Apple Blossom time AGAIN!

Remember my Bonsai Crab Apple Tree.....the inspiration for my Apple Blossom HDT way back in 2008...gosh looking back at that post I had forgotten that it looked that good.

By 2009 it was only a shadow of it's former self.

2010 and it had survived the Bonsai Table collapse of the Autumn of 2009.

BUT this year it looks superb.....sorry to bore you with even more photos...but I couldn't take my eyes off it. We had such a hard winter....but it must have suited this little chap....either that or it has loved being on the NEW Bonsai table.....sorry I still haven't got round to showing you all about that achievement....but I will...eventually!

Sadly it's now past it's best, but how glorious it's season is.

I must, I must dye more Apple Blossom thread, it was just gorgeous.

I am having renewed enthusiasm for my little trees in all this glorious weather.

Apple Blossom time!

My little bonsai Apple tree survived the rough and tumble of the collapse of my display are last Autumn and is flowering it's socks off.

An ugly tree as bonsai go, but the blossom is beautiful.....

...and it reminds me of one of my very first dyeing endeavours to capture the lovely greens and pinks of the flowers before they open.

My stash has long since been depleted, so this is a sign to me to dye it again.

One of the things that I like to do to use up all my little bits of thread.....(anything longer than 5cm in will be used for something, anything less goes into the rubbish bin!).....is to make little flowers. Picot size will depend on how much thread there is...... just under a meter will make a butterfly.......

Then the flowers will go onto cards.

If you read tat-ology then you will have seen he card that I sent to celebrate the arrival of Mini Boss......someone we have all been waiting for....particularly Maebh who regards her as the Leprechaun version of a God Daughter!!

The flowers on the card were made with Apple Blossom thread.

The gorgeous looking card behind the baby and flowers is my absolute favourite...holographic.

Every time I look at it from a different angle is a whole new card!

Very difficult to photograph. What is the true colour!

The bonsai area is a sorry site.....just a pile of wood........which I am trying to cut up......the bonsai are all huddled together elsewhere hoping that it won't take too long.....

.... the wood has been ordered for the rebuilding, which the two of us will do. The whole area is getting a revamp,( the men 'that do' have brought their wheel barrows and cement already ) to make it a place worthy of a seat in the sun.....and yup that is the door to the dye studio....in all it's glory!!

Don't hold your breath!

My potting experiments!

It's stopped raining for today at least, the sun shone and the sky was blue. Moved all the trees to a sheltered place...but can't keep an eye on them anymore.

Ireland is saturated, the ground can't take any more rain. Today the City is flooded,even a city hospital. The Uni has cancelled lectures as the approach road and some buildings are flooded. In the night the electricity board had to open the dam flood gates and release some water, coincided with the high tide and the river overflowed.
A dreadful weekend is forecast, we were to take the Brownies for a fun day to a Scout campsite, thankfully it has been transferred to out community hall.

I know I had you worried yesterday that all my pots had broken!!
Had me worried too! Broken pot count is up to 6 but can't find a single broken twig.

Your comments cheered me up so much. Oh LadyShuttlemaker, how I would love to have a pot made by you...no that's not a hint...don't even think about it.

Today I thought that I would show you some of the pots that I made myself...way back when.

I went to evening class at a secondary school....the teacher made the mistake of letting me take home wadges of clay to 'play' with and she even fired all that I made...think she was proud of me!

One of the things I most wanted to make was Bonsai bowls. Mostly they were hand built with coils and slabs but on my second course I got to use the wheel...not very sucessfully but I did make enough to please me......well not nearly enough..I would have loved to have my own kiln...but ended up with a tiny enammeling kiln instead and that shut me up!

Here goes... these photos all date back to 2000 so if the trees in them have survived they look quite different today..better usually!!

This is my absolute favourite, thrown on the wheel, its tiny (about 4 inches)and has a tiny elm in it..grown from a seed...I can remember the exact tree in Italy...this pot survived the crash..unfortunately the tree I think was already defunct!



....this was made from coils and decorative lumps of clay and is much bigger...about 6 inches. This is a dwarf arctic birch. The pot was stored in my stash so survives.



...this is a rather wonky slab built pot, contains a Buxus (box), also in storage..a survivor. about 7inches.



This is another coil built pot, not a good idea to make a bowl narrower at the top than the middle. This one succumbed to frost a couple of years ago.....it contains a Cotoneaster...dug up from the garden. About 5 inches.



This is another slab built pot, not very strong was smashed to smitherines yesterday a tiny 4in it contains Fuchsia molinia.



This was a pretty decent coil built pot, had an ash tee from the garden in it, now in storage.



Another slab built pot about 7 inches, contains a holly seedling from the garden, pot also in storage.





That was probably the best thrown pot that I achieved, even with decorative ridges, made by cutting notches in an old credit card!

Would have been too thick for tableware but perfect for my purpose, about 6 inches, also in store. Here it contained a blackthorn seedling Prunus spinosa.



AND this is only the tree pot part of what I made in my classes!

Not my lucky day!

Remember I told you only yesterday, how atrocious our weather has been...and is!

Last night was awful....sheeting rain and blowing a gale....and it has continued all day with no let up.

Just before lunchtime while I was busy making leprechauns to placate Fergeal and listening to my iTunes....there must have been an enormous crash....as my display stand for my little trees collapsed!



Lets take a closer look....



........let's zoom in and see what's in there......see that very pale turquoisey blue pot....in the bottom left of the previous picture.....remember it.



These photos were taken through the window.....I was gutted.
We had replaced all the slats on the tables only a year or so ago and had just decided that we needed to replace the whole frame. Trying to remember how long it was since hubby made it for me...I found my photos of it's official opening....



Gosh it was 1996.....that's 13 years ago.....unlucky or what!

I started keeping and training these little trees in 1990 after a friend gave us a bag of acorns!.......Great things from little acorns grow.
They are mostly from seedlings dug up from the garden....and from garden centers.......nothing of any value...except to me. In 1990 they were nearly all in flower pots they were so small and new. Anything that didn't move I dug up and put in a pot!

My stash of pots almost exceeds my thread stash! The trees that I favoured tended to get bigger over the years...mainly because they are easier to look after.

2002 and they were looking their best....before tatting and thread dyeing reared their ugly heads. I had been suffering from a very bad neck for several years which had put an end to my craft passion...so the little trees filled the craft gap.





OK see the pale turquoisey blue pot on the bottom table, isn't that stunning...at it's very best before my son forgot to water it while we were away one time and it lost a lot of it's branches.....



......here it is again in spring 2003 together with my apple (of Apple Blossom fame)and my Japanese maples.

Now can you imagine my horror when I saw what had happened!!!!!

We decided that it called for drastic measures and rescue before it got even worse.....so we donned our waterproofs......

....and look there it is ......in one piece...a miracle.







One by one they were taken out and handed to me...but that was the one sheltered spot in the garden! so now they face the wind and rain again.
OK I know it's not a real catastrophe but it felt like it to me!

You will be amazed to know that only about 5 pots got broken and all the trees look ok but time will tell.