Anyone who knows me will know what an unsociable old grouch I can be. If those folk happen to do bonsai they also know I like to take the gently gently approach to creating bonsai. I like to take my time and use as light a touch as possible.

Seeing as everyone was in bed around here until lunch time Christmas day and I was up at my customary 5am it seemed like a good opportunity to get some work done. However I knew I had a fight on my hands and this was no domestic dispute it was a proper pub fight.

I got this good sized larch from a friend of mine who had put it in his garden over a little pond. I first saw it about fifteen years ago and regularly badgered the guy to let me have it. Well in time my persistence paid off and it was mine. That was about three years ago now. The trouble was the tree was so massive in the top it took a couple of severe pruning sessions to get any useable branches. However in that time I got fed up with the ugly brute sitting around here drinking my water and taunting me. Time to pull on the big boy pants!

It took a couple of kilos of wire, a few tourniquets and a lot of grunting but by the end of boxing day it was done. I do hate this type of big wire wrestling match but with some material it’s the only way unless you are in your twenties and have the patience of Job. As it turns out this is not the prettiest tree in the yard but I wasn’t about to throw it out was I?

G.