Jul 30, 2023
Worldpackers
- #deltarune
#project hail mary- #the amazing digital circus
#batman#bruce wayne#dick grayson#batfamily#batfam#tim drake#dc fanart
- #coquette
- #heated rivalry
#iron lung- #photography
#batman#bruce wayne#dick grayson#batfamily#batfam#tim drake#dc fanart
seen from Canada
seen from United States
seen from Australia
seen from Singapore
seen from China
seen from Malaysia
seen from Türkiye
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Türkiye
seen from Canada
seen from United States
seen from Canada
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from Canada
seen from Türkiye
seen from Canada
seen from Peru
seen from China
Worldpackers
January 5 2020
In Christchurch, we stayed with a lovely family near the beach. We worked for them, four hours a day, in exchange for sharing all of their three meals with them and having a bedroom to stay in! Most of the help they needed was cleaning their deck and then pulling it up in order to put a new pool liner in. Though sometimes we’d garden which I love. It was really wonderful to be there, it was about a week. They were so kind and so helpful. They had an adorable 1 and a half year old that was very playful and expressive. Every morning we would wake and make oatmeal, then begin our work. Most days were sunny. We listened to podcasts and books and sometimes the 60s playlist I had been creating. It was really nice to have a routine. Often we’d drive into the city in the afternoon or near the beach. There were lots of little books to explore. Jonah and I love Indian food, and all along our New Zealand road trip we tried different Indian restaurants, and they were all so good. There was a really nice one near our host’s house that we could walk to. Often in the evening I’d do yoga in the living room in front of the huge sunny windows, and then journal and blog. It was such a release to have a solid place to reside of a week, after living in the van on the road so much. I was so productive, and felt so healthy. I feel like it was the ideal buffer between leaving New Zealand after almost three months and beginning our travels in Thailand. I’m so grateful that we landed a job with such an amazing and welcoming family. It was a very relaxed and light environment.
Student Spotlight: Toyotaka Mizuno, TRIAD Fellow
My name is Toyotaka Mizuno, but call me Taka! I’m a TRIAD fellow from Japan. The TRIAD fellowship is a study exchange program that lasts 1 year, during which I will study and work in 3 countries and spend 4 months in each of them. Those countries are U.S., U.K. and Japan. I just finished up my time here at Longwood Gardens on April 13 and graduated form the TRIAD program this week!
Before joining the TRIAD fellowship, I graduated from university and worked at my family nursery for 10 years.
What is your favorite plant?
My favorite plant is Rohdea japonica (pictured above). My family nursery has grown only this plant, Rohdea japonica, for 130 years. That is 4 generations of growing! There are over 1000 varieties. I even wrote a published book about the plant.
The book that I wrote about Rohdea japonica.
What is your favorite Garden?
I have two: Byodoin Hououdo 平等院鳳凰堂 in Kyoto, Japan and Bodnant Garden in Wales, UK. I also love the Kiseki no Hoshi Botanical museum in Awaji island, Japan. My favorite part at Longwood, though, is definitely the Main Fountain Garden.
Byodoin Hououdo
Bodnant Garden
What is the best part of being a student?
The best part about being a student is having the time to see and experience real Longwood propagation in the greenhouse. It has made me re-think my experiences growing Rohdea japonica from a new perspective.
What is your background in horticulture (or whatever field you are in)?
I graduated from the University of Kyoto, where I studied genetics about symbiosis between plants and fungi at a laboratory. After that, I worked at my family nursery to grow, sell, educate, and write articles about Rohdea japonica for 10 years. I wanted to join the Triad Fellowship and come to Longwood because of its significant designs and innovation.
What do you do at work? Highlight your favorite project or what you do day-to-day.
I roatetd to different departments, growing plants in the greenhouses and then delivering them to be used in Longwood’s displays. One of my favorite projects was helping to create the Hydrangea orbs that hung in the Acacia Passage this spring.
Making Hydrangea orbs with one of the volunteers.
What are your future plans or what is your intended career path?
I would like to spread the wonderfulness of Rohdea japonica and Japanese horticulture to the world. I also want to travel and would like to know the culture of America and the world as well.
A couple batches of some fermented vegetables in the making. Inside these jars are cucumbers, peas, carrots, dandelion greens, chard, onions, garlic, dill, sea salt and water. Everything was grown right here on the farm. Fermented foods have played a vital role in our survival throughout human history. Many of our ancestors fermented food this way as a means to preserve vegetables for eating during the cold seasons. Fermentation is a miracle, in the right conditions, it can preserve food for years. Flavor is one bonus to this method of storage, but another is the many health benefits and nutritional improvements that come along with it. Our bodies are ecosystems, we may think that these vessels are solely ours, but in truth they are inhabited by trillions of microorganisms, many of which we can't properly function without. From fending off harmful bacteria, to helping our bodies create essential vitamins and even aiding in the production of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Our symbiotic relationship with these invisible lifeforms plays a vital role in our existence, we owe it to ourselves and to them to continue the practice of naturally fermenting our foods, and to avoid chemicals and ingredients that disrupt and kill these delicate ecosystems within us. I highly encourage you to do this yourselves, it's one of the simplest ways to ferment and you can do it with any edible vegetable or mushroom. Simply rinse what you're fermenting, stuff it tightly into a quart jar, add 2.5 tea spoons of sea salt and cover it with water and a lid. Open it up at least once a day to ensure that there are no explosions, and then enjoy within seven days or more.
So just an update, I've been living/working at this place kinda close to Eindhoven, NL for almost a week and I totally love it....the owners are incredible people and we have the best food which is all organic and basically I get to be outside gardening all day!! I feel so at home! This country is amazing and the people are cool and funny af and pretty much I'm trying to figure out how to become a citizen of this wonderful place!
PG Work Exchange : Out of Edinburgh
I finished my third week at RBGE in the glasshouses working with Gunnar Ovstebo in the Arid House. He showed me their collection while we weeded around the plants. We both geeked out over the new, arid bryophyte collection that he has begun to develop. On various plant collection expeditions he has picked up some specimens on his own accord and brought them back to RBGE. He's paired up with a student at Edinburgh named Hazel who is doing her masters project on cataloguing and identifying the liverwort and moss in the gardens to properly accession them to add them to the collection at RBGE. She toured me around and showed me a whole host of exotic and native mosses and liverworts that she has identified over the course of her work. I have always been fascinated with bryophytes and Hazel and Gunnar were happy to indulge my interest and questions.
Liverworts in the fernery!
Liverworts in the Arid House!
I finished my week at RBGE and said goodbye as I packed my bags for Skye and set my sights for the rest of Scotland!
I met my boyfriend in Edinburgh and we planned to spend a couple of days in Glasgow. We visited Glasgow Botanic Gardens on our first day. We headed straight for the pop-up book sale that they had going on that day which gave us a sneak peek into the back houses of the garden. We took the long way around the garden, seeing all of the glasshouses and the arboretum which was in beautiful fall color.
The following day we walked around the city seeing some highlights at Glasgow including The Mackintosh House and the Hunterian Art Museum. We visited the Necropolis and the Mackintosh Lighthouse.
A view from behind the tropical greenhouse on the way to the book sale!
The glasshouse was stunning and filled with tree ferns!
The Necropolis is a Victorian cemetery that overlooks the city of Glasgow.
We left for Skye with a rainy forecast for the week. We took the famous train from Harry Potter over the Viaduct bridge from Glasgow to Mallaig. Our only hold up was a night spent in Mallaig because they ferry to Skye was caught in the hurricane that was hitting the west coast of the island.
Upon our arrival we traveled to our first destination: the Fairy Glen. Curious grassy-topped rock outcroppings have been worn into dramatic patterns that we were free to explore. Visitors have turned areas hidden behind hills into a whimsical place to be. A labyrinth that is outlined in fallen stones and cairns dot the landscape. We made sure to grab a snack on the way back home at a restaurant on the water where I witnessed my first full rainbow in Scotland.
We also hiked the Quirang Walk which is a little over 4 miles into the Trotternish Ridge. The path was stoney from the high cliffs and muddy from the well-traveled peat.
On the last day we visited Coral Beach just north of Dunvegan and the Neist Point Lighthouse. The beach isn't made of sand, though! It’s made of the skeletons of Red Coralline seaweed which is also known as Maërl! The lighthouse was surrounded by beautiful cliffs and sheep grazed land.
Here I am walking the labyrinth sheltered by layers of hills.
Looking out over the Fairy Glen.
Standing on the trail at the Quirang.
Maërl!
View of the cliffs from the lighthouse.
The predicted rainy week turned out to be rather sunny and beautiful. We were not caught in any rain storms whatsoever! Unheard of here in Scotland! From Skye we headed back to Edinburgh and I packed up my bags to head to St. Andrews Botanic Garden for a week!
-Alison Tisdel, Professional Gardener ‘17