This is one of my father's trees that has been growing unkept for the last 10 years.
But before I tell you more about this new hobby. I have to share with you, who has inspired me to do Bonsai.
My father.
My Father is the strong quiet type. He always seemed to know how to get things done. He never asks for help and has always been a reliable provider. He is an incredibly hard worker and very talented craftsman. I think I appreciate him now more than ever before as I write this post.
Let's go back to the 70s shall we? No not the days of bell bottoms and hippies but back to the fall of Saigon in 1975.
Several years after the fall of Saigon in search of a better life for his 8 kids at the time (I'm # 6), my father came up with the resolution that we had to escape Vietnam's new communistic rule.
With his bare hands and limited tools, he literally built a large enough boat that helped our entire family along with extended family and friends to escape Vietnam. Some of you old enough may know the term "Boat People". I was one of those people.
After 2 failed attempts of leaving under the cover darkness we finally made it out to the open sea on the 3rd try. The open sea was a huge gamble. There was a no guarantee that we'd be rescued. Food and water was extremely limited, disease was rampant, storms flipped many boats and there was the very valid fear of Thai pirates that would pillage these boats for valuables. Many women were raped and men killed when they had the misfortune to run in with Thai Pirates.
Thousands died at sea but we were one of the fortunate few that were rescued by cargo ship passing by. We were dropped off on an island in Indonesia where we stayed for 2 years waiting for the proper paper work to enter the United States.
That's me with the yellow shorts with my father on the far left. I still remember that day on an Indonesian beach. It was the first time I tasted sliced bread. It was literally the best thing I've ever eaten at the time.
This photo was taken by an American missionary named Gaylord Barr back in 1981 of 2 my brothers (the 2 on the right) playing on the beach. It was by chance that we found it on a blog about Vietnamese refugees. This photo is pure treasure to me.
Narrowly missing the mount St. Helen's eruption, we were finally sponsored to come to the United States in 1982 by one of my relatives already living in the US. We landed and lived in Auburn, WA from then until 1989.
This is my immigration photo from back then. I was about 4yrs old in that photo.
A photo of my siblings and my mom from the early 80s. I'm in the blue jacket in front.
Let's fast forward to the late 90s. After some time in the Bay Area we moved back to Washington and my father began collecting bonsai's. He was a general contractor so he worked on various homes and had access to plants that had been growing in ground for many years. He was doing Yamadori before I even knew the word existed. He amassed a great collection through out the years, including a tree from Dan Robinson, world renown bonsai artist of Elandan Gardens in Bremerton.
Unfortunately he has fallen ill from several complications in his health. So about 7 years ago he gave most of his Bonsai collection my uncle. My sister kept 2 trees. Two Japanese Black Pines. One has gone to me and the other to my younger brother.
I may have to pay a visit to my uncle to see his collection so I can share it here.
Fast forward to today. This is a photo of my father at a nursing home with a handful of his kids and grand kids.
My sister who was also an avid gardener was recently diagnosed with cancer last year. She is battling it and things are looking very positive that she will beat this thing but her energy level isn't what it used to be.
She is an amazing artist and has created these crystals trees that I'm selling on Etsy to help raise money for her cancer treatment. Feel free to stop by and show your support.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/652248778/crystal-tree-33-on-agate-with-garnet-and
As such, it's been a tough year for my family but we're fighters.
I've taken over one of his Black Japanese Pine Bonsai I've been studying and learning as much as I can about bonsai so I can better care for this tree.
It may not look like much now but this tree means so much to me. It represents him, his legacy and I intend on caring for it with my best ability. It will outlive my father and maybe even me. That's the beauty about bonsai, it's a generational hobby meant to be handed down. We are simply curators.
The more I learn about Bonsai the more I fall in love with it. It's about taking the wild beauty of plants and controlling them to grow in the way we design it. It's living art. I get it now why he loved Bonsai's so much.
I re-potted the black pine with some new soil afer cleaning out it's tangled roots.
There you go, much better.
A bit of a hair cut to get rid of the long candles and voila. It got it's first haircut in years.
The only regret I have is that I wish I had gotten into the hobby while my father was still able to do it. It would have been an amazing experience to work on Bonsai's with my father.
