Did you know that the Botanical Gardens offer courses on everything from portrait photography to growing plants (kind of an obvious one that I guess) to yoga? I always presumed this space was used for school groups but I was lucky enough to attend classes here recently - it's a tranquil setting with views of the lovely gardens and the ideal place to loll around on a gym mat (I did yoga in case you're wondering). You can approach the building directly from Westbourne Road (it's a little bit hidden away so look out for the signs) or through the Gardens during later summer opening hours. There's limited parking available at the Study Centre so you may prefer to use the main Gardens' car park. It boasts a number of rooms - they all seem pretty light and airy and they're often decorated with collages made by visiting kids. Looking at their website it would appear that their Summer courses are on hold, which seems a real shame given how much I enjoyed attending classes here and especially in light of the closure of the nearby Adult Education Centre (The Clocktower in Harborne High Street) - with this in mind, its worth phoning ahead to make sure whatever it is you fancied lending your hand to, is still running. read more