When I was in my twenties, I used my grandmother’s lipstick. She had a kind of peculiar way of applying it and it worked perfectly for me, but not my sisters. Now, I am getting exactly the same lines around my mouth that she had.
She was 5 years younger, in this picture, than I am now.
She was my maternal grandmother.
This is me with my dad.
My parents were only related by marriage. Truly.
I found these on FaceBook.
Cat on my lap, now
Dinner with friends, later, though
It’s an easy day.
I have been worried about the cedar. The aluminum wire from Michael’s that I used to wire it into the post wasn’t sturdy enough to hold it in firmly when there was a severe windstorm last Fall. But, I was afraid to mess with it much because the roots had already been cut and replanted twice. I was concerned that the roots were too traumatized to tolerate me fiddling with them, then.
It hasn’t looked particularly healthy this winter. I just kept hoping it wasn’t dead and losing its green very slowly. And trying to remember what it looked like in previous winters.
After the workshop in February and some continuous warm days, I decided to get in there and see what was going on. There were healthy roots. (Yay!)
So, I hacked them. I trimmed them up. I worked on the taproot with my new knob cutter so I could seat it better. And I wired it in with copper wire I had picked up from Lowe’s. It was the smallest gauge they had at 10mm, iirc, and still a little bigger than I would have liked. It was hard to bend it. But, that tree isn’t going anywhere unless the whole pot does.
It does have a little bit of a lean. I expect I’ll address that with wire, later.
I noticed that it has developed cedar rust, too. Fortunately, Chuck already has some organic fungicide and I’m going to get it tended to tomorrow.
The Japanese maples are leafing out nicely.
And the juniper is doing beautifully. I’ll give it another month before I look at it for shaping.
Saturday, I took a day off from work to go the the Bonsai Learning Center in Mooresville, NC to do a workshop that would help me create a Sharp’s Japanese Maple Forest. (The guys doing the workshop prefer the word “forest” to “grove.” I think that when it’s only 3 trees, “grove” is more accurate.
As you do, we denuded the roots and cut them back, using the nob cutter to keep the large outer roots as intact as possible while flattening the bottom. I feels really scary to cut out that much of the big roots. But, they all have good secondary roots and good feeder roots.
I used a plastic pot so we were able to simply drill the necessary holes for my tie downs. A couple of my classmates wanted to start with nicer pots so theirs needed extra work. Brad and Brian used different stuff but, ultimately, had the same idea.
They recommend aluminum wiring for the branches and say to make sure to rewrap gently as they start growing. If the bark grows into the wire, it will cause scars that will never grow over. So, rewiring may need to be done 2 or 3 times in a growing season. I can use copper wire to anchor them without any problem.
There is a layer of grated sphagnum moss on top of the bonsai medium to help keep everything moist.
Pinching back the branches will help keep them from getting too long and leggy. I just need to keep an eye on them to remove the growth tips when they start to leaf out.
They need to be maintained for a couple of years as they grow a nice root mat with the roots of all 3 trees intertwined. Then, I can lift them all up in a piece for maintenance. And to move them into a more attractive pot.
I am the Audience 