Thank you Bonsai Empire

Here is a look at the Kaikidan Ekotoba, a mysterious handscroll that profiles 33 legendary monsters and human oddities, mostly from the Kyushu region of Japan (with several from overseas). The cartoonish document, whose author is unknown, is believed to date from the mid-19th century. It is now in the possession of the Fukuoka City Museum.

White monster/Bird-dog hybrid [+]

The black creature on the right was born by a dog that mated with a bird in the city of Fukuoka in the early 1740s. Next to the bird-dog hybrid is an amorphous white monster — also encountered in Fukuoka — which is said to have measured about 180 centimeters (6 ft) across. People at the time believed this creature was a raccoon dog that had shape-shifted.

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Old woman at the temple [+]

This illustration depicts a ghostly old woman known to appear late…

L’astronauta di Salamanca ha fatto molto discutere ad inizio anni 90 poichè per molti poteva rappresentare l’anomalia per antonomasia in quanto si trattava della raffigurazione di un astronauta su una facciata di una cattedrale del XVII° secolo. Però come succede in molti casi a volte le spiegazioni sono molto più semplici di quanto si pensi, infatti è ormai appurato che questo bassorilievo sia un falso o per meglio dire sia un anacronismo causato da un equivoco come spiega il sito Ufologia.net

Antonio Tinelli, attivo collaboratore di Ufologia.Net, tornò dalla Spagna verso la metà del settembre 1998 con delle foto interessantissime. Le foto mostravano un rilievo scolpito nel portale della Catedral Nueva di Salamanca, che ritraeva nei minimi particolari un astronauta.
L’astronauta è scolpito su una facciata secondaria della cattedrale ed inserito in un bassorilievo verticale gotico. Tale strana raffigurazione è ben nota agli abitanti della città spagnola. Osservando nei particolari…

This tree has developed quite a bit in the last few years. The exposed roots have grown in size, and the development of the branches made our re-tweaking a bit more complete.

Konnor is a client who tosses a few trees in a car and drives across several state lines to spend a few days in my studio. I always look forward to his visits.

Enjoy our re-tweaking…!

This was the original front in 2006…

…and here’s the other side, also in 2006, beginning to toy with it as a new front.

This is in January 2015, before we did anything.

After branch-shortening pruning and needle thinning.

Konnor sporting a ‘Telperion Farms’ sweatshirt…

This pine was grown in a tub of pumice surrounding the akadama/pumice rootball for a couple of years, to give the tree a bit of ‘umph’.

With the branches nearly set…only a few at the apex left…