Search Results for: Tim elkington

June has disappeared in a blur of activity: finishing the book, organising my 70th birthday celebration and travelling – to places as various as Brussels, Paris and Brocket Hall. But the highlight, beyond question, was Green Swan Day on 23 June.

Over time, it had morphed and mutated, ultimately becoming an event linked to the Green Swan theme of the book, hence Green Swan Day. Carlo and Conor of Twist Creative a great help in getting the visuals together.

On the day, we had around 110 people on 10 tables at the WWT Barnes Wetland Centre, chosen because it symbolises regeneration and because of the links with Sir Peter Scott, whose statue stands outside, surrounded by swans.

Gaia had done some extraordinary flower arrangements, with swan’s nests – complete with wooden eggs – for each table.

All around, the Atlas of the Future film crew interviewed some 15 participants for the short Green Swan documentary we are planning to release later in the year, to trail the book. Stonkingly hot, particularly in The Observatory, where Nyetimber (a rare upside of climate change) was served during the reception.

We were over capacity, a heady mix of family, friends and colleagues, literally from around the world. Over lunch in the Water’s Edge room, we had four speeches at different points in the proceedings: my intro, then Andrew Kerr (Chairman of the Sustainable Eel Group), Tanya Steele (CEO, WWF UK) and Sir Tim Smit (Founder, The Eden Project). Fabulous speeches, though Tim’s was for the ages.

After the event wound down, around 17.00, a line of sherpas wound home, including Tim, with boxes of flowers, wines, cards and gifts – despite the ‘no gifts’ policy. The stand-out gift was the Egg, created specially by ceramicist Judith Davies, who Hania knew – a stunning gift from her, Gaia and Elaine.

A wonderfully relaxing few days staying with some of our longest-standing friends, Jane and Glyn Davenport, in Lower Slaughter. Either side of my father Tim’s memorial service. Trout in the stream outside their front door. Lambs gambolling wildly in the fields nearby. An island of calm in a world in turmoil.

One of Tim’s grandchildren, Rory Chambers, is a photographer – and here are some of the images he took during the event:

Our cousin Toby Adamson took some pictures of some of the Russian veterans of the Great Patriotic War who came to Tim’s memorial service on May 11 2019. First those images, then one taken by our friend Nigel Palmer, together with some fragments of several of veterans’ stories he gleaned during the reception after the service:

Nigel Palmer, a friend we have known since the 1960s, representing the Palmers of Icomb, took the photo below of the group, with their poster of Tim. But he also quizzed them on their wartime experiences. The stories were extraordinary. As Nigel put it:

“The woman in the cheerful red beret joined the Partisans after her village was surrounded on the second day of the war. She was 12 years old, and served throughout the war behind the lines. She told me that she was the only person in her village who had survived the war. The other lady, as I’m sure you know, although very unlined, was the same age as your father. She came through the siege of Leningrad, 900 days of hunger and cold during which over a million people starved to death. 

“The short sailor with the matelot shirt and clear blue eyes, centre-left, was on a motor torpedo boat trying to protect the convoys. At one point there was a slightly chilly breeze, and I asked if he was OK. He ripped open his jacket, showed his bare arms and apparently said ‘when you have been on a motor torpedo boat on the Barents Sea in January, you can never feel cold again.’ Amazing.”