Prize for Lifelong Learning student
27 July 2015
Winnie the Pooh-inspired garden triumphs at flower show
A Cardiff University Lifelong Learning student has won a Gold Prize at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show after following a garden history course.
Anthea Guthrie won the award for Best Historic Garden at this year’s Royal Horticultural Society event.
Her entry, entitled ‘Winnie the Pooh Begins His Journey’, is inspired by AA Milne’s well-loved stories and the garden history course run by Stephen Parker at the Centre for Lifelong Learning in 2014.
The course showcased several writers’ gardens which were highly creative and motivated Anthea to design her own.
She said: “Stephen's presentations were truly eye opening and I began to think about doing a garden with a writer's retreat. I added a further dimension to humanise it and give it a sense of time.
“The hand, head and heart ethos of the arts and crafts movement, the huge interest in the natural, and the idea of inspiration coming from a child all came together to make 'Winnie the Pooh Begins His Journey'.
“Garden history is a wonderful subject full of interest to anyone who loves social history, design, and of course gardens.”
In designing the garden, Anthea imagined a world where AA Milne would write in his woodland shelter finding inspiration in the sight of his son Christopher Robin playing with his toys - the original Winnie the Pooh and all the other characters.
The garden combines the themes of childhood make believe and adult creativity by being both a writer’s retreat and a child’s wild playground.
Both Anthea and her husband have attended courses at the Cardiff Centre for Lifelong Learning and are very enthusiastic about them.
She said: “I firmly believe in lifelong learning and over the years I have had every reason to be grateful to the tutors at the Centre.
“We are both grads from Cardiff, both missed studying and now, especially as we are getting towards retirement, it is good to know we will be able to choose from daytime and evening courses.”
The RHS Hampton Court Flower Show is the world’s largest flower show and celebrated its 25th anniversary this year.