Tuesday 20 November 2012

Burrs- the Trees Pt.1

Will & the Walrus
I decided to work on this tree first as I was also hoping that Capt’n Sawdust would have a look at the deadwood for me and I knew that he would be busy!  So Friday evening Will gave the tree the once over and commented on its good growth so I was well pleased.  Not so when he told me I had to strip all the leaves off as the tree had been stubbornly hanging onto them.  Pluck, pluck, pluck went the fingers but at least I can say that I was the first person to make a big mess at Burrs this year!

My "naked" Elm, with a little help from Mr Merlot!
So, Saturday morning dawned and after bacon butties and lashings of rosy-lea I was ready to rumble.  As anticipated I had to wait my turn before Mr B could cast his eye over my tree.  He kindly showed me where to cut the branch structure back to the primary lines.

The Capt'n hard at work
Some of the Deadwood detail
Finer detail that I need to extend
The bottom left area will be made to look like a old rotten stump
As expected the Capt’n was flat out carving most, if not all, of the weekend but he kindly found the time to make some inroads into the deadwood on the trunk.  He told me that I had “soft wood”* so I’ll have to watch that carefully in the future.  I’d like to think that this tree has a good future and look forward to the next stage – mainly clip’n’grow so I’m told.
 
Finished for now!
 (*not too sure if that’s a trip to Ann Summers or B&Q)


Friday – Let the games commence!

TV is a funny medium.  I dropped off to sleep listening to a report from the US about a murderer who stole a jet plane from an airport to make his getaway (CCTV footage was unreal) and woke to an Aussie bride to be trying to drop umpteen ponds to fit into her dream wedding dress just 6 weeks before the big day.  Silly o’clock TV does make you wonder!

Any-ho, breakfast was to be at Tony’s place at 9.30am but Will and I were on the road by 8.00am which in hindsight proved a bit of a mistake.  Firstly, being half asleep, I nearly lost the parking permit and then got shafted.  Tony asked “Si, can you help with breakfast?”, showed me the kitchen and then promptly disappeared – could sell snow to Eskimos that guy!  So with my trusty Italian “toaster”, the Lovely Rita, we cooked up some rather splendid Suffolk Black Bacon sarnies.

Tony starts work on his Yew - before the heavens opened, as usual!
The general plan for the day was for Tony’s large Yew to be styled.  Well, Han’s Will, Mikey and I “hid” in the greenhouse to escape the cold but ended up stripping a White Pine.  We were regularly visited by Tony Trump-pants (his arse was still no better!) and in the end we finally admitted defeat – the smell was rancid – and sort the safety of the house.
Hans & I give the start of the event the "thumbs up"

Before we knew it we were at the venue greeting our chums along with the new faces.  Whilst everyone went to the Brown Cow for dinner Mikey suggested that we get a curry.  Cracking idea so Will, myself and Mikey ordered one up and shot the breeze until the drunkards returned.  Not to say that we didn’t partake in any of the falling down water but we were in a better state than some!  Some work, but plenty of drinking, was done late into the evening with the “serious” work to start the following morn.  Time for sleep!

Sleep-o-meter 5.5hrs

Tuesday 13 November 2012

Belissimo Burrs


4 wonderful days in the company of Enrico (I need good coffee) Savini, Hans (vibrating eggs) van Meer, Pavel (Pine God) Slovak, Terry (too humble) Foster, Will (Capt’n Sawdust) Baddeley and the Ticklemeister himself – who could ask for more?  Burrs 2012 was just awesome, a weekend filled with wine, women and song but above all else terrific trees!  Here’s my sideways slant on the weekend.
Thursday – I’ve had better days!
I was to be the chauffer of the Makita Magician (aka Mr B) for the weekend so off to sunny Suffolk I went.  After an unexpected “falling out” with Mrs Sat-Nav   (she didn’t talk to me all weekend!) and getting a wee bit lost I arrived.  Much to Will’s relief
I don't drive like in a pursuit from a video game like Need for Speed but although I might not kill him on the journey throughout the rest of the day  I  severely tested the sanity of him agreeing to the lift.  Thursday, for me, was a catalogue of disaster including leaving my bag at the services where Will kindly treated me to lunch, non-working key cards at the hotel, accidently turning all the instrument lights off in the car, the list is endless.  That said we did make light of the situation and found it rather funny all in all.
The evening for me was, well, heaven.  Sitting down to have drinks, then dinner, then more drinks with some of the leading lights in European Bonsai was something money can’t buy.  Ok, there were bumps in the road on the way (never, ever ask Tickle for a postcode – he’ll get you sooooo lost!) but a fantastic experience all the same.  By the time we were booted out of Tony’s place it was already Friday and as his arse had moved up to Defcon 1 on the toxic scale the trip back to the hotel was a relief to our poor eyes & noses.  The problem is that when you are wired sleep don’t come easy so at 2.20am Will and I are still talking! 
A 21hour day – time for some shut eye.  Sleep-o-meter – 4.5hrs