Surprising and satisfying hardly does justice to yesterday’s March Bonsai Chat here at Willowbog Bonsai.
We must have had one of the best ever attendances for these community days, which is saying something when you think that ” Chat ” must have been on the go now for perhaps a couple of decades !
It was mostly regulars, here we see David who, coming from Hexham with his wife Jane, have the shortest of travels to get here.
Contrast the former with these two gentlemen, Peter and Martin, who joined us for the day having driven all the way from Ayr in the western borders of Scotland.
John H repotting, there was less of this being done than I would have expected given the time of year and the recent weather bringing on growth at an alarming rate !
And he got a fair bit done too.
As usual a fair bit of looking at, and talking about trees.
Concentrate on the work Sam !
Penny ponders on her larch group.
Caz kindly offered some assistance.
The more experienced are always happy to offer advice if called upon.
We are so fortunate that the bunch of enthusiasts that support the nursery mix well together and are always prepared to share information , sometimes that may be about bonsai !
always time to sit down and have a chin wag though.
The refreshment room at lunchtime, March means that Jean’s famous soup and cheese rolls are on offer and seemingly gratefully received. Yes, we see you Malcolm !
We should really have taken a photo that recorded for the first time in many a long year the gathering together of five of the longest serving Willowboggers, in this picture Len and Terry but we also saw David H, Malcolm and of course Caz. Indeed a memorable day !!
I think that those five probably discovered Willowbog Bonsai all at roughly the same time and that must have been more than twenty years ago!
A more recent Willowbogger Antony, had his juniper sitting unattended in the new greenhouse in this shot, I hope he made time between chatting to do what he intended to do to the tree, if not he has his Peter Warren workshop coming up in less than two weeks.
Malcolm showing this group how his hands are still shaking after having to write me that cheque !
John put in his usual steady day managing to get lots done and still make time to make conversation with anyone who stops to talk.
The majestic Trident maple from The Willowbog Collection featured in yesterday’s tokonoma with a newly acquired and quite effective shohin Ivy bonsai as accent.
Willowbog said goodbye to this lovely bonsai at the end of the day as it went away to it’s new home. Part of our decision to reduce the collection and concentrate more of our core of home collected trees. Only one Japanese origin tree in the collection now so if anyone wants a large semi cascade Taxus cuspidate that was originally styled by Ryan Neil perhaps they should get in touch.
End of a great bonsai day, with maybe upwards of thirty folk at various times of the day. Next up we have five days with the outstanding Mr. Peter Warren, starting on the 13th March, all fully subscribed though ! Thanks Bill for the photos and the tea .
