I took the leaves off my little tree (magnolia, 12 years old) yesterday and had
a long look at the bare tree. It has more knots and woody spots than I
thought. It started to upset me, thinking I hadn't done a very good job, then
I realized "what does it matter?" It's my tree, with my vision, and it looks
good to me.

It has a main trunk, with nice roots if I may say so myself. The trunk branches
into two main branches, with one (the taller of the two) branching into two.
From those branches are smaller branches. The back is full and rounded and
I've made the front sort of flat.

It truly does look like a miniature tree. Not a bonsai following bonsai rules,
but a smaller version of a tree. I look at that tree and think that by now it
should tower over my head and the leaves should be four times the size and look
at it's present size and think "wow, I did it."

I like my tree, knots and all. My teenage son helped me with the leaves and
some light pruning. He asked how I kept it small was interested. I'm going to
teach him more so he can have the tree and the two to three others I'm going to
start on when I leave this earth.