On 10th May I attended a Tai Chi workshop at a beautiful place in Surrey called "Herons Centre". In addition to workshop space, the centre has 7 acres of grounds which includes an award-winning Bonsai nursery, landscaped Japanese gardens, orchards and a koi carp pond. "It is literally a Bonsai heaven for anyone interested in the pastime" (
www.herons.co.uk). The founder, Peter Chan, is author of "The Bonsai Bible" and numerous other books, and holds 21 Chelsea Flower Show Gold Medals - he knows his stuff! Even if Bonsai isn't one of your hobbies, the trees and grounds at the Heron Centre are well worth a visit.
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| Bonsai bonanza at the Heron Bonsai Nursery! |
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| Some of these bonsai were over 100 years old. |
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| Herons Centre also has landscaped Japanese gardens,a koi carp pond and an ancient orchard. |
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| A heron! |
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| Almost like being abroad... |
The Zhen Wei Academy's Tai Chi workshop was very interesting, covering the whole day and including Qigong, the Yang 85 (long form) and Yang Shi Taiji Duida (rare two-man set). I'm currently training in Shaolin Mizong kung fu with
Zhen Wei Academy, rather than Tai Chi. As someone who has done very little Tai Chi before, working through the entire Yang 85 sequence in one day was intense and challenging but I really enjoyed it. Being able to run through the whole sequence at the end felt like quite an achievement; doing this with the rest of the group out in the landscaped grounds of the Heron Centre was very memorable.
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| Part of the group working on a rare two-man Tai Chi sequence. |
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