It was with regret that due to other commitments Tom H informed me that he has had to give up sending out the newsletter even in the abbreviated form, Tom was one of the initiators of compiling a news letter as he believed it added interest to club meetings and added a fun element and was a good reminder of when and what the next meeting was about ( he always said we don’t listen to half of the chairman’s speech)TRUE.
I know members looked forward to his monthly magazine and it was finally the cost of inks,paper and mainly postage that has forced us into e mailing a short version of what is now on the website.
I will continue to send out the e mails but on behalf of Sandra and myself and the rest of the club would like to thank Tom for all the work he put producing the newsletter over the years.
Read more>>
As most of you will know we had Manuel Gonzales come to our meeting and to those that know him he can be expressive passionate and very entertaining when he talks about bonsai and the meeting was no exception.
His enthusiasm is quite infectious, he mainly talked about Yews and Junipers and brought along some of the material he had worked on and gave a short history of how they where developed and what techniques work for him and how to develope the trees further.
Some of us where brave enough? to bring in our own trees for a critique I should have know better as I brought in a Yew which I had styled some years ago and then last year had brought it into Chris Thomas workshop where major restyling and carving had change the tree altogether.
When I said that the tree had been with me for some some ten years I was lambasted for not working on it sooner and being busy was no excuse I was then lectured on what I should do and to report back when I had completed it (you can see Manuel is not very forgiving and its like being given home work), cant argue with the advice thought.
Mark brought in a Yew after me and without thinking when asked by Manuel how long he had the tree fell into the same trap and gave the correct but wrong age, their then followed a similar session so lets see who hands in his homework first.
It was also noted that you kept a tree back in the car and had Manuel look at it as we where closing up brave or what.
Chris J and Anthony S both brought in two very fine Yews and received praise, they are now teachers pet.
I also had brought in a needle Juniper but when asked how long I had the tree declared it was only from yesterday I am not going to be caught twice and by the way I see someone had put out a cup to fund a feed Clive,s trees but when I looked nothing was in it!
However being serious I always find Manuel both interesting and informative and even if you may not agree with everything he says his trees speak for themselves, this was backed up when several people said to Sandra afterwards that this was the first times they had seen him and how much they enjoyed his talk.
On talking to Manuel he is prepared to hold a Saturday workshop so please let me know your thoughts, many thanks to Manuel, Itolo and Tony.
Reminder the next meeting 16th August we will have Ritta and Mark Cooper where Ritta will give a short talk on accents plants followed by a workshop, plants and pots will be available at a small cost if you do not have any of your own i.e. Cost of entry £3 ( because of speaker) and if you want a basic pot, keto and 3 plants £5 plants available separately.
Please note to get all this in the meeting will start at 7.30 PM.