Blog Roll

You may notice two new additions to the blog roll. If you read Wayne's work over at Bonsai Bark you're probably already familiar with them (and if you aren't already reading over there, well, why the heck not?)

Forgive the links to pictures instead of pictures, the photoclient is being buggy.

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The older of the two is Peter Tea Bonsai, a Journey of a Bonsai Apprentice at Aichi-en, Japan.

Some of the pictures from his latest post about the Taiken-ten (ok, maybe not some but all) leave me wistful and a little jealous of his adventures. The fact that he's going so far to catalogue and share those adventures thrills me and makes me smile. So I figure it evens out.

There are, no surprise, some amazing bonsai featured, just in that post alone. While there are some really fantastic conifers, I admit that the two that jumped out at me the most were an Azalea and a Princess Persimmon.

The Azalea appeals for the classic, powerful 'wow, that's some azalea', reasons.

I like the persimmon because there is a small child in me who saw the picture and immediately thought "Why didn't I know strawberries grew on trees?!" despite being perfectly aware of that they do not. I got very excited and confused for a minute. The fruits on that tree are miniature and perfect and while it may not be something that a lot of us here in the US consider desirable in a bonsai, it struck *me* with a sense of giggles and wonder.

One of the things I like best about the blog though so far, is that he's very casual, interjects vingettes and interesting tidbits that aren't strictly about the art of that bonsai. Like Peter's comment about the persimmon. "Now that is a lot of princess persimmons! Just a warning, for those who may not know. The persimmons taste horrible! I sacrificed my taste buds to get the word out."


There are about a half dozen other things I could comment on, but I'm going to let his blog speak for itself. It really doesn't need my help.

(Pssst.... look for the two ginkgos and the pine from Hiroshima in that same post. Well worth it.)


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The second blog, very recently launched, is Capital Bonsai, which features bonsai from the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum.

Besides featuring fantastic trees right here in the US, it's shaping up to be a great behind the scenes catalogue of the Museum. The first post about their first tree is a story I feel not a lot of people would have been familiar with for instance.

Is it obvious I like stories? I like stories. And bonsai. So the two together are exceedingly interesting in my book.

Though there are less than a half dozen posts so far, already the photography is grade A, and I look forward to more of it. For those of you who can't get enough of high quality photographs of beautiful bonsai, this looks like it'll be a great spot to go. In their Autumn Bonsai post they set the bar, and you won't be disappointed. Two favorites of mine from that post are the Toringo Crabapple and a shohin Trident Maple.

I'll be keeping an eye out here, looking forward to more.