The Gorgon Saint

It's time to present another bonsai tree from my collection. So far you've seen over half of my collection, and we're starting to look at more of my "project" trees that do not yet have a distinctive character yet. In this post you'll see how much a single tree can change in character over the course of a single season. The most recent photos are at the top. Scroll down to the bottom, and you'll see what this tree looked like in early March just as it was breaking out of dormancy from winter.

Mid September 2017

ID: 0014
Nickname: Medusa
Type: Curly Willow
Age: 4 years
Grown: cutting
Last repotting: 2016?
Wired: never

Late spring 2017. April I think.

Today, I am celebrating attaining 101 subscribers! Everyone has been very appreciative of my photos I've shared of my individual bonsai trees, and today I'm showing what the beautiful collection looks like when I step back and take a look at the bigger picture.

Just like steem, my collection sometimes grows every day.

Last year somebody was doing some major yard work, and accidentally left a bunch of hydrangea flowers they pruned off in the road. I see stuff like that, and say "I want a hydrangea, and they are throwing half of theirs away!" So I picked two of the better looking pieces up, stuck them in some soil, and they are now part of my growing collection.

This is actually a different tree. Remember Elphaba from the last bonsai post I made? Yeah she looks pretty scary in the winter when the leaves are gone. You can even see the remnants of an old sweet pea that I planted in the soil, because I wanted to try growing a flower that would vine around a bonsai. (Technically, this is a big no-no in the bonsai world, but I really liked the results in the summer, and it did not harm the tree at all.)

Since I did not want to apply wires to this tree, and it had long whip-like branches that grew out, I used a technique to bend the branches down by simply circling them down and tying the ends to the tree. Eventually the tree adapts to the new shape when new growth forms to thicken the branches up. The knots don't last all year, but it holds the branches down long enough for it to develop into the new shape. Very effective for making branches arc out from the trunk, and to force long upward bundled branches to spread. I used this same strategy on some of Medusa's branches too.

This close-up is what the early shoots look like when the tree first comes out of dormancy. They look like my favorite candy, red licorice.

That piece of park in my tree is being used to train the two branches to separate out a little better. This has really helped the tree express outward in a more natural looking Y-shape. Sometimes if the branches form too close to each other they will meld together like Siamese twins. More often branches closely adjacent will compete, and send growth to shade out or block the other one from growing well.

Another benefit to using something natural like a piece of bark as a spacer, is that it is slightly soft and flexible, whereas metal wire or a metal spacer would dig into the wood as the tree grows thicker. Bark also allows insects to nest inside, and birds can fly over for a little snack and keep my tree free of bad bugs. Bird droppings make good fertilizer too.

March 2017

This is what Medusa looked like right after the winter season started to lift. Right now she has only a few snakes on her head, and they look like they've been turned to stone. She has definitely come a long way this past summer. Scroll back up to the top and look at how many more "snakes" she has.

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Rambling Rant: Am I the only one who ever wondered why Medusa always gets the short end of the stick in every Greek myth about her? The legend as I recall stated that she was so beautiful that she made even Aphrodite jealous, which is why she was cursed. So they turned her hair into snakes, made her into a monster, and changed the rules so that anyone who wasted their time looking at her would be turned to stone and die. That's pretty cruel for having done nothing wrong!

Realizing her unintentionally dangerous nature to the world, and seeking to harm no living person, she decides to live alone in a forgotten part of the world that few people are likely to accidentally find her and die. That takes an enormous amount of self-realization, sacrifice, and will-power to pull that off as an immortal being worthy of worship and respect. Despite her heroism, she is brutally murdered by Perseus. He chops off her head with a sword and takes it as a souvenir. If my memory serves me correctly he leaves her corpse to rot without even giving her a proper funeral or even saying a few nice words about her.

The worst part of the story is that when Perseus chops off her head, the magical horse Pegasus jumps out. (Some stories claim Pegasus came from Zeus who had his head cut open because he had a headache, and out popped Athena and Pegasus, but that account is about as believable as Mickey Mouse being born from Godzilla's sneeze.) Don't get me wrong: everyone has probably fantasized about how cool it would be to ride a flying horse. If somebody told me all you had to do was kill a monster, and you'll get to ride the flying horse, then I'd be first in line sharpening my sword. Poor, poor Medusa. The gods could have just let her die in peace, but nope, they had to make the whole world celebrate by turning her death into the most fantastic Disney theme park ride attraction the world has ever dreamed of. What happens when you kill Pegasus? Every cries at once, that's what happens. Not fair at all.

Oh yeah, her blood also turns into elephant sized monster scorpions.

The truth is Medusa is like the Jesus Christ of women. She was 100% innocent and needs not apologize for anything she ever did. It was the people who were jealous, hateful, and murderous who turned her into into a villain.

I think I've proven my case.

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Bonus photo:

Can anyone help me to identify this antique logo? I purchased these shears at a thrift store for about $8. The emblem looks like a medieval blacksmith swinging a hammer. Nothing I search for on google seems to match.

Please post a comment if you recognize this tool brand.

I thought this looked like an interesting, and possibly rare antique, and it turns out these shears are super sharp, light weight, and strong too. They shred to bushes easily.