first collecting

After the, what can only be described as the disastrous attempts to go collecting last Autumn and Winter because of the relentless frosts, it was great last week at the society workshop to be talking about organising a collecting trip. If you have read any of the previous bits on collecting trips you will not be surprised to hear that it was Martin ( our intrepid expedition leader ) who instigated the conversation.

As with many of our collecting forays they are organised on quite short notice and this one was no exception. The conversation was on a Sunday and we were going collecting the following day to take advantage in the break in weather from the horrendous bouts of wind and heavy rain we have had.

Martin as I have mentioned before is always the first person forward to encourage the newer members to partake, and on this occasion he has succeeded in influencing Dave to come out on his first ever collecting trip. Having said that, Dave did not take much persuading. Dave joined the Society several months ago after visiting us at one of the weekly workshops. He has been interested in Bonsai for quite some time but never dipped his toe in the water so to speak to find out if this was really one of the ‘hobbies' for him. Well, after his first visit to us I don't believe he has looked back. He has an awesome enthusiasm for all things Bonsai and attends the workshops twice a week without fail. I digress a little, but it was not difficult for Martin over the last few months to tantalise Dave each week or so with stories of many previous collecting trips. So Dave's hand was the first up and John, Martin and Myself would join him.

As is more often than not when there is a new member involved Martin was doing the organising, and planning out where we would be collecting. So naturally as we have done many times before we left the details to him and instinctively trusted his judgement. Big Mistake !!!!! Will we never learn !!!!!!!!!

So Monday morning has arrived and as per Martin's instructions I would pick him up and John and Dave would meet us at the Mc Donalds on the A465 at 10.30am . Martin and I arrive in plenty of time so Martin proceeds to describe to me where we would be heading today. The area we have a collecting licence for is absolutely vast and I don't think anyone in the Society would profess to have trudged and reccee'd every single inch of the area. But Martin has got to be arguably to most adventurous and spends a huge amount of his time trekking around the local hills and always on the lookout for new areas to collect or areas that show signs of potential within our licensed boundaries. So when he described to me an area he had visited recently I naturally got a bit excited albeit I was unfamiliar with the area he was describing. So now I am as wound up as he had made Dave. Anyway, 10.30am comes and goes and there is no sign of Dave and John. Unusual I thought, given how enthusiastic Dave was and John always is. Time to ring someone on the mobile. John answers with a ‘ Where are you ? ‘ or words to that effect.

‘ We are at Mc Donalds of course, where are you ? ‘ ( Martin )

‘ You cannot be, we are are here and we cannot see you in the car park ‘ ( John )

‘ Which Mc Donalds are you in ? ‘ ( Martin )

‘ Up by Glyneath, where are you ? ‘ ( John )

‘ We are at the Neath one ‘ (Martin )

The following bit of the conversation is unprintable, so off Martin and I set and meet up with Dave and John just a few minutes later, and I am thinking ‘ the clues are there ‘

We head off in Dave's van with our intrepid guide navigating until we arrive at an area completely unfamiliar to me or John, but we say nothing leaving Martin to do all the reassuring we need until he tells Dave to stop the van and we are going to carry on up the mountain on foot.

So we kit up and off we go. Onwards and upwards up the winding tracks constantly on the lookout for that always elusive perfect piece of material. We trek for about 20 minutes with no real feel for there being anything worth investigating so Martin suggests we bring the van a bit closer and we wait for Dave to catch up. Dave arrives and we start the process all over again. Onwards and upwards up the winding tracks. We repeat this process on at least another 2 occasions and during all that time nobody is saying much because the area so desolate of what we are looking for that everyone is concentrating so intensely just in case we miss something. Till eventually someone pipes up ‘ Martin, have you been up this way before ? ‘ Martin replies ‘ Not all the way, but from a distance it looked as though it had some potential !!!!'

Well you can imagine the conversation that ensued and none of it would pass any form of censor, but it was all said and taken in good spirit and we sat and had a cup of coffee whilst having a good laugh and admiring the absolutely breathtaking scenery of countless valleys below us and the Bristol Channel and the coast of Somerset way off in the distance.

What was good to see was that Dave was showing no signs of despondency, and over that cup of coffee we decided to head off to an area we had visited before. It took us the best part of thirty minutes with a stop off at a burger van where we had another welcomed boiling hot cup of coffee. We were pretty high up by this time and the wind chill was absolutely cutting but it did not stop us from marvelling at the sights around and below us and before long we were off undeterred.

The second site as we expected was a lot more rewarding and we each headed off in pairs grazing as it were for some material with potential and it didn't take us that long to meet up once again to compare notes of what we had collected. Martin had some Larch, Hawthorn and Pine. John had some tasty looking Pine. I had a Hemlock and Dave had bagged himself with Martin's help some Larch, Pine and Hawthorn.

All in all we had a great day out. The scenery was stunning, the company and conversation was great, we had a bundle of laughs, we bagged ourselves some new material to work with and most importantly of all we had snared Dave even deeper into the art of Bonsai.

What a result eh !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!