As if a visit to Oxford, “city of dreaming spires”, isn’t reward enough, a day spent at the University of Oxford’s Botanic Garden (OBGHA) is an absolute delight.

Oxford, “city of dreaming spires”.

Botanic gardens have an important role to play in plant conservation, with research, development, seed banks and education, contributing to preserving plant diversity. About 100,000 plants, more than a third of the world’s plant species, are facing extinction in the wild and Botanic Gardens worldwide have an important role to play in their preservation.

The role of Botanic Gardens in Plant Conservation.

So it is an added bonus when they are aesthetically pleasing as well.

Solanum crispum ‘Glasnevin’ at the Botanic Garden, Oxford.

At Oxford, the Gardens are divided into the Lower Garden and the Walled Garden as well as seven glasshouses packed with treasures – 1200 different species from around the globe.

Exploring the glasshouses, Oxford

Inside…

Over the last nine months I have done many things that makes the answer to the question ‘how was work today?’ sound very interesting. I have fork-lifted a mammoth tusk. I have frozen an Anglo Saxon manikin. I have cleaned a Bishop’s Throne and written a trail about dragons.

The weird and wonderful has become the everyday so perhaps I should spell out what I do here over in the Norfolk Collections Centre and why I think it is important. My job title is Collections Management trainee, and although you may think that it’s not hard to manage a load of inanimate objects, it is harder than it sounds.

The weird and wonderful normally appears at the beginning of the week when reaching up and lifting down some of the mystery pallets off the racking. In fact that is the most exciting time, when we are about to look at…

On a cold drizzle-evening recently, I settled down with a glass of wine and my laptop.  The hard drive was groaning with 45 000 (!) digital photos and it was time to make some space.  After deleting a couple of hundred and drifting off to the fridge for a re-fill, I grew distracted by re-discovering half-forgotten photographs, squirreled away in deep, dusty folders and dank, cobwebby files.  For example, I found one batch taken on a weekend break to Norfolk with my partner Jim and our son in August 2013.  I reproduce some of those here in the hope that they provide a little wistful sun and cheer during a rainy, drab month.

oooOOOooo

When a member of Jim’s family kindly offered us the use of her holiday home in north Norfolk we immediately, excitedly, breathlessly replied, ‘Yes, yes, yes!’

The house was an unremarkable bungalow until it was redesigned…

It’s 2015, already, and we’re well on our way towards the tercentenary festival year for Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown of 2016. All the chatter about doing something to celebrate Brown’s 300th Birthday has grown, thankfully from a small group of industry professionals to a significant Funding bid, related activity, and a host of Brownian landscapes and people keen to be involved.

A thirst for knowledge is being triggered as we move closer to 2016, engaging people and creating new research opportunities. Who knows what information will surface as we move forward. Furthermore, new people will be drawn towards landscape who may previously not have. Filling real landscapes with real people for walking, rolling, rowing, artistic endeavours and a range of sporting activities will breath new life into these gardens.

So why the criticism? Why do some folk feel the need to sneer at the efforts people are making towards 2016? There…