From the UK. Lighting of the hall is fantastic.
Thursday, 5 March 2009
First Glimpse
This photo looks a bit dark to me, although I have been assured it comes out well. Must be my settings.
Tree is a cascade Chaenomeles japonica, accent figures are 2 boxing hares cast in bronze. The plant is a wild Ranunculus ficaria, unfortunately not in flower.
The Gang's All Here
Well almost, as we're missing Willi Benz. But I collared Gudrun Benz and Vito di Venere for the 'before' photo of the suiseki area. The stones get set up this evening; if you look closely at the tables, the skirting still hasn't arrived.
Not for love or money...
... will the owner part with this superb specimen. This olive tree stands about 7 in high and has wonderful gnarly bark. Photo taken at the trade stand of MediBonsai.
Touchdown
Yep, finally arrived at the expo site in Lorca. And a massive hall it is, too. Here's a sneak peek at pre-convention prep.
See the black cloth used as skirting around the tables? They had a guy on a sewing machine in one of the back rooms, putting these and the white top cloth together until early the next day.
Hostal El Asturiano
Had lunch at a tiny bar/country hotel at Sarrion. This is a plate of local ham, with tortilla of potatoes and freshly baked bread. This seems to be game and truffle country.
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
Hotel Txartel
Found this charming little 3 star hotel in Lasarte, while driving through the pouring rain. They're just off the motorway, very reasonable rates and the staff are extremely accomodating. They also speak English!
They operate a bar annexed to the hotel and, while the atmosphere is too smoky for my taste, their food is excellent. We sampled their lamb chops and .... wait for it .... octopus.
The picture frames at the left seem to be photos of old Formula 1 racing cars. Perhaps early races held locally?
This is more like it
Just demolished a perfectly medium rare grillade de boeuf at a truckers' stop off the A10.
So all I have to show you is dessert: tarte aux fraises and an ile flottante.
Autoroute Gastronomy
I waited 60 km for this. Better be worth it. On the upside, not a lot of traffic on the autoroute.
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
Car's full
Didn't I say we were taking trees? Now do you believe me? ;-)
(Seriously, the trees are in crates covered with fleece to protect them from drying out if the sun gets too hot. The windows are all steamed up - photo taken while we're waiting for the ferry to load.)
... 3... 2... 1...
In 15 minutes we start the car and head for the ferry. We won't be taking as many trees as we did to the EBA in Poland, but the display will be just as good. And while it is a nightmare challenge for the space planners, the exhibition becomes that much more interesting with an international selection of trees
My challenge will be blogging during a 2-day trip. Let's see how well phone coverage works across the autoroutes of France...
My challenge will be blogging during a 2-day trip. Let's see how well phone coverage works across the autoroutes of France...
Monday, 2 March 2009
Countdown to Blastoff
Right.
Tomorrow, get up bright and early. Car needs to be valet cleaned, then it's off to pick up the exhibition trees. The EBA display plan is for 3 chuuhin-sized trees and about 5 shohins. And the accompanying display tables and either accent plants or - if we can find any in scale - some nice suiseki to break up the landscape, so to speak.
Robert has been kind enough to lend a couple of really good Japanese hardwood display tables. We have identified enough accent plants to take with us. I'm not sure how much space is allocated to each country display - I have a feeling we're going to find out when we get there. Which could become a very emotional experience, depending on how many trees each country brings and how tired and snarky people are by the time they get there. Ideally an approximation of space is given out to the exhibitors; whether or not this has been done, I haven't asked. I'm just the grunt here, OK?
Still some last-minute potting up needs to be fitted in during the day. Spring has sproinged with a vengeance and a whole load of alpines are now rearing their little green heads out of their pots. While I am very happy to see they have survived our usual wet winter, they could have been more obliging and waited a week or so.
I'll miss our local club meeting as we will just be driving back from Spain that same evening. We are having a new speaker at the club, so I'm sorry to be missing his talk on beeches. Mike is coming over tomorrow to pick up pots that had been made during one of our club evenings last week, so the guys in our club can have new personalised pots for the 2009 re-potting season. Thank you Mike, that's a load off my dining room table.
Just in case anyone is wondering:
The EBA supporters from the UK wishing to display their trees have to make it over there on their own steam and off their own finances. For the shorter distances, each exhibitor would arrange his own transport. Spain being a tricky one, we had offered to use our vehicle and drive down with the exhibition trees. We don't mind the long drives; during the times we were transporting only our own trees, we broke the journey at friends' places across the Continent.
This trip, we had wanted to hire a courier van so that we could take some of the big trees, but the rental guys wanted megabucks for us to take the van out of the country. So we're going to make like sardines for 2 days there and 2 days back. Like us, all the other UK representatives to EBA are going to have to pay their own way to get there, attend the convention, feed themselves and make their own way back. It's been that way for years. We all do it because we love showing our trees, we love the ritual of display, and we love meeting up with friends that we have made across borders and who we only see once a year. We may not agree with how the awards are handed out, we may abhor the hotel we have wound up in, the politics may drive us mad (Bob's sumo-sized chick with a chip on her shoulder is my pet peeve) - but we will do it all again next year because we love bonsai and because we want to keep British bonsai clubs up there in the European scene.
Rant over.
Tomorrow, get up bright and early. Car needs to be valet cleaned, then it's off to pick up the exhibition trees. The EBA display plan is for 3 chuuhin-sized trees and about 5 shohins. And the accompanying display tables and either accent plants or - if we can find any in scale - some nice suiseki to break up the landscape, so to speak.
Robert has been kind enough to lend a couple of really good Japanese hardwood display tables. We have identified enough accent plants to take with us. I'm not sure how much space is allocated to each country display - I have a feeling we're going to find out when we get there. Which could become a very emotional experience, depending on how many trees each country brings and how tired and snarky people are by the time they get there. Ideally an approximation of space is given out to the exhibitors; whether or not this has been done, I haven't asked. I'm just the grunt here, OK?
Still some last-minute potting up needs to be fitted in during the day. Spring has sproinged with a vengeance and a whole load of alpines are now rearing their little green heads out of their pots. While I am very happy to see they have survived our usual wet winter, they could have been more obliging and waited a week or so.
I'll miss our local club meeting as we will just be driving back from Spain that same evening. We are having a new speaker at the club, so I'm sorry to be missing his talk on beeches. Mike is coming over tomorrow to pick up pots that had been made during one of our club evenings last week, so the guys in our club can have new personalised pots for the 2009 re-potting season. Thank you Mike, that's a load off my dining room table.
Just in case anyone is wondering:
The EBA supporters from the UK wishing to display their trees have to make it over there on their own steam and off their own finances. For the shorter distances, each exhibitor would arrange his own transport. Spain being a tricky one, we had offered to use our vehicle and drive down with the exhibition trees. We don't mind the long drives; during the times we were transporting only our own trees, we broke the journey at friends' places across the Continent.
This trip, we had wanted to hire a courier van so that we could take some of the big trees, but the rental guys wanted megabucks for us to take the van out of the country. So we're going to make like sardines for 2 days there and 2 days back. Like us, all the other UK representatives to EBA are going to have to pay their own way to get there, attend the convention, feed themselves and make their own way back. It's been that way for years. We all do it because we love showing our trees, we love the ritual of display, and we love meeting up with friends that we have made across borders and who we only see once a year. We may not agree with how the awards are handed out, we may abhor the hotel we have wound up in, the politics may drive us mad (Bob's sumo-sized chick with a chip on her shoulder is my pet peeve) - but we will do it all again next year because we love bonsai and because we want to keep British bonsai clubs up there in the European scene.
Rant over.
Sunday, 1 March 2009
More questions answered
So why Twitter?
It all started with a Marketing seminar I attended, from which I took home the following salient points:
* 44% of 35 - 64 year-olds are more likely to read a newspaper in print than in electronic format (21%). Their younger counterparts are shifting toward online news consumption (35% print vs. 30% electronic).
* Popularity of the newspaper is in decline in the US, in Western Europe, Latin America, Australia & New Zealand, but rising in Eastern Europe and developing countries. Newspaper circulations are shrinking as more people turn to the Web as their primary news source.
* Social media (e.g. blogs, podcasts, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter) is gaining ground. Blogs are becoming more influential, primarily those of a niche or special interest.
A coupla mates are already on Twitter, so I decided to give it a go. Letting friends know what's going on at bonsai shows they aren't able to attend, like the EBA conventions. And for many bonsai people, being away from their trees for extended periods (particularly during the growing season) can be a logistical nightmare of sorts. And maybe it's a way to tell the under-35ers all they want to know about hobbies and interests that are within their grasp but they were too afraid to ask.
But wait - bonsai is a visual experience. And Twitter doesn't support images. Therefore Blogger and Twitter are having to work hand in hand for me. (And Sony Ericsson.) Ahhh. So des ka.
There are loads of other sites which already address questions like how to water, when to prune, I had one and it died, etc. If you have this type question, drop me a line and I will find the best place to direct you to. This space is more of an effort at online coverage plus maybe a rant or two (or fifteen).
So it looks like we are up and running, ready to experiment with live-blogging from Lorca. Hopefully they will have wi-fi available there, as using a phone keyboard is a dead bore.
It all started with a Marketing seminar I attended, from which I took home the following salient points:
* 44% of 35 - 64 year-olds are more likely to read a newspaper in print than in electronic format (21%). Their younger counterparts are shifting toward online news consumption (35% print vs. 30% electronic).
* Popularity of the newspaper is in decline in the US, in Western Europe, Latin America, Australia & New Zealand, but rising in Eastern Europe and developing countries. Newspaper circulations are shrinking as more people turn to the Web as their primary news source.
* Social media (e.g. blogs, podcasts, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter) is gaining ground. Blogs are becoming more influential, primarily those of a niche or special interest.
A coupla mates are already on Twitter, so I decided to give it a go. Letting friends know what's going on at bonsai shows they aren't able to attend, like the EBA conventions. And for many bonsai people, being away from their trees for extended periods (particularly during the growing season) can be a logistical nightmare of sorts. And maybe it's a way to tell the under-35ers all they want to know about hobbies and interests that are within their grasp but they were too afraid to ask.
But wait - bonsai is a visual experience. And Twitter doesn't support images. Therefore Blogger and Twitter are having to work hand in hand for me. (And Sony Ericsson.) Ahhh. So des ka.
There are loads of other sites which already address questions like how to water, when to prune, I had one and it died, etc. If you have this type question, drop me a line and I will find the best place to direct you to. This space is more of an effort at online coverage plus maybe a rant or two (or fifteen).
So it looks like we are up and running, ready to experiment with live-blogging from Lorca. Hopefully they will have wi-fi available there, as using a phone keyboard is a dead bore.
EBA, wots da deal, mon?
A number of people have asked me why the heck I keep going on about EBA, so for all of you that I've directed here for my explanation, here goes:
There really is no big deal about the European Bonsai Association Convention as such. It takes place yearly and is sponsored by a different country each year. Or at least, it is sponsored by the member Bonsai Federation of that country. Not sure how Germany goes as they don't have society members but only individuals. Maybe there never has been an EBA convention in Germany - don't know.
I'm not associated directly with either the EBA committee, general assembly or whatever. I attend each convention as Joe Public the spectator, don't attend any meetings and don't cast votes on anything. My understanding of the politics behind it is sketchy at best. That doesn't mean that I don't have a personal opinion on certain individuals that I meet over there, but that is purely on a person-to-person interaction basis rather than as a result of their efficacy as representatives of their own countries or their actions reflecting on the good of the EBA as a governing entity. Is that enough gobbledygook doublespeak for you? In plainspeak, lots of guys over there are way cool, one or two I would take a kamagong across the kisser to. In that, I'm no different to any of the EBA 'roadies' over there.
For a long time, the bonsai display at an EBA convention was mostly local trees, possibly with a few foreign entries solicited by the organising country. Poland in 2006 was the very first time EBA opened up the exhibition to foreign displays, which was a major logistic challenge that the Poles rose to admirably, given the limits of their resources at the time. They will always hold my admiration for that. And for the fantastic food (and ice cream) - I would go back any time. Buying plants in Poland is way fantastic as well; they tend to have species rather than commercial hybrids. We brought back dahlias that have shrugged of the worst of our wet winter weather with supreme Polish disdain - nary a bit of protection and they are still going strong after 3 years in the ground.
There is a contest of sorts involved in the exhibition, in that the local federation may give out a Best In Show sort of award, and I believe the EBA Chairman gives out Certificates of Merit. This is by no means the most prestigious of European recognition events. There are other shows on the Continent that tend to attract the crème de la crème of European Bonsai, these appear to be run by commercial individuals but don't take my word for it.
What I do like about the EBA though, is that it levels the playing field for the emerging European countries, as well as giving us punters a view of what they have to offer over there. When you compare the displays that went up at Poland against those in Austria last year, the improvement was phenomenal. The East is nipping at the heels of the West, and the West will have to shake off any complacency about being the Big Boys of Bonsai. Another good thing is that, while there may be a good number of imported Japanese trees on display, you do have a people who have trees that they have raised themselves from cuttings. Should I acquire the middle name of 'covet-at-all-costs', that would be for the shohin and mame that Bruno and his mates put on display.
Speaking of Japanese imports, I personally don't have anything against them at all (have loads of them in the garden). What I do mind is when it all gets a bit same-y, which is a hard to explain but you do get this feeling after seeing tons of displays. Collected material with lots of deadwood (whopping great jin, shari and that sort of stuff) tends to give me the same feeling as well.
There is also the ever-excellent Suiseki (or viewing stones) display of the European Suiseki Association. Again, for a very niche segment of practitioners. If you think it takes dedication to lug a potted tree around, try humping around a couple of them big rocks. But I am ever grateful for those dedicated individuals who do so; they have some of the most beautiful bits of geology to be put on a plinth. If there were a way to get young people interested in this most esoteric of interests, I would be all for it. (e - SO - TER - ic, okay?)
Then there is access to traders that you would not encounter normally back home. Currency fluctuation made it very favourable for the Continentals at the Noelanders show in January; whether this will be the case for the European shows across 2009 remains to be seen.
There are the ups and downs. The show moves venue every year, which makes me wonder if there's ever a hand-over of lessons learned from one country organiser to another. Space allocation becomes a political (and emotional) minefield. I can see where everyone's coming from, but it does make setting-up day a long and tiring one. We have high hopes for this venue, though. Seems it's part of a high profile local horticultural show in a dedicated convention space.
I'm hoping for at least a good coffee bar and a smoke-free lounging area. And good nosh. Tapas, yeah. Oh, will there be bonsai as well? Count me in.
There really is no big deal about the European Bonsai Association Convention as such. It takes place yearly and is sponsored by a different country each year. Or at least, it is sponsored by the member Bonsai Federation of that country. Not sure how Germany goes as they don't have society members but only individuals. Maybe there never has been an EBA convention in Germany - don't know.
I'm not associated directly with either the EBA committee, general assembly or whatever. I attend each convention as Joe Public the spectator, don't attend any meetings and don't cast votes on anything. My understanding of the politics behind it is sketchy at best. That doesn't mean that I don't have a personal opinion on certain individuals that I meet over there, but that is purely on a person-to-person interaction basis rather than as a result of their efficacy as representatives of their own countries or their actions reflecting on the good of the EBA as a governing entity. Is that enough gobbledygook doublespeak for you? In plainspeak, lots of guys over there are way cool, one or two I would take a kamagong across the kisser to. In that, I'm no different to any of the EBA 'roadies' over there.
For a long time, the bonsai display at an EBA convention was mostly local trees, possibly with a few foreign entries solicited by the organising country. Poland in 2006 was the very first time EBA opened up the exhibition to foreign displays, which was a major logistic challenge that the Poles rose to admirably, given the limits of their resources at the time. They will always hold my admiration for that. And for the fantastic food (and ice cream) - I would go back any time. Buying plants in Poland is way fantastic as well; they tend to have species rather than commercial hybrids. We brought back dahlias that have shrugged of the worst of our wet winter weather with supreme Polish disdain - nary a bit of protection and they are still going strong after 3 years in the ground.
There is a contest of sorts involved in the exhibition, in that the local federation may give out a Best In Show sort of award, and I believe the EBA Chairman gives out Certificates of Merit. This is by no means the most prestigious of European recognition events. There are other shows on the Continent that tend to attract the crème de la crème of European Bonsai, these appear to be run by commercial individuals but don't take my word for it.
What I do like about the EBA though, is that it levels the playing field for the emerging European countries, as well as giving us punters a view of what they have to offer over there. When you compare the displays that went up at Poland against those in Austria last year, the improvement was phenomenal. The East is nipping at the heels of the West, and the West will have to shake off any complacency about being the Big Boys of Bonsai. Another good thing is that, while there may be a good number of imported Japanese trees on display, you do have a people who have trees that they have raised themselves from cuttings. Should I acquire the middle name of 'covet-at-all-costs', that would be for the shohin and mame that Bruno and his mates put on display.
Speaking of Japanese imports, I personally don't have anything against them at all (have loads of them in the garden). What I do mind is when it all gets a bit same-y, which is a hard to explain but you do get this feeling after seeing tons of displays. Collected material with lots of deadwood (whopping great jin, shari and that sort of stuff) tends to give me the same feeling as well.
There is also the ever-excellent Suiseki (or viewing stones) display of the European Suiseki Association. Again, for a very niche segment of practitioners. If you think it takes dedication to lug a potted tree around, try humping around a couple of them big rocks. But I am ever grateful for those dedicated individuals who do so; they have some of the most beautiful bits of geology to be put on a plinth. If there were a way to get young people interested in this most esoteric of interests, I would be all for it. (e - SO - TER - ic, okay?)
Then there is access to traders that you would not encounter normally back home. Currency fluctuation made it very favourable for the Continentals at the Noelanders show in January; whether this will be the case for the European shows across 2009 remains to be seen.
There are the ups and downs. The show moves venue every year, which makes me wonder if there's ever a hand-over of lessons learned from one country organiser to another. Space allocation becomes a political (and emotional) minefield. I can see where everyone's coming from, but it does make setting-up day a long and tiring one. We have high hopes for this venue, though. Seems it's part of a high profile local horticultural show in a dedicated convention space.
I'm hoping for at least a good coffee bar and a smoke-free lounging area. And good nosh. Tapas, yeah. Oh, will there be bonsai as well? Count me in.
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