immersed in too much Zen reading

[Coach]

With all the bad weather as of late, I have been spending my time doing some
varied readings on the zen mentality of things japanese. I've had my japanese garden for close to 30 years now without much change and the bonsai garden under ten years, so it could use some updating.

What I'm finding out is how much my tastes have changed since i first made an effort to create such things around my koi pond.

Basically it's the concept that less is more. Just as i've cut my Koi numbers down dramatically yet increased the classic beauty of each individual, I'll be doing the same with my bonsai display. I'll be cutting down from 60 so so bonsai and displaying only 2 dozen much better individuals. And like the koi where my focus has been leaning more to american made Koi, now my bonsai specimens will be more of american trees, removed from their fragile existance from atop 5,000 foot mountains. There will be more space between trees so that the eye can focus on the individual instead of being so overwhelmed by the numbers.

I think this observation comes from not wanting to merely copy the japanese but to use their historically classic form, into something more contemporary and yet american. I think it takes time to learn what the essence is and embrace it to be your own, making you comfortable enough to add something of yourself as you continue on with your own vision.

While the weather is such, I'll be designing things in my head but promise to
share some pictures as soon as spring returns to the pacific northwest. Borrowing from the history of the birthplace of Koi, This was the time folks gathered around the heat from coals, to sip tea and exchange ideas about what the next breeding season should or could produce.

So many of us here live so far apart that this type of social interaction is impossible, but fortunately we have this forum to share within.

Today. as I fed my koi on Christmas morn, I viewed my last spider mum in bloom. It's single forlorn form, radiant in the still, chill, air of the greenhouse. How I loath to think of it's fading. Amazed at it's survival with this year's wild mixture of weather. A tribute to the human spirit, that beauty is continually needed in our life. Especially in the cold dreary days of winter. If I cut it and bring it in, I can enjoy it's beauty all day long but for a shorter time in the warm comfort of home.
If i leave it, my views are few, yet... maybe better appreciated, along the routine path of my daily chores. Pruning scissors in hand, I struggle with my decision.

[Meganne]

my guess is you left it .....
though tempted to cut, I believe you left it to enjoy it the days it had remaining.

you have made me curious over a single flower on the opposite side of the continet!

[koikeepr]

These bonsai are surely a perfect metaphor for the koi. They are pretty similar. It's so true that when we start out our ponds we simply put as many fish in the pond as we can with every variety of color possible. Few of us at that time think of the balance of the colors, how they fit in together, etc.

As you continue over the years, your brain starts to shift and you start to re-home certain fish because your eye is becoming more refined. You say to yourself, I need more yellow in the pond, so you search out a beautiful Ogon. You say, I need to tone things down, so you seek out a shiro utsuri with the purity of only black and white, and for the intricate pattern and texture that brings to balance out the riot of color the other fish bring.

As the years wear on, your eye develops even further and you remove even more fish and you start to worry less of color and more of conformation. You seek out large shoulders, you look deeply at the scales and skin, you look at balance of the body. Instead of needing to see all the color there at once, you can see color that is to come in the future and may not be there now. If you had looked at this fish as a novice, you might have thought it was downright ugly and not even have bought it because it does not look like a rainbow of insta-color most novices NEED to have. You begin to learn about patience, which is merited since these fish are long lived...

I am sure the temptation to collect bonsai is quite similar to collecting koi. That you grab every specimen you can when you see them when starting out. And as the years go by and your expertise grows, you cut back to a beautiful few so that those can be appreciated in a simpler setting so each stands out and you can see and appreciate each color of the rainbow rather than the kaleidoscope of all the colors at once.

[Coach]

Congratulations to both posters. I really feel you have grasped alot about human nature and our hobby.
I did leave the Spider Mum where it was. I do agree about how we configure our ponds with residents.
My pond is only lacking now with a missing blue. I am hopeful that Lawanna and i can find some way to get some new asagi residents for my pond. For my yellow, instead of yamabuki I went with a kigoi that has red eyes (albino).

[Kntry]

I think you left the flower. A flower in it's natural setting is so much prettier than being cut and put into a vase. Although you don't get to enjoy it as much, the time spent enjoying is so much more meaningful.

Edit: Ok, somehow I missed your post, Dick.

[Will]

As we age, we do seem to grasp at things that seem less ephemeral in nature. The more temporary things do have a beauty, though, as the longer lasting things are really just as temporary - just depends on your perspective.

[koikeepr]

right Will. Is the glass half empty or is it half full? I personally acknowledge that I'm a half empty kinda gal. I always look for the imperfections in something/someone first. My instinct right off the bat is to say, what's wrong with it? what's that funny taste? what the hell is that woman wearing? LOL! When I was at a koi harvest this fall, everyone was ooing and ahhing over a fish in the vat, and I looked at it and said what is that tiny sumi (black) spot on it's side? I would love this fish if it didn't have that tiny spot.

Coach, I need an Asagi as well. Perhaps Lawanna will spread the love. And I need a budo goromo which I'd like to get from the Kodamas if possible. I just have to have one of their fish. The quest to refine continues..........

[Will]

What glass? Oh, that one. I broke that glass years ago. In the paraphrased but immortal words of Lao Tzu, "The Tao which can be seen is not the eternal Tao", and those words ring true to me. My glass is niether half empty or half full. Maybe you were speaking of a partially filled pond. Hmmm...

[Coach]

best budo i ever saw was bred by konishi and owned by AKCA judges Larry and Pat christensen out of portland Oregon. They bought it at "golden Pond" during a stormy night and named her stormy. I never seen one in the last two decades that held a candle to her. The beauty of kodama is that they have contacts all over Niigata, so you should be able to find something that will please your desire. The only goromo I've ever liked was Ai-and they are so hard to find. My friends Sharon and Dan Olson from Spokane,Washington have a beautiful nisei from toshio sakai. this lil dream boat looks like kohaku at first glance but then you notice the blue on the sashi of her steps. the longer it takes for that blue reticulation to show up in the beni scales the better. It's obvious that this is gonna be a wonderful example of it's kind. My wife always liked goromo's in the beginning of our keeping. She's now has fallen in love with sanke, like her other half. I'm a bad influence! :) Here's her most recent favorite she named "ginger".

[Meganne]

your wife has nice taste