Exploring at Kew garden

Yesterday I prepared what I would wear today, as I thought the weather would be good, so I matched short socks and blue shorts. having made my preparartions, the weather forecast said it would be wet and cloudy, so I decided not wear them, wearing long trousers instead.

The weather changed to warm sunshine around 12 noon, so I rolled up the trouser legs to my knees, making them look like shorts, and the fresh air was able to circulate around my legs to keep me cool. I hope the sight of my legs didn’t scare away too many visitors!

My English friends tell me this is typical English weather, changing all the time, but there were many people at Kew Gardens today, prepared for any weather conditions, as it is a very popular place for locals and tourists.

Our tutor took us to see the exhibition of “imagine yesterday ...today“ and asked us to write about the exhibition layout, answering questions such as “is it effective?”, ‘analyse images in terms of technical factors’, and “what is your favourite image and why?”. Then we looked at their photo works in the exhibition and entered into a discussion with my classmates and the tutor.

After spending one hour looking at the art work, we sat outside for a picnic, sharing our food. I made banana cakes and it was nice weather for a picnic. Our tutor said to me “your face smiled all time, I can see you are very happy!”, i said “yes, because of the lovely weather and sweet air everywhere here.”

After lunch, we began our discussion about the three questions. It was good to take part in the discussion group.

After the discussion it was time to start taking photographs, but, before beginning this, the tutor wrote ‘red, ‘yellow’, ‘blue’, ‘purple’ ‘black’, 'brown', 'white' and ‘pink’ on small pieces of paper which we could not see. Each of us then chose two pieces of paper and the colours chosen were those for our individual assignment, based on the colours to be found in the gardens.

The two colours I chose were black and red, but because black would be difficult to find amongst the flowers, I chose another piece of paper which gave me purple. I was able to photograph different flowers displaying those colours, and whilst doing so I learnt the names of flowers I had not seen before, so it was very enjoyable.

We got back together at 3:15pm, and had a nice discussion about my photo shoot trying to capture the colours I was assigned; it was good. The tutor had to leave at 3:30pm, so I spent more time exploring around the garden, because I loved the weather today and the surroundings looked perfect.

I knew a nice new bridge had just opened there, and I walked to find it. It is called ‘The Sackler Crossing’, opened as recently 17 May 2006, so a very new bridge, just a few weeks old. The smooth, curved shape makes it interesting, and the construction and use of timber makes it look very smart.

I was at Kew Gardens from 10 to 7pm, so a very busy and enjoyable day.

© Sheng-Kai Chou 2006