Cambridge University Botanic Garden

to tame a goshawk

105 A while back, I read ”H is for Hawk” by Helen Macdonald. It is a memoir of her grief following the unexpected death of her father. How she started training a goshawk and it almost made her lose herself, into the bird, the grief – but then, also, guided her out of it. ItContinue reading “to tame a goshawk”

Cambridge (ii)

86 Compared to other botanic gardens I’ve been to in the UK, the Cambridge University Botanic Garden is not large. But it has everything you need in a botanic garden, with that typical British eye for lush detail and secret nooks. And they even had a grass garden. Flower beds full of different kinds ofContinue reading “Cambridge (ii)”

words of botany (i & ii)

33 & 34 I’ve been trying to figure it out. Where this interest comes from. My obsession with botanic gardens. I’d like to say there’s something profound about it – but maybe it’s just a type of collection. I come from a family of collectors, list-makers and chroniclers. I tick gardens off my list andContinue reading “words of botany (i & ii)”

Cambridge (i)

32 It’s midsummer’s eve 2013 and I’m sitting in a little hidden corner of the limestone garden in the Cambridge University Botanic Garden, a bench with a seat shaped like a half circle, sheltered by high rock walls covered in purple flowers on three sides. The bees seem to love the purple flowers, because theContinue reading “Cambridge (i)”