Bespoken back at Kew Gardens May 22!

Our relationship continues with Kew Gardens with a series of nature inspired workshops

We all appreciate how important nature is to heal and calm us. A beautiful walk, a soothing herbal tea before bed or the scent of flowers can all make us feel much better. 

For some people life is unbelievably hard and we have been working with the amazing Jane Rogers from the Community Learning Team at Kew Gardens to deliver a series of workshops specifically for an audience made up of refugees, asylum seekers, people in crisis and those struggling with homelessness. Jane's brilliant work centres round the Community Allotment at Kew and their Community Access Scheme provides a valuable link with organisations that provide services directly to people who face physical, sensory, psychological or social barriers to visiting Kew independently.

Our first workshop was all about the work of Marianne North and her stunning botanic paintings. After learning about her life and work, we unleashed our creative sides by feeling inspired by the nature around us and drawing our own botanic pictures.

In our second workshop we investigated the cocoa tree in situ and also learnt about the social history of chocolate consumption. And, of course, we investigated the sensory side by having a grand chocolate tasting from the Aztec bitter chocolate all the way up to our modern chocolate treats.