Glasgow Botanic Gardens – Katja Malmborg

Glasgow (iv)

131 As it happened, the Glasgow Botanic Gardens celebrated its 200th anniversary when I visited in 2017, and on the weekend that I was there the celebration meant hosting an orchid show in one of the greenhouses. Poor Natalia, the friend I was visiting in Glasgow. I never wanted to leave. With my camera, IContinue reading “Glasgow (iv)”

Glasgow (iii)

123 The arboretum in the Glasgow Botanic Gardens is in no way the largest or most species-rich arboretum that I’ve been to. Kew in London, for example, has one that is immense. But the location in Glasgow, along the River Kelvin. I don’t know, there is something with the slowly moving water that brings outContinue reading “Glasgow (iii)”

Glasgow (ii)

74 The Glasgow Botanic Garden is friendly, just like the city, and there’s an approachability. It has a familial feel. Even in the types of plants they grow. A section with ordinary garden vegetables. An unkempt corner of different wild roses. An entire wing in one of the gorgeous greenhouses dedicated to old fashioned pottedContinue reading “Glasgow (ii)”

home office

72 I engaged in some amateur carpentry this weekend. A cupboard had to be removed when I bought a new fridge in August. On Saturday, I finally got around to repurposing it. I sawed it in half, and put one of the halves on top of my desk. Covered the imperfections of my carpentry skillsContinue reading “home office”

Elin

47 I listened to another biography, while tending to the sprouting kale in my allotment garden. Elin Wägner (1882-1949), an early Swedish feminist, journalist and author, environmentalist, educator and outspoken pacifist during the world wars. She wrote about how our industries and our burgeoning consumption were degrading ecosystems, decades before it became a an issueContinue reading “Elin”

Glasgow (i)

18 Glasgow Botanic Gardens have ha familial feel to them. As if, first, it’s a place where Glaswegians come to spend time together, on the lawns or on the benches that are placed everywhere. Second, it’s a botanic garden. So when I say I LOVE IT, I mean it for different reasons than for Edinburgh,Continue reading “Glasgow (i)”

Covid activities (i)

6 I’m amplified. I submit a revised manuscript, a paper I’ve been working on for years, I feel like I’ve finally figured out how to untie the knot in its argument and the exhilaration when submitting it threatens to dissolve my cells into the little particles dancing in the light coming in through my dustyContinue reading “Covid activities (i)”

prologue

1 Living in this bubble, now. Self-(semi-)quarantine, shared with the rest of the world, but also my very own, PhD-stage-imposed. In the in-between space of finishing writing a paper and getting a new study started, my days are spent in a mental tennis match of ideas. Those of others, through the scientific papers I read,Continue reading “prologue”