ITP 2011 Diary: Aya Kirresh
27th of June, Monday: Kew, Royal Botanic Gardens
Status: “cold, hot, humid, tropical” Day
Today was the most moody in weather status…. due to the different atmospheres we visited at the botanic gardens. We first went to the Herbarium where we saw the oldest collection of hundreds of years old of dried samples of plant and then we leant the technique of how to collect and dry different samples of plant species for future study. Later on we had a tea break that was lovely.
Tea break
Afterwords we went to the coldest zones of the gardens that is the “Economic Botany Collection” where we saw different items from old rubber and different herbs and samples of useful plants that are stored at low degrees of 14 C to prevent any pest infestations. Later we had a little walk in the gardens and we had a Great Picnic with Claire, Neal, Shezza and our tour guides from the gardens. We had a spectacular time near the pond with the ducks and the different types of birds, the chats and talks with everyone and the laughs.
Economic Botany Collection
After that we went to the Lower Nursery, a green house, where it was very hot in some areas or very humid…or tropical; a very nice experience of different atmospheres at the same place. Finally we all jumped to the coach and left the Royal Botanic gardens, having memories that will stay with us forever of good friends and a Wonderful Day.
Thank you for all the staff that was there to guide us through the day. And thanks to all the participants = The Friends, for the great memories.
Aya Kirresh, Birzeit University, Palestine