• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

Roots and Shoots Makes a Splash! Summer Community Event Saturday 10th June 2023

shangman

shangman

Moderator/Committee Member
UKAPS Team
Joined
13 Jul 2020
Messages
1,232
Location
London
I'm very happy to announce Roots and Shoots Makes a Splash!
A community open day event in London celebrating the joys of aquatic life on Saturday 10th June, 2023

MakesASplash_Poster_Smaller.jpg
​
Both @Courtneybst and I work at Roots and Shoots, an independant educational and environmental charity based in Kennington, South London which has an ethos of bringing people and nature together for the wellbeing of all. We host biannual community open days which celebrate nature and creativity, and for our summer event we're working together to bring you a fabulous watery day of fun.

For more than 40 years UNESCO award-winning London charity Roots and Shoots has been providing education and vocational training in horticulture, floristry and retail to young people from the inner city with special educational needs, giving them the skills and self-confidence to equip them for work. Alongside the vocational and life skills training, Roots and Shoots provides environmental education to local schools and the wider community based on its acclaimed half-acre Wild Garden, an important green space for urban biodiversity, which specialises in pollinating insects and local conservation. The address is Roots and Shoots, Walnut Tree Walk, Kennington, London, SE11 6DN, with the closest tube stations being Lambeth North and Kennington, and a short walk from Waterloo.

Copy of _A1_0943.jpg Copy of Copy of _A745272.jpg IMG_2066 (1).JPG​

Our own @George Farmer will be doing an aquascaping demonstration, and @taistrietman will be doing a biotope-building demostration to show people how they can build beautiful aquariums which are good homes for fish. We'll also have the lovely aquarists from the Horniman Museum Aquarium visiting to talk about coral reefs and a bit about their amazing coral breeding research. Finally, Kim Le Bruielly of the British Herpetological Society will be doing a talk on the Wonder of Frogs.

Across the site, there's also pond dipping, a wabi kusa-building workshop, a children's art workshop, storytelling and more. Stalls will be selling arts, crafts, accessories, jewellery, ceramics and plants (grown on site, focusing on plants for pollinating insects), as well as homemade cakes, delicious vegan food and candy floss, as well as charities including the Freshwater Life Project and RSPB. As you may have seen already from @Courtneybst 's latest fabulous journal, we will have a Planted Aquarium Gallery with a selection of small tanks in a range of styles to inspire people to get involved, with sponsored help from @Aquarium Gardens @Riverwood Aquatics, @Horizon Aquatics and Wildwoods World of Water. On the day, we'll also be getting help from our London Aquascaping Union friends @Sid.scapes @LondonAquascaper, @the.fishtories and @i.am.adonis.

This event has really come about because of the UKAPS community - we have learnt so much and had so much fun, we can't wait to spread our enthusiasm and passion to a whole lot of Londoners this summer! We'd love to see you there 🥰
 
Last edited:
I am back from Portugal on the 8th so should be able to make this one 😉 I can even walk there from my place and offer a helping hand if needed 😉
 
Myrtle said:
Sounds like an amazing day, almost wish I lived in London!
Click to expand...
Come for the day, only an hours train 🙂

LondonDragon said:
I am back from Portugal on the 8th so should be able to make this one 😉 I can even walk there from my place and offer a helping hand if needed 😉
Click to expand...
Huzzah, perfect timing!! I didn't realise you lived so close 🙂 We'll definitely take you up on that offer, thank you Paulo.
 
The gardens are looking gorgeous, the sun will be shining, the mermaid's lemonade is brewing and the aquariums sparkling for tomorrow! 🦋🐠🌿

Here's a schedule of the day, and a link to the Roots and Shoots website which was just launched this week in case you want to know more.

Splash_Schedule (1).jpg

Looking forward to seeing a few of your beautiful faces tomorrow 😀
 
Thanks to the organisers and volunteers for a great day out. The talks and demonstrations by Tai and George were interesting and informative. It was the first time I seen demonstrations in person and was good to get insight into the thought process in creating the layouts. I also had a ball at the wabi kusa workshop. It was good to talk to a few of you. I was the baldy Chinese guy 😊.

Here's a few very badly taken photos.
IMG_6122.a.jpgIMG_6124.jpgIMG_6125.jpgIMG_6126.jpg
 
I had an amazing time, thank you so much to the organizers, volunteers and everyone I talked to! Like Kammaroon this was my first time attending any kind of aquascaping event and it was such a lovely experience. Tai and George's talks were really informative and it was awesome to see people I've only known through watching their youtube videos, the aquarium gallery was full of wonderful tanks (I can't get over those Ramshorn snails, they were beautiful!), and it was really nice just chatting with people and learning what they were doing in the hobby. The venue was very cool too with all those plants and insects buzzing around, not to mention the pond! I'll definitely try to show up to any future aquatic events in London, I'm hooked now. My only regret is that I missed the Wabi Kusa workshops because I got hungry :dead:
I didn't bring a camera with me so I'm very much looking forward to seeing everyone's photos!
 
Looks like it was a great event. What with George and Tai doing workshops and all. The talk by Tai looked to be especially interesting. Looking forward to seeing some more photos.
And is that @LondonDragon with the baseball cap and yellow volunteer lanyard taking a look at George's sape?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top