Trimming My Bush

Don't ask me why, but for quite a while now I've wanted a bonsai tree. There is just something about them that I think is so COOL. They may not be very metal, but they are ZEN. And I'll take all the zen I can get.

A few days ago, I finally found my very own bonsai tree at Costco, of all places. It was meant to be, because I was not necessarily looking for a bonsai tree when I was shopping for toilet paper and a new bathing suit for Vivian. I looked through all of them to find the perfect one, and wouldn't you know--it ended up being the very first one I picked up? Kismet, fo sho.

So I get the tree home and put it on the hutch in between the dining and living rooms, right where I've always pictured one. But now, of course, I have to do something with it. Bonsai trees don't come looking like bonsai trees. They just look like little trees. Just about any kind of tree can be made into a bonsai. I was a little panicked, for if I totally messed it up it would not be very zen any more. If it didn't end up looking just right, it would be like my Intaglio/butterfly pendant. Always just a little annoying.

I went to Half Price Books looking for a book about bonsai, and I found one. Love that place. (also where and when I got my Ministry CD. Angst and Zen. The yin and the yang. It works.) Of course in the book it says you have to have all of these specific tools to prune and trim the bonsai. Long story short, after unsuccessfully searching for them high and low I grabbed the old kitchen shears and went to work. I should have taken a before photo, but, here she is! I'm quite proud of 'er, actually. A few snips here and there, some pinching and a lot of pokes to the fingers later, a bonsai. Mr. Miyagi would be quite proud, I think. (there he is, with his bonsai tree!) How very Hobbit-like of me, trimming the verbs. I just hope it doesn't die. That would be typical, the way I am with plants. Trimming my bonsai bush is about as green as I get. I won't say anything about trimming the other bush. But I will say, my bush would make a better president. :-)