If your wife looks at a tree, and then you work on it and in the afternoon you show her the tree and she says "Ooh, this is terrible, it was so much prettier before", then you did a good job.
...It has been a long while since my last publish, but that does not mean I have nothing to tell. All my trees are thriving in what has been the most rainy summer we have had in Norway the last 150 years. The summer vacation was spent in Crete and Moi/Hovsherad so Trygve has been watching over my trees. In addition to the "away" time, i have been sick for five weeks, so not much energy has been spent on blogging. It also means that, again, I have not been with my trees in the most exiting period in the year, the middle of summer. Rest asure, next year will be spent differently.
I have two new yamadoris from late-july. One oak and larch, and they both seem alive and well. Since a friend of my is moving away for a year, I will be attending to his trees as well, a taxus, a trident maple "candlebra" style, a maple ozakazuki and an atropurpureum multiple trunk-style tree. All more or less training material, so they fit well in my collection. They will have their own project in here soon.
Seems like I am getting a hang of the "surviving"-part of horticular bonsai. No dead trees this summer!
Lots of updates are coming, so stay tuned. In the meantime, all bonsai entusiasts should check out this great 40 minute workshop video on YouTube. Walter Pall is working his magic on a Carpinus Orientalis.