My Father, The Bonsai Master

Gentle reader,

I love my folks. I’m properly close to my Ma and Pa. Sometimes I suspect I’m adopted because they’re far more awesome than I could ever hope to be. My Pa is one of those people who are so talented at everything that it makes the color drain from your face and throw up in your mouth a little bit because you may as well pack up and go home, but in a good way.  ^_~

One of his more recent hobbies is bonsai plants. The other week he sent me an email with some photos of his plants as some of them were in flower. I was so taken with them that I simply had to share them with you.

Here’s what he had to say:

Hi Ralphie,

Not sure if this is going to work, but here goes.
I have attached some photos of by bonsais, the bougainvillea is just gorgeous and my desert rose is just starting to flower, it’s pretty too.

Luv Pa.

His nickname for me is Ralphie. None of us remember why. When I asked him if there was any info he particularly wanted me to include, he said “Just point out that my bonsai  skills are still in their infancy.” If these are his amateur bonsai, I’m fairly certain that his expert ones will make my eyes bleed with awe and incredulity. But anyway, here’s the bougainvillea; isn’t it a thing to behold?

The little thing in the corner of the pot is a little ceramic pagoda. I also feel a bit bad for cropping of Buddha’s head! Oops! Sorry, B-man!

This one is the desert rose. Isn’t it wonderful!? I wish I’d inherited Pa’s green thumb, but unfortunately I haven’t had tooooo much luck so far. Maybe I’ll have another attempt at gardening at our next house. But, I’ll leave the bonsai to him… that’d be biting off a bit more than I can chew, I think!

Pa has lots of other amazing hobbies that I’m sure I’ll share with you sooner or later. He also does decorative knot work (more in the maritime knot tradition rather than macrame, I think. It’s a bit different) which is kind of amazeballs. I have a rope mat that he made me, and some key chain charms. I love ’em!

Thanks for letting me brag about my Pa! I do adore him so. I’ll have some more knitting and crochet for you very soon! The last few posts have been all sorts of different things – I hope you liked ’em – but don’t worry, the yarn-iness will be back, I promise!

What interesting hobbies and talents are there within your family? It’s your turn to brag about your famz in the comments! Sharezies!

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Cheers, Big Ears

Gentle reader,

It has been very remiss of me for not posting sooner. I have taken on a casual office job on top of my yarn store job, and between those two and teaching, I’ll not have a single day off for two weeks! Eeep! I have many things on the go which I can’t wait to show you, but they had to go on the back burner while I finished off my Pa’s birthday present.

Some background… my immediate family has many in-jokes and sayings that make rather little sense to anyone else, and many of those are what you might say are call-and-response style things in so far as certain expressions require a certain reply. One of these is a farewell that Pa and I often use, usually at the close of a phone conversation. One of us will say “Cheers, Big Ears!” to which the somewhat… colorful… response is “F*$k you, Noddy!”. Apologies for the cussing! I have no idea where the expression came from – I suspect it’s an old pub toast perhaps – but it tickles us. We will often try to incite the other to say the Noddy half of the exchange in the most inappropriate of places (Pa has the trophy so far – he managed to get me to say it quite loudly in the university library during study week).

Noddy & Big Ears (Mr Pod in the background)

And so, in the spirit of Subversive Cross Stitch, I decided that this would be an excellent birthday present for my kooky father (and I will not lie, the ‘sequel’ for his Christmas gift is something I’m looking forward to!)

Poor Noddy...

Next up is Mothers’ Day, but I don’t think I will be making anything for that (I have a gift picked out already), so I will have plenty to show you soon. Until then, hug your folks if they’re there to be hugged!