I had a flash of inspiration this weekend that I thought I would share with you all. My aunt came to visit us over the weekend; it had been way too long. She only lives about an hour from us, but we only get to see her a couple times a year. I called her to see if she wanted to come over for a visit. She was happy to hear from me, and said that she had been thinking about calling! She had a gift for Melanie...she was looking through her jewelry box and came across a string of pearls that my mom and dad had gotten for her when Dad was stationed in Japan in the 60's. She felt it was a good time to return them to our side of the family, and insisted that they go to my daughter instead of her own granddaughter...Chinese traditions...who can figure.
Anyway, it made a nice excuse for her to visit. Typical of my auntie, she was about 3 hours late. She had to run a few errands, do a little shopping (she always stops at the Asian mall that is on the way to my house), and she slept in. Luckily I know her habits, so I planned dinner for around 4:3o, but told her to come at 1:00. She got here at 4:15. We had a nice dinner, caught up on the latest news about her son, daughter-in-law and baby granddaughter. We spent the late afternoon and evening trimming a Bonsai tree that she had given me when we first moved to Seattle 7 years ago. I had neglected this poor little guy for 6 years. I watered it, moved it indoors in the winter, but had no clue how to trim it up. I was glad she brought her bonsai trimming stuff with her.
My aunt is pretty amazing...she learned about bonsais years ago and decided that she would make this into her hobby. She is truly an artist with it. She told me the romantic history of a monk in China that was trying to capture the beauty of nature that he had seen as a young man. He made miniatures of mountains, waterfalls, and of course, trees. His miniature worlds were put into small dishes, plates and bowls...hence the Chinese translation of "bonsai"... life in a bowl, literally. It was very relaxing sitting there, snipping away overgrown branches, wrapping the unruly ones with copper wire to get them to submit to my idea of how they should develop, and planning years in advance of where I wanted a branch to be. I was trying to imagine how it would look in 5, 10, and 15 years, and tried to trim it accordingly. I got lost in the time, and before I knew it, it was dark. We chatted, trimmed and snacked on fruit for over 3 hours. Now I know why it was a Buddhist monk that first started this...he had some time on his hands to contemplate.
My little bonsai has 3 trees potted in a rock shaped pot, and looks like a mountain. I finished trimming one, and couldn't wait to get to the other two, which I just finished tonight. Here is the work in progress. It is starting to look like an ancient tree, in miniature.
Just what I needed...another hobby! I am going to look for a "project" tree to submit into miniature. I will keep you all updated on my search...it has to be a woody trunked plant that is about 5 years old. Digging it up, planting it in ever decreasing pot sizes should turn it into a miniature...leaves and all.
Chow!
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