Category: University of Bristol

Light in the darks days of winter

Posted on by andy.winfield

By Andy Winfield

A Robin sitting on a branch and looking back.

So, December has arrived, the two darkest months of the year are upon us; it’s normal for this time of year to get us down. On midwinter’s day there is just 7 hours and 49 minutes of daylight, almost exactly half the amount of light on midsummers day.  In the Garden and green spaces, it may seem that everything is in stasis, just sitting and waiting for four months until light levels are productive enough for leaves, but there is a lot going on in the ground and within those bare branches. (more…)

Tipping Point; the fire in the garden.

Posted on by andy.winfield

Three silhouettes in front of a firey scene with a reflection in a pool. By Andy Winfield

 

Fire has become a terrifying normality for many people around the world; a natural inclination for us here in the UK is to watch from afar and be thankful it isn’t happening to us. We all do it, look at the hurricanes, tornados, and fires with a furrowing of our brows and concern but deep down the safety for ourselves is at our core. In Tipping Point, an installation by Luke Jerram in early October this year, visitors were plunged into the reality of communities abroad by creating a simulation of a forest fire right here in the Botanic Garden.

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Birds of the Botanic Garden

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Long tailed tit taking off from a branch; its wings are open and its looking directly at the camera.
Long tailed tit.

By Andy Winfield

As long as there have been gardens there have been birds in gardens; as gardeners we’re continuing the long relationship that will ever end. There may be some ups and downs, pigeons pecking seedlings or fruit bushes stripped; but on the whole gardeners and garden birds have a bond that goes deep. Here’s how I see some of the birds that visit the Botanic Garden. (more…)

Our Green Planet

Posted on by andy.winfield

A copse of verdant tree ferns around an old log.

By Andy Winfield

I may be biased, but plants are amazing! They tell us all we need to know, they feed us and can make us feel better in the mind and body, they can clothe us, make us warm and cool us down; they were here a long time before us and they’ll no doubt be here a long time after us. Plants are everywhere with thousands of stories to tell, the planet’s true survivors adapting to everything thrown at them; we could live to be three hundred years old and still discover new and bewildering ways that plants have found to exist. They are the dominant life form on earth making up 83% of all biomass; without them we are nothing, they literally give us the air that we breathe. (more…)