Exhibition of bonsai

A few years ago I visited an exhibition of bonsai trees in a near town Merklín. I was enchanted by various shapes of the bonsai and when I saw a poster a few days ago announcing this exhibition again, I firmly decided to go and see it. I did and now I want to share my impression with you.

Merklín is quite a small town of a thousand inhabitants and in the local castle, there is a seat of the municipal authority. The exhibition has taken place in the castle every year since 2004, and as I could see, the number of exhibited bonsai has significantly increased since that time.

During the previous visit, I was taking just photographs of individual bonsai but this time I was sure I needed to catch the atmosphere of the exhibition better.

As you can see, there were plenty of bonsai. My children took photos probably of all of them and I can tell you that when I came home and saw all their photos, I felt like I could turn around and head back to the castle for another tour.

In front of the castle, there was some refreshment and three big tents where you could buy bonsai and equipment used for growing them.

The growing must be slow and one has to be patient but surely it is a very creative process. I have a Ficus bonsai at home, which I got from my husband a few years ago, so when my older son showed interest in growing bonsai, I asked him to take it and make something with it. The bonsai still looks quite good but I’ve only been cutting off new sprouts and keeping the original shape and there is definitely more that could be done. He promised to have a look in a library and see if there is a book on bonsai he could borrow.

Well, you may ask why I just don’t browse the internet as there are surely many pieces of information and quicker at hand. Maybe out of sentiment, books are still advisable, aren’t they? I spend quite a lot of time at a computer, both at work and (much less) at home, so I still like the touch of book’s cover and paper sheets…

A tiny surprise at the end. Out of principle, I haven’t posted portraits of either my family members or myself here. All the same, I’d like to make my blog a little bit more personal, it’s always great when I read someone’s blog and can imagine at least the author’s face. So the person in the following photo is me, taken by my dear husband at the exhibition.

Nice to meet you.