Happy New Year everyone! One last post for 2017. In reviewing my bonsai activities of 2017, I started my this year with a small display at the NW Flower Garden Show with a few bonsais. Then followed by helping our local club set up the Spring Show. Followed by a couple of attempts to do beginners classes. I travelled to a couple of places where there were some very bonsai inspiring sites, mainly Lake Tahoe. I met a fellow blogger from Ireland Ian Young who runs Bonsai Eejit. Ian if your reading this, I found out just recently that the beany hat you left me at the Pacific Bonsai Museum sat there for a few months because I got real busy. Aarin Packard the curator decided he could use it since he thought I will never pick it up. Thank you for that, I decided to give it to Aarin and is definitely being put to good use. As a result of my visit at the Pacific Bonsai Museum, I was able to connect with Aarin and decided to loan us one of John Naka’s trees to include at our garden display for the upcoming 2018 NW Flower and Garden Show.
This year was also a surprise to have been included in the top bonsai blog list by Feed Spot.
I’ve been asked by Puget Sound Bonsai Association to become a board member and later this year was also asked to become an officer. Bonsai have done me good and this is a way for me to give back.
I continued to advance my trees towards refinement but I would say I feel that I have captured less of the process on my blog as I would have like to.
One of the recent bonsai experience I truly enjoyed was a recent trip to Oregon to collect trees. My friend Ryan Huston who runs Ry2Tree2 blog connected with a fellow bonsai enthusiast who owns acreage full of yamadori treasures. Yamadori collecting have been in my bonsai bucket list for a while. Thank you Ryan!
Finally, this year I started writing my book about lessons learned from the art of bonsai. My goal is to have “Wisdom Tree for the Digital Eden” ready sometime in Spring. With this, I also landed a speaking engagement at the NW Flower and Garden Show.
I’m excited for what’s coming in 2018. Through this blog and in writing my book, it’s becoming clearer to me that my quiet little bonsai trees actually have a voice. That voice is about finding connection with nature, stepping back, and being mindful. In contrast, it’s also becoming apparent that our current world have become noisier, fast paced, and more distracting with our smarter and faster phones. In 2018 our smart phones will inevitably become even louder and more distracting as companies competing for our attention for profit will continue to do it via our phones. As a bonsai artist I will help make that voice of wisdom from my bonsai be heard by as many as possible so that in small steps more people may become more mindful, be less distracted, be less stressed, and therefore hopefully be happier. My hope for you in 2018 is that you will hear this voice for yourself.