Inspiration Express

21.08.2023 - 11:38 / theunconventionalgardener.com / Emma Doughty

Header image: A lake outside of Fairbanks, Alaska, where methane is being released from thawing permafrost. Taken as NASA-led effort (the Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment, or ABoVE) to advance our ability to monitor changing Arctic and boreal ecosystems started its second season in May 2017.  Image credit: NASA

Hello passengers! I hope you’re enjoying your trip on the Inspiration Express. Now that we’ve all had a chance to unpack and settle in, we have a full schedule of inspiring activities.

We’re travelling through the Canadian countryside today, so there will be plenty of incredible views. Keep your eyes peeled for the bands of marauding feral ‘super pigs’ terrorising this area. These giant, “incredibly intelligent, highly elusive” beasts can survive cold climates by tunnelling under snow. The super pigs, which resulted from cross-breeding domestic pigs with wild boars in the 1980s, turned out to be incredibly proficient breeders, escaping captivity and swiftly spreading across Canada.

In the Workshop carriage, you’ll find Laura Bagnall from Kew Gardens giving a masterclass on Cyanotypes: The origins of photography. This camera-less photography technique involves laying an object on paper coated with iron salts before exposing it to UV light, creating stunning white and Prussian blue images. The Masterclass will delve into the history of cyanotypes before giving you a chance to create your own masterpiece.

And in the Field Trip car, we’ve linked the magic portal to the entrancing doomsday seed bank in Svalbard. As you’ll read in the pre-trip handout:

“Surrounded by snow, ice and the occasional polar bear, the facility houses 1.2m seed samples from every corner of the planet as an insurance policy against catastrophe.