Bonsai
Bonsai [盆栽] - potted plant on our window sill...blissfully unaware of the impending doom.
So, this our second attempt at keeping a bonsai tree. The first one that we bought came from a little flower shop [花屋 - はなや] down the road from the ryokan [旅館] that we stayed in in Kyoto [京都] (link to the post here). Anyway after leaving it with a carer whilst we were away in France and UK, April this year, the moss started dying...then the little pine tree [松 - まつ] started to demise slowly soon afterwards. Greg was mortified, considering that we had spent so long trying to find a nice little bonsai to call our own.
In any case, what is left of the trunk and the moss (which has actually regrown quite well) is now sitting on our larger balcony.
Last weekend we were idly scooting about on our bikes in the general direction of Ikebukuro [池袋] in the search of some form of sunday lunch and mild entertainment, when we happened across a old lady and her equally old husband who were sitting by the roadside opposite Otsuka [大塚] station selling various bonsais. They had normal potted plants in addition to two shelves of trees of varying types and sizes. They even had one medium sized bonsai laden with green cherries, some smaller ones full of red berries and an array of small evergreen bonsais.
The little old lady didn't really attempt to talk to Greg, and instead focussed all her attention on me, assuming that I would be able to 1. understand what she was saying, and 2. translate to Greg. I got the idea that some of the trees were deciduous and others were evergreen. She said the deciduous ones look rather sad in winter. As we had already killed one pine tree we decided against the same kind again, so we honed in on the evergreens. The little old lady was busy telling us the ages of all the various bonsais she had and in the end we chose this one because we liked the trunk and general shape better than its brother.
We were told to put some water in a plate and pop the bonsai on to the plate of water to water it. Watering from the bottom up. I am hoping that this one fares better than the last one.
So, this our second attempt at keeping a bonsai tree. The first one that we bought came from a little flower shop [花屋 - はなや] down the road from the ryokan [旅館] that we stayed in in Kyoto [京都] (link to the post here). Anyway after leaving it with a carer whilst we were away in France and UK, April this year, the moss started dying...then the little pine tree [松 - まつ] started to demise slowly soon afterwards. Greg was mortified, considering that we had spent so long trying to find a nice little bonsai to call our own.
In any case, what is left of the trunk and the moss (which has actually regrown quite well) is now sitting on our larger balcony.
Last weekend we were idly scooting about on our bikes in the general direction of Ikebukuro [池袋] in the search of some form of sunday lunch and mild entertainment, when we happened across a old lady and her equally old husband who were sitting by the roadside opposite Otsuka [大塚] station selling various bonsais. They had normal potted plants in addition to two shelves of trees of varying types and sizes. They even had one medium sized bonsai laden with green cherries, some smaller ones full of red berries and an array of small evergreen bonsais.
The little old lady didn't really attempt to talk to Greg, and instead focussed all her attention on me, assuming that I would be able to 1. understand what she was saying, and 2. translate to Greg. I got the idea that some of the trees were deciduous and others were evergreen. She said the deciduous ones look rather sad in winter. As we had already killed one pine tree we decided against the same kind again, so we honed in on the evergreens. The little old lady was busy telling us the ages of all the various bonsais she had and in the end we chose this one because we liked the trunk and general shape better than its brother.
We were told to put some water in a plate and pop the bonsai on to the plate of water to water it. Watering from the bottom up. I am hoping that this one fares better than the last one.
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