Category fun stuff

Feb 13 2012

Four days work on my new Allotment

After waiting seven years to secure an allotment near my home I finally took ownership of a large plot. I inherited three sheds, two greenhouses and one huge headache. the site had not been touched for 4 years and was massively overgrown.

50% of the ground was covered with paving stones… and the rest knee high in weeds… the first job was to remove the overgrown trees, second to dismantle a dilapidated shed, and the third to remove a skip full of accumulated rubbish, plastic and glass. The photos show the difference after 4 days hard labour… and there are many more to follow 🙂

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Feb 12 2012

Visit to Henk Fresen: Bronze Artist and Bonsai Miniatures

When I was invited to Lodders Nursery to give a talk I stayed with Henk Fresen in his lovely Dutch home. Henk is without doubt the most talented Bronze artist on the bonsai scene. Many of his pieces can been seen accompanying the very best bonsai in Europe. His work ranges from tiny frogs to full size birds of prey… but he is best know for his miniatures, you can visit his website here.

The Bronze Dragonfly that features in the video and photos now belongs to me, it is made up of 18 separate castings. The wings are .3 microns thick and are also bronze… they flutter in the wind!

Feb 12 2012

Yamadori, Bears and Wolves in The High Tatras Mountains of Czech Republic

I have collected Yamadori throughout Europe but one of the craziest adventures was with Pavel Slovak, his son Kuba and two of Pavels friends. The ‘walk’ in to the collecting site took THREE HOURS! and we climbed over 1,200 metres. But it was NOT the climbing that I had to watch out for it was the Bears and Wolves.

The trip was very successful bagging 10 trees… but it was exhausting. I reported from the top on one of the mountains that we climbed… and from the top of a tree so that I could get a better look at the view.

After climbing the tree I was told how foolish I was because Bears climb trees… as once you are up a tree you have nowhere to ‘run’ 😦