6/8/2004 I can't believe that it is June already. I have been plugging along doing my thing and now I am only two weeks away from my vacation. I can't remember if I wrote about it before, but Dory and I will be taking a trip up to the Canadian Rockies once my vacation starts, after which I will be getting to work on the house again. I plan to finish up a bunch of little projects that I haven't gotten to and then re-landscape the back yard. Right now the yard is a dustbowl with my bonsai standing off to one side trying not to get caught in the whirlwind of dog destruction. I haven't quite figured out how I will be solving the problem of dog damage to the yard. The easiest solution is to cover the ground with stone so that the grass can't be killed...but I don't think Romi would like that so much
I haven't been taking too many photos lately because I have been making a concerted effort to practice drawing. I was at a meeting of a Bonsai club in San Mateo when I saw an older gentleman doing a sketch of the tree that was being styled. He was doing such a fantastic job at visualizing the trees future appearance that I decided I needed to try it a few times. I started by drawing some pine tree details(of which I haven't included a scan)...they were passably recognizable, but after that I started trying to draw full trees. The interplay of shadow and light on the trees is hard for me to capture, and the foliage is really hard. I find myself trying to find a way to draw it so that it won't take years to complete the drawing. Not putting details into the very light areas is a problem...if I try to include the details it makes that section look darker than it should. On the drawing of the oak leaves I found that It was very hard to visually separate the leaves that are supposed to be in front from the ones that are supposed to be lower on the twig.
My brother is back in town after going to L.A. for a few weeks. He is currently hunting for a job. I made him help me put another coat of finish on the interior stairway today. Most of the work that I have been doing to the house has been in the bathroom. I completed most of the trim work in there, I have just a couple bits left, and I moved the dryer vent and lengthened the washer hose so that I could push them farther back into the alcove that they occupy.
Yesterday my friend Tim and I went down to Half Moon Bay to pick up components for Bonsai soil. We mix it in large batches from material that is only available in landscaping yards. The mix looks like a bunch of small red and white rocks when we get done with it...but it's great for the trees so if we don't want to look at red and white rocks we just cover the surface of the soil with moss or fine black lava rock.
6/8/2004 I can't believe that it is June already. I have been plugging along doing my thing and now I am only two weeks away from my vacation. I can't remember if I wrote about it before, but Dory and I will be taking a trip up to the Canadian Rockies once my vacation starts, after which I will be getting to work on the house again. I plan to finish up a bunch of little projects that I haven't gotten to and then re-landscape the back yard. Right now the yard is a dustbowl with my bonsai standing off to one side trying not to get caught in the whirlwind of dog destruction. I haven't quite figured out how I will be solving the problem of dog damage to the yard. The easiest solution is to cover the ground with stone so that the grass can't be killed...but I don't think Romi would like that so much