found photographer and old Bonsai friend Willy Evenly already waiting for me! We said our hello’s and while Willy arranged all the lights and the rest of his set up, I found in the corner of the studio the wooden box with my name written on it (in big letters!), that was left there for me the other night! Inside, I found my new custom-made table and dai! They were made on special hurry order and left there for me by Christoph from CHR furniture. I saw the table (in real life) there and then for the first time and I was over the moon with it, the Bonsai table combo was really good in my eyes! This great craftsman makes amazing Bonsai tables! After I had placed the table and the Bonsai in the right position, Willy made several shots until he was satisfied with the lighting and sharpness and then asked, like always, are you satisfied with the result? How cool is that?! While Willy was concentrating at work on the picture of my little Hawthorn, I shot this picture of him and my tree over his shoulder! As it is forbidden to take pictures in the actual exhibition of the trees….this is the best I can do for now! The beautiful pot was custom-made by my friend John Pitt and matches the structure and colour of the tree perfectly! I was proud to present my work again at this great event and it was even greater to hear and see how lots of people liked my little Hawthorn and to find out just how many friends exactly know the whole story of this Bonsai from reading my blog stories! Great to know people are still interested in what I do…that is very heartwarming! But what made it even better is to meet the friends I made over the years in this great art form, some now for over more than 20 years!! I hope you enjoy the picture?! I am off to bed!!!

Willy Evenepoel at work. — Willy Evenepoel is at work.

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com

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Dear friend (David Bowie 8.1.’47 – 10.1.’16).

Dear, dear David.

Dear lifelong friend, you died so silently, so there was nothing to prepare me for the hole in my chest when I heard the heartbreaking news. And that just 2 days after releasing your latest album “Black Star”. You even made your final transition into a work of art! I admire you so much and I want to thank you for being there for me during my whole life, with your unique musical talent and personality….you brought colour and joy to my life during all my highs and lows! Your alter egos will live on forever, but I will remember David…my best friend! You are a star now David, a Blackstar…but still shining bright! And please don’t be afraid to come down and blow my mind every now and then!

There’s a starman waiting in the sky
He’d like to come and meet us
But he thinks he’d blow our minds
There’s a starman waiting in the sky
He’s told us not to blow it
Cause he knows it’s all worthwhile
He told me:
Let the children lose it
Let the children use it
Let all the children boogie

DAvid Bowie 500 R.I.P David Bowie 8.1.1947 – 10.1.2016

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

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