Category: Teaching & Learning

20th anniversary of Boxing Day earthquake and tsunami

It is important that we remember this date as it was when one of our former students Piers Simon was a  fatality resulting from the wave that devastated the island of Phi-Phi Don in Thailand, an enormous wave…

WALKING GLOUCESTERSHIRE with IVOR GURNEY

Eleanor Rawling gave this year’s John Simpson Memorial lecture last Tuesday. Ivor Gurney (1890-1937) was a local poet, born in Gloucester, was gassed in the first world war and suffered long afterwards spending much time in mental asylums….

SuDS MASTERCLASSES

Robert Bray Associates will be running some masterclasses in Bristol in November, of particular interest to students (discounted prices): we are offering 60% discount up to 10 tickets for each masterclass. Please use the code – save60 –…

Community Design Charrette — 28 October to1 November 2024 — the task

Charlea Community Gardens Community Interest Company (Charlea) owns a c.3 acre site in Brimscombe Stroud consisting of two fields. One of the two fields (The Play Area field) has recently been acquired from a developer following three refused…

‘Magnificent’ ancient oak is 2024 tree of the year

The SKIPINNISH OAK in Lochaber, Scotland has been named UK Tree of the Year after winning a public vote against 11 other contenders. The “impressive specimen,” which is hidden away in a Skita spruce plantation at Achnacarry, supports…

KINGS CROSS DEVELOPMENT & ISLAMIC GARDENS

I recently saw a piece in a newspaper describing the Islamic gardens at the Aga Khan Centre in the new Kings Cross development, in London. Yesterday I visited both. I started at the main Visitor Centre where  the…

Tredworth Transformed

Six years ago we based the Landscape & Community module in the inner-city Gloucester suburb of Tredworth. We’d been invited to come up with some ideas to improve the visible landscape which was then looking sad and neglected…

Bob’s petit séjour à Paris

There’s a garden in Paris I’d not previously visited but always wanted to: Jardin Atlantique built above Montparnasse railway station. A couple of weeks ago I was in Paris for three days so I seized the opportunity. I…

Evidence for climate change?

Outside the Clegg Building, the Cornus kousa is looking amazing. Here’s a picture I took two days ago (21st May). The creamy ‘leaves’ are called bracts. A bract is neither a leaf nor a flower, but it’s often…

Food for free

Allium ursinum, wild garlic, is a very attractive plant with its cluster of white star-like flowers and lily-of-the-valley leaves. Also called ramsons, it is in full aroma for a couple of months each year. According to Richard Mabey…