Huntington Library and Botantical Gardens

While I was working during the week, Steve and Ira went to the Huntington to volunteer. Ted the curator was so happy to have some seasoned bonsai practitioners that he put them to work on a big wiring project. They worked all day Wednesday and Friday morning and left the last 40% for Ira and I to finish Saturday morning.

So after working all week, my plan was to arrive an hour early, because the best part about volunteering is walking the garden before it opens to the public. I didn't even have to photoshop people out of these pictures. We had the garden to ourselves at 7 in the morning.

These two photos above are from the Japanese gardens

This lake is part of the Chinese gardens

The pathways were designed and installed by artisans from China. There are so many different designs around the garden.

Here are two other walkway designs.

You can't really appreciate how intricate the work is until you see a close up of what they call pebble pavement.

Crazy, right? Can you imagine how long that must have taken? Well, I certainly appreciated them. But now it was time to head back to the bonsai nursery and get some work done. But first let me show you a photo of the bonsai courts where some of the collection is on public display.

The picture above is of the upper courts. Back in the nursery, behind the scenes there are many more bonsai not on display. 

This is where the volunteers work to get them ready to be rotated into the public courts.

Ira and I put our heads down and finished the tree. We even had time to do the final adjustments. We were both pretty happy to completely finish the project. It's always better for the tree to get 100% of the work done within a few days. So, job well done!

A dopo.