Goodonya Pasquale!pasquale wrote:Allow me to translate. Pup's statue is actually of a tanuki. He is a little badger/racoon type beast who has a reputation for being a cunning master of disguise. Apparently that is the origin of the term tanuki, as used for a bonsai that isn't what it seems to be.Bretts wrote:Cute picture Pup but I get the feeling that is the wrong one?
Admittedly, the pics of Tanuki I have seen usually displayed much bigger - ahem - gonads than the ones Mr Pup is showing in his photo. Perhaps Mr Pup has strategically placed those blades of grass/bamboo so as not to shame us all...
Back to the tree in question: while I am generally quite happy with the theory of Tanuki/Phoenix Grafts, I have an aversion to trees threaded up through dead stumps like Bodhi's creation. More often than not, they come across as lazy attempts to give life to deadwood and poor stock (the same can also be said of many Tanuki/Phoenix Grafts).
However, in this case, I find myself coming back to look again. I like the planting as a whole, even if it is the postmodern, sci-fi me speaking: it is as though the inner tree is wearing a protective suit of ... ummm ... tree! It reminds me of an astronaut, I suppose.
I am a little concerned to think what the inner tree might look like in 20 years' time, once its branches have swelled outside of their holes, or the tree has broken the bounds of its host and shed bits of dead wood everywhere, but that is neither here nor there. Sometimes the 'eternal' nature of Bonsai should be allowed to give in to the 'what is now' nature of Nature.
Nice one Bodhi!
Fly.
taking the top half of trees of since 2005! 
in its own right 
. I will now have to start serious wiring duties on it and start treating it like a real tree. 
