This mugo pine, Pinus mugo, is quite famous. It impresses by the enormous girth of the trunk compared to the height.the proportions are about 1: 1.8. Now this is very far from John Naka's 1:6, but still not looking grotesque; or only slightly so. Anyway, it was along way from the first image about 18 years ago to the second one. last fall i cold see that the bark would come off on some spots where I thought the tree to be alive. Yesterday I took off all bark that seemed to be dad and her we are. Then I plucked lots of needles to get a smaller optical weight to the crown. .
Today I painted thoroughly with algae and moss remover. Then I applied the small torch to the parts that I dared to burn. It is very dangerous to do it on such a tree. The heat could kill the tree or parts of it. In a couple of days I will paint thoroughly with wood hardener (the kind to protect old furniture or old parts of antique homes). And after wards i will paint like sulphur onto the fresh parts to make them go well with the old deadwood.
