Talking through all the trees at the start of the workshop.

Stephen with the ever present cup of coffee in his hand

and Phil the clown

Some of the trees worked on during the day.

Hugh’s Scots Pine Before

Stan’s San Jose Juniper before deadwood work.

Hughs Trident Maple before repotting. Urgently needed to very old compacted akadama.

John’s Korean Hornbeam before repotting.

John’s Little Chamaecyparis before a repot.

and after

Ovidiu AKA Vlad’s Yew before some deadwood work.

Ben’s Berberis Clump before repotting.

Jamie’s Scots Pine before repotting.

and after

Some of Bob’s larch ready for creation of a group planting. I failed to get an after photo for this one

Alan’s Spruce before branch selection and thinning out.

Stephen’s Maple Raft before thinning out

and after thinning out

Stephen drinking again.

Ben’s Beech Group getting put together.

Ian uses the force to move the trees into the right position.

Phil’s Hornbeam before thinning out.

After

A long tiring but fruitful day.

Peter did his usual opening hour talking with members about any issues they had experienced with their trees since the October session.

After a coffee break we had a session going into the why and how’s of creating Forest Plantings. After lunch Peter created a Forest of Spruce on a slab to finish off the day.

Here are some photos taken during the school.

Unloading the van in the dark.

Getting the goods set out for the off.

Opening remarks.

Michael claimed the prime seat beside the heater Sorry Mike, couldn’t resist.

New member Alan reads the handout. This will be added to our Bonsai Knowledge Page shortly.

Another new member joining on the day. Allen, on the right, came all the way from Dublin to join and take part in the school. That’s 3 members from Dublin in the NIBS now. Well 2 really as one’s in Dubai for a year or two.

Peter shows on his flip chart how he likes his pepperoni on a pizza. Other captions for this photo very welcome

Peter shows how to prepare the trees for adding to the forest planting.

Pruning before placement.

Far too happy looking, things must be going well.

Everybody creeps up for a closer look.

Ian, the glamorous assistant.

A few final changes, after the moss has been added.

Stand back for a better look.

Take a walk in the forest.

The result. These are nursery stock Spruce acquired by Peter for the demo. The colour looks a little different in the larger trees. This will change this year with proper feeding for all the trees. The group will be staying in Northern Ireland as a club member decided to add it to their collection. Aftercare will be given by placing it in a poly tunnel for a few months to protect it from the elements.

Allen gets a quick chat before he heads to the train station for the Dublin Express.

More tomorrow showing the action from the Sunday workshop.

Willowbog Bonsai will be here with the usual selection of bonsai related material for our members to avail of. The Sunday workshop is fully booked, but if you live local and want to take part in the school on Saturday, why not join the club and come along for a look.

Full details about the school can be viewed from the page tab above.

This is the venue all ready for the off on Saturday morning.

The main focus was on Junipers  and most people had brought Juniper either for display or work.

Room to spread out.

Some of the junipers brought along on the night.

Who spilt the tea then??!!

The hardest working man in the club, Ian B taking care of membership and school fees.

Brendan getting a few pointers from Ian.

Not sure he liked the ideas by the look of this one.

Young Jamie goes for the windswept look, that’s his hair, not his Larch

Adrian telling another story, I says to him and he says to me …’

Some trees on the sale or swap table.

Hugh, Davy and Mervyn studying Hugh’s Pine.

Phil, with the ever present hat, looking at Michaels Juniper.

Our newest member Simon at his first meeting watching on with Ronnie as Neil’s Juniper gets a little work.

Epic nose picking fail from Phil who misses the nostril altogether. Michael looks on embarrassed for the lad, he nearly put his eye out there

Ben and Davy puzzled by something.

Roll on next weekend and the Bonsai School with Willowbog.

It will be our usual workshop with members bringing along trees for advice and work. This meeting will also focus on Junipers.

Don’t forget to bring a tree for our table exhibition. If you come empty handed, you could end up judging it ;-D

We had a very productive workshop, the main feature of which was Larch. The notion of having a themed workshop was well received.

Our new Table Top Exhibit was also well supported by members. The idea behind this is to  get more members to bring trees for display and get a few, who didn’t bring a tree, to pick a best tree on the night. It was great to see a crowd giving the trees the once over and discussing the plus points for each one. When I saw this, I knew the objective of the exhibit had been achieved.

The biggest pat on the back for the evening has, without doubt, got to go to Ian Bridgett. As treasurer, he was up to his eyes collecting in Membership for 2012 and also collating the numbers for the fast approaching Bonsai School with Willowbog Bonsai.

Here are a few photos taken on the night.

Far too much smiling going on here! Must be Phil or Hugh telling storied again

Graham assisting Ben F to wire his Larch.

Ronnie getting stuck into a future cascading Juniper. Jamie working away on his Larch.

Some of the trees brought along for the exhibit table.

Graham’s Crape Myrtle

Graham’s Cotoneaster, I think!

Ben F’s Maple

Hugh’s Birch Root over Rock.

Roy B’s Raulii and the tree voted best on Table.

Davy’s Yew

I have absolutely no idea what is going on here!! Captions welcome…

Some of the Larch being worked on. Notice that Ian B  is only a blur in the background, a busy man. We’ll make it up to you Ian

Roy C’s Larch.

Roy C’s Larch group.

Phil has been at his work again. This is a rare variety Zelkova Spruce

For the rest, Stephen joined the NIBS back in 1995 and has been a hard working committee member for most of those years. He was even mad enough to be Chairman at one point!!

Today Stephen has started his own bonsai blog titled Bonsai Baker. He makes buns for a living and makes bonsai for fun

To visit his blog, just click the image below.

to all our members

and all those who follow our blogsite.

Have a great day.