new privet

So far I did not have a decent privet (Ligustrum vulgare) in my collection. At Noelanders Trophy I fund this one which was on for a silent auction over the weekend. Some big names showed interest. In the end it turned out that I was the highest bidder.
This tree apparently was cut of of an English hedge many years ago. It was styled by an English amateur who unfortunately has passed away.
I hope I can do justice to this heritage. At the moment my plan is to fit it somehow onto this very interesting piece of wood. We'll see and report in April.

and now snow, lots of it

collection of WP videos

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=walter+pall&FORM=BVFD

Last really cold day

This night we had minus 18°C. This is supposed to be the last one of the cold days. We will even get temperatures above freezing soon. let's see.

still quite cold

But getting better - slowly.

cold!!

We got minus 10 ° C today. Tomorrow it's supposed to be even colder.

A tree was knocked over during the storm!

On Friday very early morning Walter and I were just about ready to leave for the long drive to Noelanders Trophy. My wife came and said 'the tree was knocked over by the storm'. I say 'which one, can you not handle this, we have to go?', thinking that she means a bonsai. She said 'the tree is in the neighbors garden, come see'. So I saw. Well, after a minute looking I found that not a single bonsai was hit and decided to leave, leaving my wife alone with the mess.

Now, a week later something had to happen. For a week I thought how I want to tackle the beast. Finally I had the idea to speak to one of my farmer neighbors who is working in the forest all the time. They got the tree out in twenty minutes. No big damage in sight. Very little fee asking, gave him double, still very little. It's good to be in a rural area. He will cut that tree and sell me the stumps from my own tree in spring and the rest as firewood in fall. Such is justice in the countryside.

You can imagine how happy I am to have gotten rid of this disaster. Well, I will have to clean up and fill the huge hole with soil and plant some tree again - not a spruce.

Back from Noelanders Trophy

See about 100 images of the event at
travelogues

stuff for sale at Noelanders Trophy

I will be there from Friday afternoon to Sunday evening. In my car I will have the usual stuff:

- biotreecleaner
- wood hardener
- lots of good small and medium sized collected trees, like oriental hornbeam, Scots pines, mugo pines, Sabina junipers, and other stuff. Prizes competitive.

I am employed in the demonstration area. There you can speak to me or you can find my assistant Walter and he will show you the stuff.

hackberry #1

European hackberry, Celtis australis, collected in Italy. First image as of 1996. After more than fifteen years this starts to look reasonable finally. Last image as of spring 1996.