Photo Blog: Eastcote House and Gardens

Eastcote House and Gardens in Hillingdon has undergone a major transformation since my last visit. Given the recent heavy winds and rains, the volunteers did an excellent job of putting on a such a tidy display of late summer colour and topiary.

Eastcote House Walled Garden looking towards the Dovecote

I savoured the garden from every angle, before making my way towards the wilder parts of the gardens towards Long Meadow and the River Pinn.

River Pinn

There are some magnificent old trees in Long Meadow. I paused under the magnificent, sunlit canopy of the old Oak Tree below.

 

I returned to the house where old cars were on display for the Open House London weekend.

Old car with Eastcote House in the background

One of the vintage cars in Eastcote Gardens

A quiet bench beckoned as I realised that I had missed the next 282 bus home.

 A chance to enjoy the last of the dappled September sunshine under the gardens' trees.

 Eastcote House and Gardens is open daily.

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.

Kew's Indian Orchid Festival Video

When Spring is only just beginning to appear to British gardens, Kew stages its colourful, annual Orchid Festival. The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew focused on Indian orchids and culture this year. 

The Princess of Wales Conservatory was a riot of colour during our Sunday afternoon visit. You can sample what we saw on the following video:

Photographers' Paradise
The conservatory was full of enthusiastic visitors - both young and old. I lost track of the number of different languages spoken around me as I wandered around the magnificent displays with my elder son. It seemed to be a photographers' paradise.  We saw amateurs snatching shots on their smartphones, as well as more advanced photographers with the best cameras and lenses available on the market. 

Kew's beautiful orchids provide plenty of photo opportunities

Education Role
Kew Gardens are not just brilliant at staging popular events like the annual Orchid Festival for the public. The Botanical Gardens also carry out valuable scientific research and have an important educational role. They teach schoolchildren about the natural world, as well as offering advanced training for expert botanists at the other end of the spectrum. It therefore came as no surprise that brightly-coloured signposts informed visitors about orchids and Indian culture.

One of Kew's brightly- coloured and informative signs

Rich Diversity
The above sign informed visitors about the rich diversity of Indian orchids. It explained that orchids are often divided into 3 main groups based on their habitat:

• terrestrial orchids grown in the ground and have underground roots
• lithophytic orchids grow on rocks
• epiphytic orchids grow attached to trees

An elderly visitor in the medicinal plant section

Deforestation Risk
Indian orchids are extremely vulnerable to deforestation as more than half of Indian orchid species grow on trees. Kew's scientists are currently working on a checklist of Indian orchids as part of the Flora of India project in cooperation with Indian botanists.

Medicinal Plants
Another sign informed visitors about medicinal plants. Up to 80% of Indians use some form of traditional medicine.  Some 79 species of orchid are used in this way.

Cultural Explanations
I was somewhat baffled when I saw a small-leaved, green plant apparently sitting on the best spot amid the elaborate, colourful displays. The puzzling choice only made sense once I spotted Kew's informative sign. 

Holy Basil or Tulsi is sacred plant to India's Hindus

Holy basil (Ocimum tenuiflorum) is a sacred plant to Hindus. They call it Tulsi, meaning 'the incomparable one'. The leaves are an essential part in the worship of Vishnu. Signs also highlighted the importance of other plants in Hinduism and Sikhism. 80% of the Indian population is Hindu. Flowers have deep meanings and are used to celebrate, worship and mourn. 

Flowers are not used in worship to the same extent in Sikhism. Kew's sign carries a powerful and relevant message in this age of climate change:

Life depends on nature, and an awareness of the sacred relationship between humans and the environment is necessary for the health of the planet and human survival.

It's a neat summary for the importance of Kew's plant conservation work. All the world's people share a deep connection to, and dependence on Nature.

Karen at Kew's Orchid Festival 2017

Karen Andrews is a freelance digital marketer, freelance French>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.

Painting Naturally

Dutch Flowers followed by My Back to Nature. Two National Gallery exhibitions in one day; two entirely different approaches. Both had Nature as the subject. Both inspired reflections on the ‘arts’ of translation and copywriting. A difference in artistic perspective?

Art v Text

If I were to pick up a paint brush, I wouldn’t choose to follow either exhibition’s style. Artists are lucky. No-one is likely to come along and decide that they have got that bit wrong and should redo it. (Unless you are my fellow Bristolian Banksy and positively invite it). 

An unfortunate drip of paint may be incorporated into a painting. The viewer simply assumes the ‘slip’ was part of the artist’s intention.

You can admire elements of someone else’s style or approach without feeling the need to intervene. Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case with translations and copywriting.

No-one would dare to smudge out a few bits of a painting, having just progressed beyond painting by numbers.

If you are a translator or copywriter, you may well be subjected to a reviser’s Michelangelo flourish in the middle of your Pop Art.

Claims of artistic licence and originality will not wash. The reviser will not see the creativity for the textual equivalent of a drip of paint.

The two exhibitions at the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London, UK:

Dutch Flowers

Exhibition runs until 29 August 2016

Free admission

George Shaw: My Back to Nature

Exhibition runs until 30 October 2016

Free admission