SUMMER SNAPS

It may be grey and miserable outside but you can still get a taste of summer at an exhibition at Maidstone Museum

The great British weather may have caused havoc with your garden, but an exhibition at Maidstone Museum will guarantee a glimmer of sunshine this summer. Around 40 images from the world’s most prestigious flower and garden photographic contest make up the exhibition, which is being run in association with the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. The pictures include Magda Wasiczek’s Summer in the Rain, which shows off heleniums at their very best. The same photographer’s image of a caterpillar, Sinuous, is another showstopper. Visitors will no doubt agree with the judges’ verdicts, and love the cheeky Ratty Breakfast by Simon Roy and a Confused Grasshopper by Matt Cole. Take advantage of viewing the extraordinarily beautiful garden shots close up before strolling round the rest of the museum to view exhibits including memorabilia from Maidstone Football Club and Fremlins Brewery and a Viking longboat. The international garden photography is just one of a series of touring exhibitions secured by the museum this year. Treasures from Hirado, from Saturday, July 20, to Saturday, November 2, will celebrate the 400th anniversary of the opening of trade and cultural ties between Britain and Japan, and features artefacts never before seen in the UK. Alongside the broader impact of western trade on Japan, the exhibition will focus on Will Adams, from Gillingham, who was the first Englishman to reach Japan. Adams became a confidant of Japan’s ruler, the Shogun and was buried in Hirado. This exhibition comes from Hirado’s Matsura Historical Museum, and is not to be missed. It’s great that the museum is hosting such exhibitions. So if you haven’t been to the St Faith’s Street site for a while, give it a whirl.

CONFUSED GRASSHOPPER By MATT COLE BREAKFAST RATTy By SIMON ROy

MAIDSTONE SINUOUS By MAGDA WASICZEK

SUMMER IN THE RAIN By MAGDA WASICZEK