Left handed classical guitarist, is there one?

I have been a guitar enthusiasts, a casual player, since my high school years,  and any music that has guitars in it catches my attention whatever the genre from blues, heavy metal, folk, reggae, to Jazz, and lately the classical guitar. 

With YouTube and Spotify (thanks to my daughter's subscription), I was able to download some Jazz guitar music by Wes Montgomery and Joe Pass hoping I would develop a taste for it but jazz was not my thing though, too abstract for me.

I listen to Wes Montgomery once in a while because of the guitar and I sometimes catch a glimpse of comprehension but generally, I don't know what the heck is going on. WTF, it seems there are no wrong notes! Its like they are just fooling around with their instruments and having mindless fun, but somehow, it all seems to fit together. That's what makes Jazz mystifying to me.

Of course, behind the jumble of confusing polytonal, polyrhythmic and abstract mishmash of aural algebra are advanced and  sometimes experimental musical theories that are accessible only to the few who have reached a certain degree of musical divinity.

Wes Montgomery

In my forties, I started to listen and learn classical guitar music out of frustration. I cant sing in tune! I can sing, though, if croaking is counted as one. Finger style guitar lets the guitar sing for me but its not easy especially with  knuckle breaking spread and broken chords that sometimes span three to four frets. But I get by with my short and stubby fingers.

There's a misconception that classical music is on the top of the hierarchy of musical taste. Maybe this is true a hundred years ago when classical music was for the consumption of the noble, aristocrats, and the cultured rich and middle class because of the fact that its an expensive form of entertainment back then with live group of musicians performing the masters' compositions.  

But today, the social media age, when classical music became accessible to everyone through the internet, it's now just another musical genre to be enjoyed, appreciated and studied by anyone who wants to. 

 And also, anyone can now enjoy and learn the pieces since there hundreds of free scores, arrangements, and performances available for free (or for a fee) to anyone who is interested in it.  Of course, a real music school is important for structured and systematic study , but virtual lessons are the next best thing for the hobbyists and enthusiasrs who cannot afford tuitions.

Today, it's not unusual for heavy metal music to be played and enjoyed by classical musicians and vice versa. Philharmonic Orchestras now record and perform popular music from heavy metal to shitty ballads.

 I think one video that made this crossover  popular to ameteur guitarists was the electric guitar cover of Pachelbel's Canon in D by this guy around 2008:

Can you play Canon in D? What the hell is that?

After this guy's video went viral, Pachelbel's Canon in D became the Stairway to Heaven of 2010s. I was asked many times by young guitarists (who thought I could play everything) if I could play it, which of course I couldn't. It was a big thing then. After that video gathered millions of views, electric guitarists followed and uploaded their videos playing amped and effects driven classical and baroque music. 

Anyway...

I am a Jimi Hendrix guy and Jimi was considered the GOAT of electric guitar for his musicality, creativity, and on-stage antics. He also had the added mystique of being a left handed player, and of course, of dying at the "cursed age" of 27. 

There's this idea that left handed artists are better or more gifted with their skills than the normal, average right handed human being. There's Jimi, Paul McCartney, Manny Pacquiao, Sting, etc.

But there's one guitar music genre where it seems there are no left handed players, of note at least: the classical music. 

So, I posed the question to an FB Classical Guitar Group with members from all sorts of musical levels,  from professional concert players, teachers, students to hobbyists and casual players of different nationalities to see if there are any lefties.  Also, I was wondering if left handed classical guitar students are corrected to play right.

Surprisingly, there are a lot of left hand dominant classical guitarists but they play right handed with no problem at all. The reason?

In the classical guitar both hand share almost equal amount of work just like in the piano. Both hands and fingers are doing their work independently and there is no need for one of the hands to be dominant over the other at all.

 In rock, jazz, folk, etc. guitar one hand is doing more work than the other, usually the dominant hand, and this determine how the player holds the guitar's neck and which hand does the strumming and picking.

This does not mean there no classical guitar player who play their guitar inverted at all. 

I mean, there are white crows.

What the heck...

I need to cut down on coffee...

Pampahiyang and my New bonsai project and how its done

I stopped making new bonsai projects about two years ago because I lost materials. One reason was that I had become too busy with work and the other  was that I think I had become sloppy with the handling of the materials, overconfidence, maybe. 

So, I took a step back and let the "malas" or bad luck run out before I begin another project.

This is my new material a tugas (vitex parviflora), a variety of molave prevalent in Mindanao. I ordered the material before the long Halloween  weekend and it arrived three days later, Wednesday. It had been in shipping transit for almost a week but the outstanding packaging assured that the material was well hydrated and according to the supplier, could last ten days without dying.

How to do bonsai. The process is really simple.

Let's clear something before we begin, I am not a bonsai expert. I am a simple hobbyist who have no relevant training to speak of nor did I won in any exhibits. I am simply sharing what I know and my  experiences. 

1. Unpack the material and then wash with mild organic soap like Perla. This is necessary to remove fungus, lichens, molds and other organism that are present in the bark and the soil that could develop and hurt the materials while in the "resuscitation" stage.



 This can be done later, but I checked the viewing side of the material. A little imagination is needed here to visualize the growth of branches and foliage and to show which angle of the tree would be the best for viewing. But the primary consideration, at this stage, was the trunk, things like, movement, tapering, etc.

So, I rotated the materials 360 degrees, looked at it near and far. And this is also a good time to work on the trunk and stump branches (or abang) to remove what is unnecessary liked crossed branching because it will be very difficult to work on it once branches and foliage has grown. So, you can work on those stump branches or you can turn them into a deadwood.

But you could also wait later, Personally, after some heartbreaks of removing branches only to realize later that it was necessary, I  now prefer to work on branches when the foliage have grown and I could see an outline. Remember, removing branches is easy but growing them back takes years. So, think about removing branches thoroughly, do not rush at it because the tree reveals a lot about itself as it develops. you just have to wait. Keep those awkward branches until you are very sure of the need to remove it. What I'm saying is that you don't have to rush anything.

2. Medium preparation. 

Medium is the "soil" where the tree is planted. The most commonly used is river sand because it drains, has good water retention, and it does not compact like ordinary soil.  

Here I'm using a strainer to separate the different grades of sand.


In theory, you can use any medium as long as these things are present.

•  drains well
•  does not compact
• promotes and hosts good bacteria and other beneficial organism
• heterogeneous, means it is made up of  many stuff like soil, pebbles, and organic stuff. This is important because many beginners think that construction sand is a good medium but the composition of construction sand is homogeneous, it is made up of the same white stuff in different sizes. try one experiment, put an earthworm there and check if it will live and thrive in there.

Remember the basic rule of medium preparation: pebbles at the bottom, to facilitate draining; rough grains in the second layer for drain and for aeration and to promote root growth at the same time prevents root rot, and finest grain at the top, to trap moisture in; sort of a lid cover.

3. Potting. You can use an expensive bonsai pot or any plastic container, the important thing is that the material is well placed in the medium. Fancy container could come later in the finishing stages which would be a few years from now.

Anyway, immerse the material into the medium. Make sure that there no vacuum in the contact points. Pouring water while the material is being covered by the medium helps to remove these air pockets.

Tie the material well to the pot to secure the material, any movement could damage the fragile little roots that are starting breaking out which may kill the material.

Of course, the dog is optional. Hehehehe...





4. "Kulob" method. Here the material is wrapped in plastic cover the whole material including the pot. This is done trap moisture and heat in which is necessary for the resuscitation of the material. It's the material's personal green house, an ICU tent. Colloquially among bonsai hobbyists, this process is called, fittingly, the ICU.

Before, I used root hormone but I found out that they are next to useless. I mean maybe they help, but there materials where I used hormones and they died just the same. I guess, it helps the hobbyists more than the material. But root hormones, which is Vit. B complex, helps  to prevent shock and to minimize the stress of re-potting trees. Some use hormones periodically to promote healthy tree roots.

After the ICU, place the material in a secure place free of jerking movements and other disturbances especially from pets and other animals. Do not water everyday, the plastic effectively traps moisture, so water about two weeks in interval.

It's time to wait. In about two weeks, a sprout could come out. But there times, in my experience, that I waited months before a little bud appeared, the material took a long while to get out of its stasis. But as long as the material is still green, you can check this by nipping the bark, there's hope.

Anyway, I'll post about the development of this material.

Maybe my wife has seen me do this to the scores of my materials and maybe she was wondering at what I'm doing. My wife does not ask, as long as I'm happy with what I do, she's very supportive. 

But of course, I keep the cost of these materials a secret from her. Not because she would be angry but I feel guilty spending money on these dead woods. I guess most "impoverished" bonsai hobbyist are like this. Anyway, got this material for 600 pesos plus about 500 for shipping. That's why I stopped acquisition after a few of my materials died. But anyway, the cost is really an investment, in my case an emotional and maybe has potential for monetary returns in the future, but for the moment, I just enjoy my trees.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Gardening stuffs

I'm still not done cleaning our garden. I cut the grass using garden scissor which is time consuming and laborious. But the repetetive action, the smell of cut grass and Wes Montgomery's guitar in the background made the task relaxing. I guess it's the feeling of being intune with nature.

Now my feet and legs are itching. I guess that's why it's important to wear proper clothes when gardening like long pants. rubber boots, gloves etc. But in this summer heat... Anyway, the culprit is this weed. I don't know what this is called in English but locally we call this "lipang aso". A contact with the leaves produces itch and irritation comparable to and bite. Before I knew about this plant, I always thought that I was bitten by ants or other insects until my mother told me about lipang aso.She had this childhood story about naughty boys rubbing lipang aso leaves to girls' panties that are drying on clothesline.

The eggplants are already producing fruits and maybe in a week or two the rest of them will also be fruiting. I was hesitant about planting eggplants because I have rheunatism, knee and ankle gout to be specific. I have had excruciating flare ups and the culprit are foods with high uric acid contents. Eggplants, because it contains little seeds which is almost impossible to separate, is considered a high risk food. But many vegetable contain seed like string beans, gourds, okra, peas, etc. I mean, if I avoid all these vegetables I may end up undernourished or worse I could starve. Anyway, vegetables do not contain that much uric acid and according to what I have read the body can easily process and eject or flush out uric acid from vegetables and what is really bad is uric acid from animal innards.

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Yellow Bitter Gourd and Bonsai etc...

I don't know if it can be called a garden, forest or jungle is more appropriate. My bonsai materials are being outrun by weeds and maybe after I'll work on them later.

Anyway, I did some cleaning in our garden, pulled out weeds and swept the yard, a task that took me the whole morning and still I'm not yet done. The sun is already at its peak and the heat is unbearable.

I'll take a rest and continue maybe at three or four in the afternoon.


Even my bittergourd is affected by the el nino phenomenon. The extreme heat of the sun caused this young fruit to turn ripe prematurely. It has not been even reached it's teen age years (imagining the'yre human beings). I was waiting to harvest it for cooking sauteed bittergourd or ginisa but it grew old too fast.

Bitter gourd or ampalaya is good for the health. The Department of Health did studies on it and officially listed it as a bonafide medicinal plant that is good for fighting high blood pressure, diabetes and other diseases.

I have noticed that healthy food usually taste awful and most of the times are bitter, take for example serpentina a weed that has been traditionally used by asians to cure number of diseases. The leaves of serpentina is so bitter that boiling two or three pieces of its small leaves in a liter of water makes the resulting tea almost undrinkable. I guess that's why they call it "king of bitter" in English.

If bitter food is good for us, why is it that evolution or the creator did not program our taste buds to like them. I mean, instead of having sweet tooth, why not have bitter tooth. Why do we not have this uncontrollable urge to eat bitter foods especially when we feel down or depressed instead of diving in and devouring fatty and salty junk foods and consuming tons of chocolates and gallons of sodas, beer, ice tea etc.

Maybe it's because the change in our diet in the last century kind of reprogram our sense of taste. This is evident by the proliferation of candies and sweets. Sugar was once a rarity because of the difficuly of processing it from plants. In fact the ancients used honey as a sweetener but becuase of the invention of manufacturing and processing plants sugar became common, so common that it became one of the most common food ingredients.

I saw a documentary about the aetas and they have this natural knowledge of medicianl plants in their environment. They have specific plants for specific ailments and diseases that are proven effective that even the US military trained their special forces with the aetas on jungle survival. These herbological knowledge of the aetas is inculcated in them through thousand of years of adaptation to their environment.

I guess we all have these natural and instinctual herbological knowledge. Sometimes it's obvious like the lagundi which is good for cough, crush the leaves and you'll notice it's minty smell and taste. Even animals know what plants are good for them and they eat them instinctively.

I guess we, the modern humans, lost this innate knowledge when our sense of taste evolve into the mst based,  sweet, fatty, greasy, salty  etc. orientation that it now has.



I got addicted to bonsai that to came to a point where almost all the space in the yard was occupied by bonsai materials. Bonsais are beautiful to look at, they are great works of art specially if you see them in exhibitions. But before they become works of art, they are nothing but stumps. It takes years to grow branches and more years to train and wire them. This is why many bonsai hobbyists keep and train many bonsais to keep impatience in check.

Anyway, I stopped acquiring materials because I'm starting to get overwhelmed.



Looking at my growing bonsai material collection, a friend asked me what they are good at. I was tempted to engage him with a lecture on the art and the philosophy of bonsai but his question hit me: ge's right. I am not rich and my salary as a teacher is barely enough for our budget. My friend suggested I plant vegetables instead. To tell the truth his suggestion was good and utilitarian. I looked around the yard and then moved my bonsai materials to the edges of the lot so as not to occupy too much space and I started to plant vegetables.

Anyway...
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792 Km and counting...

This is my bike. I know it's kinda gay but I have been riding this horse for almost eight months now. I bought it using my performance based bonus last September 2015. 

It's Jietebike. I searched the internet  to find out something about the brand but nothing came up. I guess its a Chinese or Taiwanese brand or worse it could be a pirated Chinese brand which makes it a pirated, pirated version of a pirated brand.

It's cheap. The tires wear out like pencil erasers. I have already replaced the tires. The gear shifter is showing wear and tear and its shifting down gear on its own. I guess the shifter's  spring is loosing its tension. But it does its job well. I have grown attached to it. 

Since experiencing chronic knee pains, I have shifted to cycling for my cardio. it was not an easy change. I am overweight and because the weight of my body is now concentrated in one area, in the seat, my butt hurt like hell for the first few days. It was so painful that I had to replace the seat with a comfortable well padded saddle. 

In the long run, I realize why bikes have small seats: the larger the seat the larger the contact point between the buttocks and the leather, the more chaffing. After an hour of non-stop pedaling, my ass starts to feel hot. But since I don't do mountain or distance cycling, I just take a rest for a few minutes, walk a few meters bow legged to dissipate the heat. 

According to the app I'm using, I have already clocked 792 Km since I started recording my rides, this was in February. I guess, if I count my pre-app rides the total distance would be more than 1000 km. 

Cycling has its advantage over walking. It's faster. Hmmm...well in my bike's case, because of the small wheel diameter, it's a little faster than walking, depends on the pace. I could feel the wind. And because the knees movement is circular, there's practically no impact on my knees since my weight is distributed to the wheels.  The effort, on even surface, is forward motion; there's no jarring downward stress on my knees.

One thing about riding this bike is I get a lot of puzzled look from bikers and occasional pedestrians. I could only guess what they are thinking of, they're trying to figure out what my bike's brand is and why the hell am I riding a small feminine bike.

Maybe not...

Bonsai Material Story (well, not that kind of story, more of a process thing)

Caveat: I am not an expert bonsai-ist nor I pretend to know much about the art. What I am sharing here is limited to my experience with my materials. I'm almost three years into the hobby and I still feel like a newbie. For more stuffs and conversations about bonsai, I suggest you join Bonsai Hobbyist of the Philippines on Facebook.

Bonsai materials that I bought from a hunter in Koronadal City, Mindanao. The package arrived two weeks ago. The materials are not that expensive, it's the shipping fee that doubles the cost. 

Notice how carefully the materials are packaged. The seller has to make sure that the materials are kept fresh and moist during the its travel from Koronadal City, Mindanao to Taytay, Rizal,Luzon.

Unpacked.The first thing I did was to check if the materials were fresh. To do this, I nipped the bark and if it's still green, it's fresh and alive. Though some materials maybe moist, it does not necessarily mean the material is fresh. I have not experienced receiving any damaged or dead materials from the sellers I had dealt with. They were reliable.

I cleaned the materials. Brushed to remove lichens, fungi, insects etc. I couldn't find my fungicides but with my other materials I sprayed fungicides to prevent fungal development during the rooting period.

After cleaning up, I prepared the rooting hormone solution. Before, I did not use rooting hormones but after reading that it helps better the chances of stimulating the materials, I started using it.

Common rooting hormone brands: Hormex and Anaa. Available in garden shops and ACE hardware.

Soak the materials in rooting solution for a few hours. Others prefer soaking overnight but since I had work the next day, an hour or two would do fine.

Next step was preparing the medium: river sand. I used a strainer to separate different grades of river sand

The pebbles are put at the bottom layer in the trainer dish for good drain.

 The smaller pebbles is put  at middle layer and the fine grain of sand at the topmost layer .

Secure the material into the dish with wire to prevent movement and make sure that there's no vacuum or all the base of the material is completely covered by the medium. Here I put "bamboo antennas" around the materials to prevent the materials from touching the plastic cover that I would  put on them, sprouts turn brown and die when they touch plastic.

Covered in plastic. This acts as a greenhouse to keep the humidity high and stimulate the materials. This speeds up the rooting or stimulating process. 

Once the materials have grown leaves and branches that looks healthy enough, the plastic should be removed gradually to give the materials time to adjust with the changes in humidity. First, open the bottom of the plastic cover an inch or two every three to four days and check if the already developed leaves are not withering. once you noticed that the leaves are turning brown, return the plastic cover and wait longer until the materials become established.

 There are those who prefer to not use plastic cover and instead keep the material in shaded area until it sprouted, a little slow but it works too and the materials are already adjusted to the environment when buds appear.

The plastic cover traps water inside so its not necessary to water the materials everyday for two weeks or so.  Check the medium (soil) and check if its already drying up, then if it is,  water carefully. Accidentally bumping or jerking the materials will break the developing roots and could kill them.

I had many materials die because cats, dogs and even rats tumble them. 

I put them in a dog's cage to prevent animals from accidentally bumping the materials.

Two weeks after, there;'s already little leaves sprouting. Of course this does not mean that the material will live. A lot could go wrong, like root rot etc. but this is a good sign. Still a few more months before these materials can be put under full sunlight and many months more before they could be trained.

Some hobbyists compare this to gambling because there's a 50-50 chance that the materials will live or will die. 

Well, the uncertainty makes it more interesting and challenging. Just seeing a material live and become established is already an achievement for me..

Patience is virtue.  

What do non-bonsai people think about bonsai hobbyists?

 One of the members of the FB group Bonsai Hobbyist of the Philippines (BHP) asked this question and I ,again, collated the members' answers and added some comments of my own. 

1. They are crazy

This is the most common thinking of non-bonsai people because most bonsai hobbyist/artists/owner have this special relationship with their trees that to common folks seems to defy sanity. The bonsaists spend a lot of time looking at it from many angles, clipping branches and removing leaves here and there, and sometimes even talking with the trees.

But I think the craziest thing is that many if not most bonsai hobbyist go out at night, with their flash lights, to check on their materials/trees. 

Imagine yourself looking out your window, there's your neighbor in the middle of the night with a flashlight beaming on his/her bonsai, eyes and nose almost touching the trunks and branches, checking under and over, as if looking for something valuable, a jewelry or an evidence of a murder, etc. I mean...

2. They are in love with their trees

The husband must keep in mind the first commandment: "Thous shall not have no other wife than the wife." 

Anything that takes away a husband's attention from his wife is an object of jealousy. I mean anything. This is understandable and normal to a married person. Jealousy is a basic instinct both for the male and female of the specie. This instinct or emotion is a product of evolutionary processes that aims to preserve the unity of a family and the continuity of the species. Ok, ok, enough of the Darwinian blah,blah, blah

Many members of the BHP, at least in the beginning of their bonsai life, had to deal with a jealous wife. The wife could not understand how her husband could focus his energy on watering trees 2-3 times everyday. I mean before they even greet their wives or enter the door of the house, they first get their water hose or lagaderas to water their trees. Then they spend a lot of hours grooming the trees, clipping branches and leaves  which the husbands do not do to their wives. 

I do not clip my wife's nails or groom her hair and I doubt it if any husband does that, but it is understandable for the wife to feel resentment at seeing her husband clipping a damned tree and not her nails and grooming the tree and not her hair. Of course most wives prefer have manicurists and pedicurists but still the mis-focused attention is what makes them jealous. They do the housework, cook food, do laundry, they deserve better...better than the bonsai's.

Of course after a period of time, the wife realizes the benefits of bonsai to her husband. 

1. The husband started losing interest with vices and going out with boys.

2. Great stress management.

3. Once the bonsai revealed its beauty, the wife starts to appreciate them too.

4. Some husbands have additional source of income.

5. The wife then becomes a bonsai hobbyists. too. I hope.

3. They are gay

I have no problem with this but to some BHP member, they think this is defamatory or something. If your sure of your sexuality no problemo. 

4. They are torturing the trees!

This is also how my friends describe what I'm doing with my bonsai, cutting them here and there, wiring and then bending the branches, defoliating the leaves, sometimes removing bark, etc. By the way this called training.

Since trees are living organisms its is only reasonable to think that they feel or at least they react to these training methods in a way that many people could empathize with. There are times that I feel that way too. But one must look at this philosophically. 

Training is a difficult and even a torturous process. It is the process of removing, redirecting, learning, retaining and maintaining. It is refining, managing the crude, the base and the wild nature and then turning them into something beautiful and usable. It is a process of change.

Training a tree is similar to educating a human being.  It's unthinkable to cut fingers here and there or amputate a deformed arm or a leg  because we don't grow them back. Though physical beautification or enhancement is being done through cosmetic surgery it does not capture the real essence of bonsai training.

So, like bonsai training our crude or wild natures/behaviors are pruned and defoliated through the painful process of behavioral modification called education and religion. 

Bonsai is metaphorical, if you really think about it.

5. They have nothing better to do

I guess that's why its called a hobby. Anyway, seriously, I had a visitor who told me that he'd rather plant vegetables than bonsais. I understand the bit of sarcasm in his voice because I can't eat my bonsai. But I love gardening and I did try planting vegetables in our lot but the soil--mostly compacted fillings-- is not fit for that kind of gardening. 

I guess no one can understand a bonsai hobbyist unless he or she becomes one.

What's nice and what's bad about bonsai? Part 2

Bonsai hunting

What's bad about bonsai?

1. Damages the environment and contributes to global Warming.

This has been the concern of many bonsai artist/hobbyist and some even go to the extent of boycotting events that allow participants who do not practice sustainable bonsai, that's what I saw on a Lindsay Farr video about Philippine bonsai.

Anyway...

One case is what happened to the Japanese wild junipers. Wild junipers were almost wiped out because of uncontrolled yamadori hunting by bonsai practitioners that the Japanese government had to step in to replenish junipers in the wild. The specie was never threatened but their presence in their wild natural habitat was. This is happening to the Bantigue, the Philippines premiere bonsai material. It is being hunted to the point where it forced some local government units to pass ordinances banning bantigue hunting within their area of jurisdiction. 

It can be argued that the environmental damage cause by bonsai hunting is minimal compared to the destruction caused by illegal and legal logging, mining, residential and industrial land conversion etc. Bonsai hunters are also selective in their collecting compared to the wholesale destruction caused by the industries mentioned above. Another argument for is that the trees are not really killed instead they are just being replanted despite the fact that they are dwarfed hence lessening their capacity to process carbon dioxide in the air.

Another is the area where the uprooted trees were once planted and now uprooted creates "ecological vacuum" and disturbs the soil which results to soil erosion. and collectively, if you add up all these "little hunting activities" it would still amount to a significant contribution to climate change (or global warming).

The bonsai trade is growing and so is the demand for hunted materials. I for one would be hypocritical if i say that I did not buy hunted material. I did and maybe I will in the future. What needs to be done is to make the hobby environment friendly and sustainable. (Another post on this topic, I guess).

2. Bonsai Addiction

How could anyone get addicted to this hobby. 

Here's my story.

My materials.

I started with one, a ficus microcarpa cutting. Then I got impatient looking at it, I  got another one thinking that while I'm waiting for my first material to develop, I would be working on the next one. Then after the second I got my third tree, a bucida spinoza so on.... the cycle continued until I ended up with almost a hundred bonsai materials and it would have continued until I came to the realization that I am running out of space and I am spending money and too much time for the hobby, which is becoming un-healthy.

I think I have gotten over my addiction and I am now focusing on developing what I have. But there are those who couldn't stop buying on credit and they ended in heavy debt because of overbuying bonsai materials.  This happened to a few members of the online bonsai group that I belonged to. This is embarrassing for the buyer and a financial loss to the bonsai/material hunter-seller.

3. Incompetent Exhibition Judges

Not mine

 I have no experience with exhibitions. My trees are still in their material-training phase and I guess wit would take more years of training to achieve exhibit quality i.e. if they posses the qualities. Anyway, my trees are for personal enjoyment and an exhibition is somewhere out there in a distant galaxy:  

Only experienced bonsai exhibitors can comment on #3 but in my experience with many competitions from basketball to piko this "incompetence" line is always invoked by the losers.

4. Fake Friends

I have only "friends". Fake friends are not real friends so how can they be friends. But I know what they mean: Fake friends are people who uses a friend to gain something at his own advantage and at the disadvantage of his/her friend. Most of my bonsai friends are online so... 

5. Jealous Wives

Well, I have not experienced this yet. An advice: talk to your wife first before you talk to your bonsai.

There you go...

What's nice and what's bad about bonsai? Part 1

What's nice and what's bad about bonsai?

This is an interesting question posted on Pinoy Tropical Bonsai Group's FB wall. I collated the answers and presented them here. By the way, all pictures of bonsais here are not mine. I'm three years into the hobby and most of my bonsais are still in their material-training stages, some even do not have leaves yet.

Good about bonsai:

1. It is relaxing and therapeutic. Bonsais are orginally used as meditation tool by Buddhist monks. By focusing on a bonsai tree the monks could achieve a state of closeness with nature and its spirits--a harmonious unity of humanity with nature and with the universe. 

This is achieved by repudiating the self (ego) through meditation by focusing on the representation of nature, which is the bonsai. And blah, blah, blah...

Of course most contemporary bonsai-ist now are not Buddhist monks and do not know an iota of a difference between yin, yang, and yung, yong, or they even know or care about meditation and all that eastern philosophy. But even in the absence of these esoteric eastern  stuffs, the hobbyist only has to look at bonsai to feel their calming effect and to achieve the aura of being close to nature...blah,blah,blah. 

Another thing is because bonsai comes in different sizes  you can put many trees in a small garden or even within the confines of the home, office, or even inside a car. Yes, I have seen picture of cars with live bonsai (as opposed to artificial) on the dash board. I 

Personally this is one of the reasons why I engaged in the hobby.   

2. You learn a lot about the diversity of trees in the Philippines.

Before I started the hobby I knew very little about our native tree species. I could name some fruit trees, some hardwood and a few medicinal trees. But since engaging in the hobby I have expanded my taxonomy of Philippine trees and can even identify some them by just looking at their leaves. 

Aside from taxonomy, there's also horticulture: How to take proper care of the trees, their behavior,  propagation, diseases and cures, pests and control, etc.

Training techniques like wiring, clip and grow, reduction, branching etc. stuffs that I am still trying to figure out.

3. Saving Trees from destruction.

 Many areas in our country are being developed into residential and industrial areas and many trees are felled to clear spaces.  This is the best bonsai hunting site because these tree are being saved from destruction. 

Many of my materials acquired are charred, indications that they are victims of slash and burn farming.

4. Investment

Bonsai is an artwork and just like any works of art, it has monetary value. I don't know much about bonsai market and how they are priced. I guess it will depend on the buyers capacity to pay. it could go to millions to a few hundred pesos.

I am into the hobby as a catharsis--a fancy word for artistic outlet. And most of my bonsai materials do not have the potential for financial returns, in fact they are practically worthless to a trained eye, but if I measure the amount of water, the time I spent training, trimming, pulling weeds plus the emotional investments I poured into them, I would say they are priceless.

There is a bonsai market out there many people are engaged in the bonsai trade and are making something out of it.  I guess each to his own: some engage in it for they get something spiritual or emotional out of bonsai and some engage in it for for financial or business reasons and it maybe that it could be for both reasons.

5. Recognition/Awards/Prizes

This is what most bonsai-ist aim for. I don't know how much the prizes for these exhibitions are, but I saw a documentary about bonsai exhibition on TV and one bonsai owner told the host that the cash prices are a few thousand pesos, not even enough to cover for the water and the fertilizers spent for his tree. I guessed its not about the money but its about the recognition and the affirmation of the artist. (The owners are sometimes not the artist and the artists sometime are not the owners.Many owners do not even touch their trees, they employ people to do artistic works.)

6.Lots of online Friends.

Since joining bonsai FB groups, I have accumulated good friends. I learn a lot from them, share photos and experiences with them, ,joke with them, etc. I was also able to purchase materials.

There you are. I slept the whole afternoon and I have nothing to do so I blogged about this. Tomorrow, If I'm in the mood, I might blog about the bad side of bonsai.

Bonsai overload. Why would anyone commit fraud because of bonsai?

I have five bougainvilleas. I starved them until their leaves fell 

off and then watered them with a 1:1 urine-water mixture. Of
 course, the stink permeated inside the house. My daughter 
and wife complained but there's nothing I could do
 about it but to let the stink pass.

Ok. I admit it. I'm starting to have problems with bonsai. It started out as a simple hobby but it got to a point where it is starting to get out of hand and unless I stopped now, I may end up with too many trees for me to handle. Hiring help is out and my wife and daughter are not into the hobby; they just like looking at it.

      

I accumulated around a hundred bonsai materials and almost every nook and cranny of our lot is filled with them in varying stages of training and development.

What happened?

Materials: bluebells and tugas, waiting for signs of life.

Before, I used to go to CP Garcia in Diliman Quezon City to buy materials. The travel and the effort of carrying trees from Quezon City to Taytay limited my purchases to once a month. But since I discovered online bonsai groups, it was only a matter of time before I got into online buying. The affordability as well as the convenience of door to door delivery plus the freebies given by the sellers made online purchasing irresistible.  

My Root-on-rock bonsais. I did not buy these trees. They were
Red Ficuses that I collected from the adobe walls of
St. Joseph Parish Church in Taytay, Rizal and Ficus Microcarpa
cuttings from the school garden.

Aside from the convenience of online purchasing, I was also able to acquire species that are not available here in Rizal Province. I now have Tugas from Mindanao and Blue Bells from Ilocos Norte. The transaction is simple, just surf the posts and if a photo of a materials catches your fancy, just pm the seller then give your address and the mode of payment, the items will be delivered at your doorstep. 

But lately, there are hobbyist who gave in to buying impulsively: they have made purchases beyond their means to pay. It's the hunter-seller that lost here since many of the purchases were done on credit.

Of course I also understand the seemingly irresistible urge to buy because bonsai materials are not identical. Once a photo catches the attention, the idea of not buying that particular item could keep one awake at night. I too, experienced this. I guess everyone does if an item (whatever it is) catches their fancy. It's just matter of controlling the urge. Anyway, this is classic shopping disorder that I thought only ladies  suffer from but I found that bonsai hobbyist do too.

Addiction.

Keep in mind that these materials were once healthy trees pulled out from their habitat and then sold to the bonsai market.

Well, time to stop. I have enough trees to keep me occupied till old age.