Bonsai Reverie

[grouper52]

During the winters here in the Puget Sound it is quite wet, and many years there is little need to water for months at a time. It is also very gloomy in the winters up here, such that there is a great sense of relief and almost ecstasy when the days become longer and the first really warm, bright days arrive. During the winters people sort of hibernate, just like our trees, and to a certain extent the bonsai hobby goes a bit dormant for me as well.

This past weekend was the first real taste of spring this year - warm, sunny, things blossoming out, coming alive again. I spent much of the weekend digging my trees out from their winter mulch, cleaning them up a bit, putting them up on the retaining wall I keep them on, and - for the first time since fall - I watered them.

I’ve watered them three days in a row now, and it has given me great joy. Watering gives me a few minutes each day with every one of my trees, a chance to look at them anew, to study them a bit, and to be with them in a way that I can only describe as intimate.

I was especially moved today by their beauty, even the ones still very much in development, and I was struck at the same time by the surprising gift to be able to create such trees, to know - and to know on a deep and intuitive level in recent years - how to do this art, how to bring out their inherent and hidden beauty. It really has been a great privilege and a blessing, and it filled me with gratitude, and a sort of awe, that caught me off guard.

 

[Victrinia Ridgeway]

I actually experienced that myself just the other day.... and even tonight... I refined a larch and fell head over heels in love... I'm quite awed by the joy that comes from working with the trees... it's a very personal and even spiritual experience.

May it always be thus....

Your friend in all things,

V

 

[milehigh_7]

This is the anchor that holds me fast to the bonsai life. Last year was singularly difficult for me in many ways including bonsai but getting back out with them brings that part of me to life again. I am just not whole unless I am among the trees. Be it in pots or in the mountains of Colorado I have always felt tied to them somehow...

 

[JudyB]

I find that it's one of the only things that can take me away from the cares of the day. Even when it's lugging them in and out of cold storage (every morning and evening the past week, because of the weather) gives me time with each tree, and I see something that I love about each one. And when I walk in the orchard I planted, and the woods that I started, I feel that same oneness.

Sometimes being refreshed with this feeling is all I need to take me thru the day.

 

[Bill S]

Something about things coming back to life with new growth after the "dead" season. You guys had it a bit tougher this year too I believe, on the other hand ours was very mild and I have been doing the bonsai shuffle for at least 3 weeks, more than usual or expected but I love spring.