treebeard55

Thanks for posting the story, and the pics. "Sublime" is not an inappropriate adjective for this tree.

Let me offer a few thoughts I haven't yet seen posted.

First, I wouldn't worry about the relative straightness of the trunk. When I saw the pics, I was immediately taken back to the form of many of the rainforest trees I saw as a boy living in Ecuador. The canopy trees had trunks with just about the same amount of movement. Blow your tree up to 60 feet tall, and put it in the middle of a recently-cleared pasture in the Amazon basin, and the foliage is the only thing that would not fit right in. (Thanks for the moment of nostalgia, too.)

Second, Susumu Nakamura once advised me, in a workshop, to keep a certain large branch that didn't fit the surface rules of bonsai. His reason: "to give the tree individuality." (And it did fit the oak-tree look I was going for.) I say keep that lowest branch.

And I agree: the foliage would benefit from thinning. The tree would look older, and also larger.

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Treebeard 55

"... the Lord God made all kinds of trees ... trees that were pleasing to the eye ..." (Genesis 2:9, NIV.)