For your odes to nature: Kew Gardens

 

All creative writers are inspired by nature, so I wanted to take my students to a place of natural beauty, which led me to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. Certainly there are a lot of parks in London which can be accessed for free. Hyde Park for instance was very close to where we held classes. In late winter/early spring, there are in fact a number of blossoms in bloom. The temperature doesn't get to freezing much, and the cherry blossom, camelias and daffodils were all out before the semester was half over, followed by the tulips. However, the parks were still a little short of their full beauty, so despite the fact that there was a cost, I was glad we went to Kew Gardens.

The Gardens are in the neighborhood of Kew, a very posh area even further west than Ealing, so if you go just know that you'll be in Zone 3, so you may have to pay for the tube and bus, depending on what they give you in terms of an Oyster card. The advantage of doing a botanical gardens as opposed to a park is that there are always fantastic natural displays even before April. I think paying also encouraged the students to slow down and take everything in, rather than just running through and out. Also, I actually strolled through the Gardens with one of the students, and we had some great conversations. Nothing requires reading or extra listening, so it turned out to be a great opportunity to get to know a student...if you are into that sort of thing. There are also a couple of great-looking cafes and one of the best gift shops ever.

In addition to some lovely orchids, these bird of paradise flowers were among the exotic flowers you could view. A great prompt would be to choose one of these flowers and use it as a metaphor for some abstract concept, like happiness.

A Canadian couple pointed this out to Ashley and me when we were walking. It's a camelia that is half white and half pink!

Like all gardens, the Kew will change throughout the season. As pretty as it was, I don't think we came at the perfect time. For instance, this was lovely, but when these rose bushes bloom the view will be superior. There was also the "Cherry Walk," featuring 30 cherry trees and a bed of multicolor tulips...unfortunately none of that was in bloom (but it was just on the edge...a week later maybe!)

Inside one of the greenhouses...no we did not go up the spiral staircase.

Another beautiful greenhouse tree...it was steamy in there.

This was very cool...it was called "The Hive" and it is a huge sculpture that you can walk inside. It resembles a beehive, and the wind blowing through it produces the sound of buzzing bees.

Another advantage a place like this has over a park: this art installation in the Gallery of Botanical Art turns from black and white to multicolored as you walk around it. Not to be missed if you go to Kew is the Marianne North Gallery, which features over 800 paintings of flora and fauna from all over the world. It is pretty stunning, and I would consider offering that up to Encounters for extra credit.

The pagoda wasn't open when we went, but you can actually go up into the pagoda and view the gardens from the top, which is probably pretty spectacular. There is also a "Treetop Walkway," which is basically a wood path high in the trees similar to the Ewok village on Endor. It's awfully high, and we passed on it for the time being, but when the trees have leaves, it's probably really cool.

Note to teachers: It's probably a good idea to be specific with prompts, though you could certainly just say "write a poem devoted to nature inspired by what you observed." I like the idea of having students choose a flower they aren't familiar with, describe it, then look it up and incorporate the description along with what you learned online into a poem devoted to nature or the environment. Since the place is large and therefore not crowded, I would also consider assigning students to write a poem on the spot. Find a place that you found especially peaceful or beautiful or inspiring, and write about what you see and feel in haiku form.