I work in construction, mainly property refurb/renovation these days, I’m a plasterer/tiler. It’s not as interesting or exciting as others here but it pays the bills.
It gives me access to lots of abandoned or empty properties and their overgrown gardens and unloved trees/plants. I also have permission to dig up what I like in my own time as the gardens are cut down and gutted prior to the properties being re-let so I have that perk. 
Well Geordie. I’m a plasterer by trade too. I’m glad I don’t have to do it now though. Neck wrist shoulder and knees hate it. 
Yes I get you Nick, it really takes a toll on the body. I think breathing in all the dust for years has done the worst damage I can really feel it when I’m out hiking how quickly I struggle to breathe.
It looks like you’re living the life now though, fantastic that’s what it should be about!
I think such an awful, noisy, dirty and hard working environment really helps to appreciate being out with and touching/working with for our trees and gardens. I’m hoping to sell up and move to somewhere in or around Keswick when the kids are gone and we retire, breathe fresh air and expand my tree collection and knowledge, that’s the plan.
Do you get some good material this way?
I’m the Technology Officer for the payment institution of a global online marketplace. I live in the north east of France, having relocated from Germany 3 years ago, and cross two borders on the way to work every morning.
Woodworking, bonsai, and renovating the house are a few of the things keeping me sane
I get some good material to practice on and experiment with. I’ve had for example azaleas, hawthorn, ash and what I think is a type juniper but I’m not sure amongst others. If I had the money for quality yamadori I would buy them, but at this stage in life with kids and a mortgage I have to make the best of what I can get.
This is the last one I got, cleaned up and repotted. It wasn’t in great shape and was very neglected but seems very happy now.
Until I learn more about the horticultural side, so I’m more confident in my abilities to keep trees alive, and am in the learning/experimental phase, I only use self-collected yamadori, urbandori. and nursery sale trees.
Hello everybody,
I studied jazz drumming. I play in various bands and teach music at school.
Here you can watch me in action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAqo3Q2Wje4
Max
I’m a certified arborist in Portlandia. Basicly a professional monkey
Yeah, Kendall once started something like this thread but it didn’t take off. I am glad this one did. I am a professor specializing in computational biophysics and bioinformatics at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Montreal in the Department of Pharmacology. I teach but my main activity is as a researcher. I have 7 students (PhD and MSc candidates) under my supervision, specializing mostly in the development of methods for drug design and to understand protein structure and function. l am a physicist by training but have always been at the interface between biology and computing. Before university, while still in high school (I grew up in Brazil), I was already working from around age 15 in a lab doing genetic engineering experiments.
I am one of the very few that didn’t care about the bonsai on Karate Kid when I saw the film as a teenager. I first got interested in Bonsai while doing my postdoc in Cambridge, UK where I would roam the used books store Saturday mornings and stumbled upon a bonsai book (101 essential tips by Harry Tomlinson) and it caught my attention through my attraction for the unusual. I told myself one day when I’d know where I would end up in the world (if your goal is to become an academic you never know when or where you’ll settle). Fast forward 14 years and here I am with bonsai consuming most of my free time.
Im a local truck driver in los angeles. I drive into the port of long beach and get container that come from all around the world and deliver them around my area. Bonsai has become the thing in my life that keeps me sane after driving in traffic all day long. I love to come home and work on my trees to release the tension of the craziness that is los angeles.
Jesus, I wish I had a job 1/8th as interesting as most of these. I work technical support for a vacation rental company and I would do almost anything else 9-5 for a little more money. I’m starting to understand why my little trees are scraping the bottom of the barrel lol.
I’m a big data engineer for a tech company in the UK. The work is interesting enough, but the main perk is that I am 100% remote - I work from home full time. So always around to water, and generally enjoy my trees. So you could say I’m a full time bonsai enthusiast and part time software engineer
Police detective, currently assigned to homicide unit. It’s never as interesting as TV, but there’s probably worse jobs out there.
I work offshore in the Gulf of Mexico on a deep water platform as an Instrument and Automation technician. I live in Northwest Louisiana.
Hello all! Always fun to see what everybody does.
I work in the movie industry in the Los Angeles area as a computer visual effects artist specializing in compositing - sort of like heavy photoshop work, but on moving images. Here’s my demo reel of my work (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9fUHHMyBFk) I am also a photographer and time lapse cinematographer, and do woodworking with hand-tools on the side.
I’ve been into Bonsai for the last couple of years, and have been combining the woodworking and bonsai by making teak and redwood pots with hand cut dovetail joinery. These aren’t wood grow pots, they are finished display pots and my oldest ones have been holding up very well after over a year of daily watering.
I really like those pots. Really natural and compliment your trees wonderfully
Can you keep a tree out there?? I’m of course assuming you don’t go home every night.
Hello from Luxembourg!
I am a Research and Development specialist in Neurobiology, at the University of Luxembourg. I am specialized in Parkinson’s Disease and perform research with the final aim to get new medication that could help the patients.
I am a fan of Chick Corea 
I am an independent Professional, working as a consultant in digital and innovation strategy, and in the process of launch another business targeting personal development of Independent Professionals to change “the place to work” in large companies.
