Catching The Rain

What did Siebold ever do for us?

Well, according to the FT Magazine article, Defining Moment - Japanese knotweed invades Britain, he was the person responsible for introducing Japanese knotweed to the British Isles, way back on 9 August 1850.

Mind you, he also got up to some fairly dodgy dealings in its native Japan. Perhaps as some sort of atonement he then gave them the piano, but I think he was dead before the magnitude of introducing one of Britain’s most pernicious weeds was realised.

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More baobab press coverage

It’s nice to see the baobab story getting so much coverage, and even nicer to see that the editorial and factual quality of the articles, such as the new one on the BBC site (First taste of a magical fruit) is improving in leaps and bounds!

It reminds me of a book I was asked to proof for botanical accuracy, Miriam Moss’s enchanting children’s title This is the Tree.

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Youngs “Kew Gold”

What could possibly be described using the following:
- retro touch
- aroma of wet corn
- some fruit and hint of cardboard
- proper nettley green hop aroma
- Mellow wine gum citrus
- buttery dunked Malted Milk
- a hint of sting
- Some cereal on the nose
- a deep, irn-bruey gold
- biscuit malts, citrus and yeast
- resinous lemon towards the finish

Well, it could only be Youngs Kew Gold, the new beer to replace the much missed Kew Brew.

I had my first bottle of it in the Coach & Horses on Kew Green last week, and I must say it was quite pleasant drinking - certainly a good beer for a warm summers’ evening (which unfortunately it wasn’t at the time!).

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Tags: kew

Shock report from the BBC: New exotic fruit to hit UK shops

The BBC is reporting that a New exotic fruit [is] to hit UK shops. New? What’s new about the baobab? Africa’s ‘upside down tree’. Well it’s certainly not a new species. It’s certainly not a new use. What appears to define this as ‘new’ is that the EU has just approved it.

What a sad world it is that something that has been used in it’s native countries for centuries can only be sold when it has been approved by bureaucrats sitting in an office in Brussels (or wherever they are - I can only assume it’s not even Nairobi, let alone out in Kenya’s beautiful countryside where these majestic trees can be found).

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Shedcam - building a new summerhouse

This week sees a week off work building a summerhouse to replace the old shed. It’s a small garden (c. 10m x 5.5m) so the aim is to make it all rather more courtyard-like, with a small circular lawn in the middle.

To capture the ‘before, during, and after’ (and to prove to my wife that I’m busy!) I set up a webcam. Here’s the latest image (live c. 9am - 9pm):

I’ve been putting daily timelapse videos on Flickr. Here’s the latest:

You can see all previous days, plus some screen captures of the mock-up I did on Google Sketch-up - Shedcam - timelapse videos and static images on Flickr

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Kew’s new treetop walkway

It’s no huge secret that taking pictures and writing about plants is just a hobby, but it’s all linked to my ‘real’ job, managing the website for Kew - www.kew.org.

We’ve had a very busy period lately (which maybe explains why this blog has languished!), but this has culminated in the launch of the Rhizotron & Xstrata Treetop Walkway website. It’s a really rich resource for anyone who loves their trees, and indeed anyone who simply wants to learn about trees.

My favourite bits?

Trees@Kew - an interactive map showing just over 100 of the best or simply most interesting trees at Kew, with links through to full profiles on each. There’s also a great little tree identification guide letting you choose bark, leaf, fruit and overall profile characteristics, and it will tell you which of the profiled trees match.

Trees of the World - again an interactive map, but this time linking through to tree stories about Kew’s research around the world. Just a few sample stories in there for now, but with plans to add to this regularly.

Learn about Trees - lots of resources, and more to come, but for kids (of all ages!) there’s a Tree Teasers quiz to test your tree knowledge

Another highlight is that everyone else gets a chance to contribute. You can add notes about trees, comment on the blog posts, and through Flickr share photos of the trees in People’s Arboretum - these will be displayed on the website adding to the depth and breadth of content.

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