Early Spring at Wakehurst Place (+video)

Man has had a close relationship with Nature throughout time. The passage from winter into spring has always been a special time. It is commemorated in spring festivals throughout the world. The first rays of spring sunshine and flowers bring smiles to faces even in dense cities. 

I was lucky to spend a bright sunny day at Wakehurst Place recently. Wakehurst Place is home to Kew's Millennium Seed Bank. Its conservation work and scientific research should help to ensure that Man's special connection to Nature continues for centuries to come. (The Vimeo video of my walk appears at the end of this blog).

A huge seed artwork greets you at the entrance to Wakehurst Place. Kew's Millennium Seed Bank is a world leader in plant conservation. It aims to bank 25% of the world's seeds by 2020. 

Displays inside the Millennium Seed Bank

I discovered some interesting videos, displays and figures about this important conservation work inside the building. As of 1st February 2017, the seed bank's staff have banked a total of:

• 2,200,964,170 seeds
• From 81,533 seed collections
• Representing 37,614 different species
• From 189 different countries

A Global Undertaking
Contractors were working on an extension to the vault space underneath the Millennium Seed Bank on the day of my visit. This extension will provide sufficient storage space for collections beyond 2020. There were students from Imperial College London and BSix College, as well as colleagues from Denmark, New Zealand, Belgium and Germany.

Staff and volunteers were working on cleaning seed collections from Azerbaijan during my visit. You could see into the labs through the glass viewing panes. The Millennium Seed Bank is truly an international effort.

Seeds come in all shapes, colours and sizes

Storage Process
I read a lot about how staff ensure optimum storage conditions for the seeds. Seeds are dried to reduce their moisture content and slow biological processes. The technique helps to avoid deterioration in storage at very low temperatures. Some seeds can last for hundreds of years if stored in this way. 

Staff have to be very careful when working in the vaults. They have to work quickly and wear protective suits. -20°C with a wind chill of around -27°C may be good for seed storage, but these are not good temperatures for human survival.

Staff wear protective suits inside the freezing seed vaults

Troublesome Seeds
The Seed Bank's research into how to store recalcitrant seeds is particularly interesting. Some species die if their moisture content drops below 40%. Coffee and avocado are two of the troublesome plants.

Recalcitrant Cocoa (left); a range of orthodox seeds (right)

The Great Green Wall
The Millennium Seed Bank is also sharing its expertise in seed collecting and the best propagation techniques with the world. The Great Green Wall initiatives in the Sahel and Sahara are helping to stabilise grass and tree roots to combat desertification. There are also pilot projects in other parts of Africa. The ambitious plan is to create a great green wall of plants and trees spreading across 13 countries.

Pressed Flowers

Pressed poppies on display

Seeing some pressed poppies brought back memories for me. If I had not taken up languages, life as a botanist would probably have been my alternative career choice. I often pressed flowers between the pages of my heaviest books and hid them under my bed as a child. A botanical version of Gerald Durrell perhaps?

My interest probably started with making daisy chains on my grandmother's lawn. My fascination with plants really took off after a cliff-walking holiday in Guernsey. The wild flowers were glorious there. 

My parents bought me a Collins Guide to Wild Flowers. I identified an amazing range of common and rare species in the local woods, hills and fields. I was lucky to live in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Somerset. I never did discover the rare Cheddar Pink (Dianthus gratianopolitanus). It only grows on the limestone rocks in a few places in the Mendip Hills and Cheddar Gorge.

Woodland Walk
After my tour of the Millennium Seed Bank's displays and different plant beds outside, I set off on a walk around Wakehurst Place's grounds. I followed a trail through Bethlehem Wood with some amazing exposed tree roots.

Walk through Bethlehem Wood

I discovered some black sheep in a field by Horsebridge Wood. I continued onward past some huge 'mushrooms' among Californian Redwoods until I was greeted at Westwood Lake by some noisy ducks.

Hillside full of spring crocuses

My favourite section of the walk was near the pond. You see the brightly-coloured winter stems of dogwoods and box leading to a hillside carpet of snowdrops and crocuses. It was a very tranquil spot with the sound of the running stream and occasional bird song.

I discovered a verse of New England poetry at the top of the hill:

Give fools their gold, and knaves their power;
Let fortune's bubbles rise and fall;
Who sows a field, or trains a flower,
Or plants a tree, is more than all.

From A Song of Harvest 

by John Greenleaf Whittier

The perfect verse for a wonderful spring day. A very fitting poem for Wakehurst Place as it takes great pains to ensure that the world's seeds will be passed on to future generations. 

Below you will find a Vimeo video of my walk through Wakehurst Place:


Spring 2017 Visit to Wakehurst Place from Karen Andrews on Vimeo.

Karen Andrews is a freelance French to English translator, transcreator, content writer and editor. She has a strong background in global marketing.

Email Karen for further information via karenanglicityen@gmail.com in French, German or English.

Salt of the Earth

Salt of the Earth is a documentary on the life and work of Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado. German film-maker Wim Wenders co-directed it with Salgado's son Juliano. I saw it at the French Institute's Ciné Lumière in London.

The Salt of the Earth title refers to humanity. During an award-winning career, Salgada has recorded some of the world's major events with his camera. The film shows many of his still photographs in black and white. The images are both stark and powerful.

Brazilian gold mine

The documentary opens with a blank screen. Then, you see yourself looking down over a large, open-cast gold mine in Brazil. The miners resemble ants. It looks like Hell on Earth - yet that experience is saved for later in the film. The miners at least had the hope a rich seam of gold, as they carried their sacks of mud up ladders in a fast, steep climb.

Infant mortality

One of the most touching early scenes was set in North East Brazil. Infant mortality rates are high. Death is part of everyday life. Coffins-to-rent are lined up against the wall alongside fruit and vegetables for the living. If a child dies unbaptised its eyes are left open. They hope that it will still find the way from Limbo to Heaven.

Arctic

Juliano speaks of his father as a sort of superhero, who came and went on his photographic adventures throughout much of his childhood. He relished the chance to accompany his father. Together they go to the Arctic to photograph walruses and polar bears. Here, we also see some of the boredom and frustration at having to wait around for the desired shot and composition - never mind the discomfort of having to roll over hard pebbles to ultimately get close enough unseen.

Kuwait

Salgado captures the human spirit battling against seemingly impossible odds. In Kuwait, we see the burning oil wells in 1991. He captures the spirit of Canadian fireman still polishing up their fire engine at the end of a long, exhausting day - even though they know it will be covered with oil and dirt again in the morning. He shows the Kuwaiti royal family's thoroughbred horses driven mad by being left behind, trapped.

Africa

We see famine in Africa. A father carries his son only for him to die as they reach the doctor. Salgado shows others who survive, but whose lives and health will still be blighted by the experience. 

Rwanda

The most powerful shots are of the Rwandan refugees fleeing genocide. Salgado captures many traumatised souls in his lens on their trek between Rwanda and DRC. 210,000 did not make it. Those that did were sent back. He speaks of having to lay down his camera at times in tears. Some pictures are unbearable. He saw the real scenes in motion with his own eyes. He says:

"We [...] didn't deserve to live; no-one deserved to live. When I left there I no longer believed in anything".

Rebirth in Brazil

After the Hell on Earth that was Rwanda, Salgado said he felt sick without being physically sick. It was his wife Léila who raised the family morale. They replanted trees on the barren slopes of the once green family farm. She started something that others copied. The forest and its animals returned.

Together the Salgados created the Instituto Terra. Today, it serves as a testament to the power of the human spirit and nature to recover. 

Karen Andrews runs Anglicity Ltd. She is an entrepreneurial French to English translator, editor, content writer and marketing consultant. 
Contact karen@anglicity.com for further information on Anglicity's services.

"Don't even give them cake" (Calais 2015)

Migrants in Calais are so desperate to come to the UK that they are risking life and limb. Britain's answer? Barbed wire. Bash the French. Send in the dogs and the army. Deny them benefits perhaps? Let them starve? Mustn't encourage others...

Whatever next? Let them eat cake? This is supposed to be the civilised 21st century Britain.

They keep coming because Britain has a great reputation. The trouble with reputations - both good and bad - is that they can endure beyond real events.

These are not invaders. This is not 1066 and the Norman invasion. This is not the Spanish Armada with the Inquisition. The "invaders" are not Nazis.

Barbed wire and starvation won't stop migrants from coming. British foodbanks are bad enough. I do not wish my country to try and starve people out. I do not wish my country to turn a blind eye to adults, children or babies drowning in the Mediterranean.

Island mentality

Britain has such an island mentality. We are justly proud that we managed to maintain our independence despite the odds over centuries. We should be more sensitive to the fact that our European neighbours' countries were more easily turned into war zones.

One of the advantages of having European friends is that they can tell us when we are getting it wrong. The Germans may tell the Greeks that they have been spendthrifts. The Greeks may tell the Germans that they are being too austere. The British and French keep to verbal fisticuffs these days.

Eurotunnel

In March, I saw for myself the measures that Eurotunnel had taken to expand the compound, so that fewer lorries were exposed in the open. I heard about their thorough lorry checks. Frustration was rife over the same migrants returning day after day. French police were powerless. They had to keep putting the migrants back on the other side of the fence - a short distance away from where they were found.

I heard about the fights breaking out with lorry drivers, fearful of UK fines and damaged cargoes. There was exasperation that inadequate staffing levels in British passport control at Calais meant lorries had to queue on the motorway, making them sitting ducks for migrants. The Calais residents, drivers and Eurotunnel were afraid that migrants would be knocked down and killed on the dark road late at night.

My visit took place on 25th March 2015. The problem has been around even longer than that. It has just been ignored. A Guardian article describes a problem back in September 2001.

Scare them?

I saw a picture of a child passed over a barbed wire fence in the news. I remembered reading bedtime stories to my children at similar ages. Michael Rosen's "We're going on a Bear Hunt" came to mind. A father and family go out in search of a bear. They travel through all sorts of terrain and get scared by the bear in a cave and rush home. For these migrants the scary bear is at home. Even if Mr Cameron stands at the mouth of the tunnel and pretends to make himself as scary a bear as possible with the army for back-up, it won't be scare these migrants to go back home.

Increased cruelty may scare the ordinary British people more, already robbed of old social safety nets. Yet strangely greedy bankers still manage to stay out of prison.

The crisis in Calais is costing Britain money. If money is your priority, it is not working.

Reaction and overreaction

A little while ago I did a pro bono translation for the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) in Paris. I translated the annual report section on migrants. After the translation, I deleted "proud Brit, Francophile and Europhile" from my profile. It was a reaction. An overreaction. I just didn't feel so proud of my country or Europe after that translation. I translated the failure to accept accountability for migrants drowning in the Mediterranean. I translated legal avoidance tactics.

These migrants are desperate people. Some are fleeing torture, death, famine, etc.

And what if some of these desperate people prove to be economic migrants?

Opportunity in Family History

What is so wrong with wanting a better life for yourself and your family? My parents wanted a better life for me. They wanted me to have an education and greater opportunities than they had. I do not agree with all Margaret Thatcher's politics. I do appreciate that I got the opportunity to go to university because of the social mobility she fostered. Today, we are going backwards.

To the best of my knowledge my genealogy is completely British. My children however, are of Anglo-Indian descent on their father's side. Although our marriage did not last, I can still appreciate that his family came to Britain to give their children (and therefore my children too) better opportunities.

The family arrived on a ship at Marseille via the Mediterranean. The female line can be traced back to Poitiers in France during the French Revolution and to Tipperary in Ireland. They arrived in Britain in the bitterly cold winter of 1962-63. They were cheated out of the home they had pre-arranged (just as some migrants are being taken advantage of today). They ended up in a hostel and later in a one-bedroomed flat with 3 children under 5.

Life is not easy for immigrants in Britain. It is tough for the first generations to settle. They come for their children's education and opportunities. I remember watching a documentary on how hard immigrants found it to return to India after discovering that Britain is not the El Dorado that they had believed. They ended up sleeping under railway bridges or in sheds at the end of London gardens. Too proud to lose face and return home unsuccessful.

EU 2020 Initiative

I came to London from my native South West for greater job opportunities. Today the Internet can create jobs and improve educational access even in rural areas. The EU's 2020 initiative is providing improved broadband connections for Member States. Cornwall has benefited.  The EU now has satellite broadband available aimed at raising coverage to 100% in every Member State.

Estonia has made access to the Internet a human right. The digital divide creates more haves and have-nots. Without wifi access, it is difficult to compete economically or in education terms today. The gap may get wider. How about extending the 2020 initiative outside Europe?

Stop-gap solution or fix?

Conflict, famine and lack of opportunity are forcing migrants to leave their own lands. As a project manager, I know you can keep applying a stop-gap solution to a problem, but in the end it comes unravelled in a spectacular way. It is far better to deal with the problem at source.

The source of the problem is not at Calais - nor is it in the Mediterranean. People don't like charity. The majority don't sponge off the state. Put more effort into solving the world's conflicts, create education and business opportunities via the Internet wherever they are and they will help themselves. An unrealistic ideal? Africa has already shown it prefers to help itself.

Dedicated or crisis budget?

Ah, but it will cost money.... It's costing money now. Far better to have a dedicated budget than a crisis one. The solution has to be a long-term one. Better get started now. If we had started back in 2001, there wouldn't be such a problem today.

Maybe international aid should be seen as the repayment of a debt rather than a hand-out? Once Africans were snatched from their homeland into slavery. Today they come of their own free will and we won't let them in. What a cruel paradox. 

Guardian: Migrant life in Calais' jungle