To continue with tradition, here is the year’s photographic odds and ends. Hope you enjoy. 

It’s always best to start things off with a chicken, if you have one. This one was drinking water drops off my glass doors.

Your normal prop for photographing bonsai. 

At a Chicago restaurant that specialized in vegan sushi. The tuna was, somehow, watermelon. Even stranger, it was good. 

Patch on spray day. 

Patch’s son Theo helping “sort” and “organize”. 

My folding bike in the closet, which gets exercise in the afternoons.

Patch reworked the moss garden this year. After tearing out the deck. This was Theo’s contribution before the moss got down.

A Seasonal class bringing in lunch. This is how it always looks, with me lounging in the studio, waiting to be fed.

Amtrak trip to LA to work on trees.

Anna’s Hummingbird near the Columbia River. The lichens are attached to the nest using spiderwebs as glue.

A paper bag floor. It’s like paper mache, on your floor. Then it’s sealed. A new bathroom floor for the tiny house. 

We did a few chojubai crosses back when Bobby Curttright was my apprentice, around 2014. A few germinated, and just this year at John Eads place (Left Coast Bonsai) a white x red cross bloomed for the first time. A salmon color! 

Sleeping warthogs in Senegal.

On a birding trip to Gambia I took at 12 hour bus ride with a one year old on my lap.

A ferry over a river in Gambia. Chock full of crocodiles.

I took this photo of a Summer Tanager that has been visiting feeders in Portland this past month, a city it has no business being in (it should be in Atlanta). Folks are hoping it stays around for the Christmas Bird Count this weekend, where it would be one of the rarer birds we’ve had in a while. The CBC is an annual event, rarely on Christmas, and an effort to see as many birds as possible while staying warm and dry.

Happy Holidays everyone! Take care of one another.