Pabling
A Friend from the Philippines .
An email from a new friend.
Greetings to all DBS members!
When I left the UK last Nov. 13th I said to myself that 'Im going to write you guys as soon as I get here.
Now its already 2009! I would like to thank all of you again for the warm hospitality.We Filipinos are known for our hospitality, now I realized that its not our monopoly, even the British could be that hospitable.
When I scheduled that trip to UK, I realy could not bear the thought that Iam going to leave my trees for two months. When I got there, Alex my son,prepared an itenerary of the places we are going to visit. We went around for awhile to see the beautiful sceneries of Wales then I told him that what I was interested at was to look for a local bonsai club so we found you guys,
The workshops on wednesdays and sundays, the hunting trips for yamadories, the visits to bonsai nurseries specially Bobs, the visit to Dan Barton's garden, etc. are just few of the activities that made me so busy that I forgot about my trees.
I was inspired by the way Jerry photographed his trees and stones . As soon as I got here I collected some stones and I am getting some pictures. I hopeI could be as good as Jerry somedays. I will be sending some photos and you may add it to your gallery since I think I am also a member of DBS.
Best regards.
pabling dychitan
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A flash back by Gerwyn ............... ...... It's Autumn 2008 and Chris is working in his nursery at Bonllwyn when two what he thinks are customers approach him. It turns out they haven't come to browse around the nursery but to talk to him about Bonsai. It was the beginning of a very interesting twelve weeks or so for the society and the beginning of a friendship that we all hope will last a lifetime. |
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On their first visit to the workshop I can honestly say there was not a lot of work done on our trees. The whole evening was spent throwing question after question to Pabling about Bonsai in and around his country. This turned out to be the theme every time he attended one of our workshops, and he attended an awful lot. In fact I don't think there was a single week of his visit when he wasn't with us either on the Wednesday or the Sunday. |
So much so we over those twelve or so weeks invited him onto all of the societies activities from the numerous collecting trips to the visits to nurseries and he even attended an ABBA Symposium. At the ABBA Symposium Pabling was, as at our workshops eager and willing to participate in the discussion and question and answer sessions and even invited to be part of the critique group at the end of the day. What and honour.
Pabling meets Dan Barton |
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| It wasn't long though before we all saw Pabling as another member of our society and he was participating in all our discussions at the workshops and sharing his ideas and thoughts along with the techniques he frequently uses and making a valued contribution as much as anyone else, as well as getting involved in a hands on way with our material which was often alien to him. |  |
On one particularly cold Wednesday evening Pabling even treated us to a slide show of his home and Bonsai collection back in the Phillipenes, taking great pains to explain the various indiginenous species he works with and the techniques he adopts for them. It was a fascinating insight into the differing challenges we face along with the common denominators.
A small selection of the trees shown.
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Pabling and his wife hard at work.
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I believe Pabling enjoyed our collecting trips as an opportunity not only to see parts of Wales he otherwise would not have seen, but it enabled him to understand better how we approach Bonsai, as well as giving him an opportunity to help Alex to collect some pieces of raw material to work with. The long treks and steep climbs never seemed to faze him he said he was awe struck by our scenery. Praise indeed from someone who comes from a country with such breathtaking landscape.
Then there were the visits to a couple of Bonsai nurseries. He was always eager to start a collection with Alex and I must say he was a formidable negotiator.
But unfortunately for Pabling, all good things must come to an end and the time came for him to return home.
He leaves us at Dragon with with some very fond memories, a colourful insight into Bonsai in the Philippines and a son Alex who is now a member of Dragon Bonsai. He has promised to return to us one day and we all hope he can and will.
Thank you Pabling from all at Dragon Bonsai.
Read Pabling's show report