Passed away peacefully on the 19th January 2023 aged 91 years.
She Will be sadly missed by all of her family and friends.
Family funeral to take place at Bournemouth Cremetorium.
No flowers please, but donations in Marion’s memory if desired to Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance Service
The times are challenging, says Dorset Chamber CEO Ian Girling, but growth and innovation remain critical, as do long term solutions
As we return to work after the Christmas break, I’d like to wish everyone a happy, successful, and prosperous 2023. As we look to the next few months, we know the economic climate will remain challenging but my hope is we start to see improving conditions as we go further into the year.
Energy support
The new deal on energy support offers cold comfort for businesses in Dorset. Although continued assistance and the 12-month duration of the scheme is welcome, the 85 per cent drop in the financial envelope of support will fall short for those who are seriously struggling – and we’re aware that these costs are already significant enough to cause the closure of businesses.
Clearly, the Government must consider the public finances. But the correct level of support must be viewed as an investment in the economy, helping businesses to get the UK back to growth and prosperity in the critical year ahead.
In the short to medium term the Chancellor must be ready to intervene with additional assistance should it be required, and long-term solutions must be considered urgently.
This must include reform of the business energy market, including the potential strengthening of Ofgem’s powers, as part of an energy strategy to promote longer-term market stability and ways to allow firms to improve their energy efficiency.
It’s essential that business leaders maintain their focus on growth and innovation and that we push forward with our business plans.
Dorset Chamber will continue to provide support for businesses in the county and support the British Chambers of Commerce in its lobbying of the government. Through our national voice within the British Chambers of Commerce, we will continue to lobby the government on critical issues such as the energy costs. We will continue to do all we can locally not only for our members but for the wider business community.
I wish you all the very best for 2023 – Ian
It’s that time of year again, when we feel driven to make a healthy new start after an indulgent Christmas break. These two recipes take a handful of simple ingredients
to make a delicious breakfast that is still full of flavour.
I often choose to use gluten-free oats and dairy-free milks too, really stripping them back to let the beauty of the fresh (or frozen) fruits shine through. Heather x
Coconut Granola
(makes enough for six to eight breakfasts)
This recipe makes the perfect addition to some yoghurt and fresh fruit. It is simple to make and uses basic ingredients, but packs a flavour punch! You can add to/change the coconut for any nuts of choice and you can easily add any dried fruit once the granola has been baked.
Ingredients
(makes enough for four)
This recipe is the ultimate one-size fits all. It doesn’t need to be exactly measured; I simply use half as many oats to the amount of milk, but I also use frozen fruits which tend to add some extra liquid as they thaw. Be confident and adjust as you like, playing with the quantities – especially if you prefer a softer finished product (just add more milk).
You can also change the fruit to your own favourite, of course, and this recipe works just as well with fresh fruit (just add a little more milk).
I have opted to use almond milk as I think it complements the flavours, but the recipe works just as well with any kind of milk – oat, nut or cow’s! Previously I have also used hazelnut milk, exchanged the cherries for chocolate chips and finished with some Nutella for a rather more indulgent overnight oats!
Ingredients
Method
After the wildly successful launch of the Spring Countryside Show last year, it is back at the Turnpike showground in April
With over 10,000 visitors throughout the weekend, the inaugural Spring Countryside Show in 2022 beat everyone’s expectations (you can read the BV’s review of it here). Organised by the Gillingham and Shaftesbury Agricultural Society, the 2023 event promises even more rural activities and events.
Giles Simpson, show chairman, said: ‘The Spring Countryside Show is all about bringing spring in the countryside to life. It’s a deliberately family-friendly event, with a chance to get close to a whole host of animals and learn more about rural ways of life. Being the earliest show in the county, it’s also a great way of celebrating the arrival of spring after a long, drab winter.’
The event will once again showcase a range of traditional rural crafts including wood carving, a farrier, heavy horse logging, gun dog displays and terrier racing plus the dedicated Farmyard Area which is full of animals to meet.
The Sheep Show was the surprise hit of 2022, and by popular demand they will of course be back. There are rumoured to be promises of a ‘Strictly Come Sheep Dancing’ show – would you give them a 10?
No show is complete without a fun fair, of course, plus working steam engines and classic cars.
New for this year is the Funky Festival Area where live music, food stands and a bar will be open right through to 10pm on the Saturday evening.
The Spring Countryside Show is on Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd April. Tickets are on sale now (early bird price is £10 adults, children go free).
The organisers are always on the lookout for more exhibitors if you have a craft or tradition you can demonstrate.
For details on how to exhibit or to buy your early bird ticket, go to springcountrysideshow.co.uk
or telephone 01747 823955.
Wildlife writer Jane Adams is trying hard not to be stuck in the January gloom, and instead to look for the signs of new life
It’s a dark, wet, and windy winter day. I sit in my study, sipping a hot mug of tea, listening to the rain clattering on the window.
Despite the gloomy weather, I know that just outside, in the hedgerows and woods, new life is stirring. The trouble is, it’s not always easy to see.
Last year I tried to go for a half-hour walk every day. But on days like today it usually turns into a quick stomp around the block; head down, collar up, and hands wedged deep into my coat pockets. When I stumble in through the back door and my husband asks if I’ve seen anything on my walk, it’s really no surprise he gets a glare from under my sopping wet fringe.
He’s right though – there’s plenty to see if I just look up.
January is a time when the stumpy tails of hazel catkins start to lengthen and flower. Each dangling male bloom has around 240 individual flowers, and if you run one through your fingers, it feels like a string of tiny beads. On breezy days, the pepper-fine pollen drifts onto neighbouring female flowers, and pollination occurs. Just look further up the same twigs of the dangling clumps of male catkins and you’ll find the delicate, vivid red female blooms (always above the male flowers to prevent self-pollination). Though slightly tricky to spot, they’re well worth a look. Later in the year, these little red pollinated flowers will develop into clusters of hazelnuts.
The nuts provide food for a myriad of wildlife from the aptly named hazel dormouse to birds such as woodpeckers and nuthatches, who wedge the nuts into tree crevices and use their beaks to crack the hard outer shells to reach the soft, nutritious nuts within.
For now, though, the golden catkins cascading from hedgerows onto Dorset’s country lanes are a welcome sight on a cold winter’s day. And if, like me, you’re still stubbornly looking down, try looking under a hazel tree – according to ancient folklore, it’s one of the best places to find a fairy.
Hazel (Corylus avellana)
Hazel is often coppiced, but when left to grow, trees can reach a height of 12m and live for up to 80 years (if coppiced, hazel can live for several hundred years)
Hazel was grown in the UK for large-scale nut production until the early 1900s. Cultivated varieties (known as cob nuts) are still grown in Kent, but most of our hazelnuts are now imported.
As well as its nuts or ‘cobs’, hazel wood can be twisted or knotted, and historically had many uses; thatching spars, net stakes, water-divining sticks, hurdles and furniture.
Hazel has a reputation as a magical tree. A hazel rod is supposed to protect against evil spirits, as well as being used as a wand and for water-divining. In some parts of England, hazelnuts were carried as charms and/or held to ward off rheumatism. In Ireland, hazel was known as the ‘Tree of Knowledge’, and in medieval times it was a symbol of fertility.
With a resolution to paint more in 2023, Edwina Baines starts the New Year’s art column by exploring some local options for anyone with similar plans
My New Year resolutions are generally entirely unachievable, and if I’m honest are usually broken just a few weeks into January. Alongside the usual lose weight / get fit / be happy, I am going to add one more this year – to paint more.
As an amateur artist (or, as a friend labelled me, a ‘dabbler’), I have been attending art classes for more than ten years and I find that there are many benefits. Drawing and painting on your own are fine, but it’s easy to get distracted. An art class is a perfect way to switch off from the world for an hour or two in a sociable atmosphere.
Drawing is a powerful tool of communication. It helps build self-understanding and can boost health. Research shows that both physical and mental health improve when people draw for set periods. In a similar way to meditation, blood pressure drops and tension fades away – plus it ignites your creativity. With regular practice, you may find yourself occasionally melting into states of ‘flow’, becoming wholly absorbed. A small, regular pocket of time to temporarily escape the busy world and enter a flow state via drawing may help you in other parts of your life.
But our current focus on productivity, outcomes and ‘talent’ has us thinking about it the wrong way.
Too many believe the myth of ‘I can’t draw’, when in fact it’s a skill built through practice.
You will be pleasantly surprised at how quickly you progress when taught by an experienced teacher in a group. You will find that you begin to look at famous artists’ work in galleries in a different way and your appreciation and understanding of art improve.
Procrastination is the biggest enemy of the artist, so make your New Year’s resolution to finally start that art project you have been postponing!
We are lucky to have a huge range of local teachers providing different ways to immerse yourself, either as a beginner or a more experienced artist.
Local Classes
One experienced teacher, Deborah Chisman, initially trained as a fashion illustrator at Epsom School of Art and Design but has been teaching adult art classes for the past thirty years, running morning and afternoon classes in Durweston and Marnhull. The sessions run throughout the year and a structured timetable is provided with details of the subject matter and any materials that may be needed.
There is a demonstration at the start of the session and Deborah encourages artists to develop their personal projects as well. Everyone in the class was enthusiastic and appreciative of her approach: ‘She is so encouraging without being patronising.’ ‘Everyone ends up with something slightly different.’ ‘Coming to the class gives me the motivation I need’.
‘My school report for art said “lacks ability” and it wasn’t until I joined this class that I realised I could paint.’
Deborah says: ‘There are so many people who want a structured, taught session. Some people like a project and a handout but those who have been painting for years may go off at a tangent and do something different. What works well in the group is showing our work at the end of the class –other artists’ creations may spark an idea in somebody else.’
facebook.com/deb.artforeveryone
Clare Shepherd studied at The Slade School of Fine Art where she was The Slade Prizewinner for her graduating year and she exhibits regularly. Clare taught for the Dorset Adult Education Service and Bath University for many years and now runs courses and classes privately in Blandford and Stourpaine.
She said ‘I am very interested in what each student can do and how they find their inner resource. Everything that each person does is valid and everyone goes through their own typical artistic angst! It is part of the artist’s journey – if we were happy with our painting all the time, we might become complacent. The best paintings are ones you have to struggle over; to push yourself. It’s all about good thinking.’
One of her pupils said: ‘Clare is so encouraging that I’m motivated to try even harder and not worry so much about the outcome. The process becomes more important.’
See details of Claire’s classes here.
Zoom workshops
Renowned Blandford artist Jake Winkle runs online watercolour workshops via Zoom. We all became accustomed to Zoom during lockdowns and it means you can watch the demonstration live from the comfort of your own home. Jake gives a full watercolour demonstration and talks students through all the required techniques. including ‘warm up’ painting exercises to prepare for their own painting. He holds around 20 sessions per year, and if you are busy on the day, Jake sends each participant a seven-day link to the recording of the event, which is an ideal way of replaying the workshop and having a go at the painting in your own time. jakewinkle.co.uk/online-demonstrations-tutorials
Painting holidays
Author and TV artist Marilyn Allis runs workshops and Zoom classes from her newly refurbished farm studio in Briantspuddle. At time of writing she was about to leave to teach watercolour painting for three months on a cruise ship, travelling to Australia and New Zealand. She said: ‘All artists at one time or another will feel the need for inspiration and motivation and what better way than immersing yourself in a painting break? This is a great way to rejuvenate and develop your art. It’s a really good thing to never be satisfied with your paintings, it spurs you on to be better. If you think your paintings are perfect, you have stopped learning.’
Marilyn’s Art Holidays are run from a Bournemouth hotel with studios overlooking the sea. Participants receive help and guidance from three professional artists, covering different techniques and subject matter.
marilynallis.com/welcome/
Workshops
Born and brought up in Dorset, Ali Board had dreams of becoming a dancer but changed course to join the family art materials and framing business. Now married and the proud owner of an expanding menagerie of animals, she spends every day painting, photographing and inventing new creative ideas to pass on to her students around the world. Join one of her workshops and you can spend an entire day working on a project with Ali’s expert tuition and positive guidance. The Stourpaine village hall workshops last approximately six hours, with no more than 14 attendees, meaning there is plenty of time for individual attention. The sessions are aimed at beginners, intermediates, or those who have had a break from painting and want to re-discover their skills. Her step-by-step style of teaching means that everyone can see each process before trying it for themselves. Ali films as she works, and streams the video to a big screen so that students not seated up close can see in the finest detail what is happening as she speaks. She has a relaxed and informal teaching style that the class evidently enjoyed. Ali says ‘my workshops are aimed at encouraging students to find their own way through a painting, making them more self-sufficient artists in the future.’
learningtopaint.co.uk/alison-c-board
Trade unions are a force for good, says MP Simon Hoare, but the issues get sticky. And dealing with inflation leads to some tough political love
As Gloucester put it in Richard lll, it does feel rather that ‘now is the winter of our discontent’. The spectre and presence of strikes have once again reared their heads and are having profound, negative effects on many people across the country. The term Winter of Discontent was first used in a UK political context to describe the strike-laden days of 1978/79. I do not believe that those of 2022/23 are anything like as momentous or ‘weather-making’ from a political perspective.
Sticky issues
Anyone with a modicum of knowledge of Dorset’s history will know the story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs. The role that Trade Unions play, representing their members, championing workplace safety and rights, is a vital and important one. Prior to their creation, the life of the working man and woman was precarious, subject to the whims of the employer. Huge and beneficial strides have been made from which all of us in work, whether we are members of a Trade Union or not, benefit. Statutory sick pay, paid holiday and the like all came about directly through the lobbying of trade unions.
However, it is the right to withdraw labour below a certain public service level that is the sticky issue. Our police, military and prison officers are unable to strike because to do so would, among other things, jeopardise public safety.
Should we now be thinking about a similar caveat for other vital public services, for example in the health and transport sectors? I do not have a doctrinal view on this but rather I am committed to public service and people being able to go about their daily business, be educated, commute or receive healthcare irrespective of whether there is an employee/employer dispute going on.
Monster vs. chocolate
One of the concerns of many strikers is pay. Inflation, as we know, is higher than for very many years (it perhaps looks to have peaked and is now falling) and interest rates are moving upwards – although still historically low – as a way of addressing those upward inflationary pressures.
We often talk of inflation without really thinking about its affect. I was asked about this on a recent school visit and provided the following analogy: you have a chocolate bar at playtime, you expect to eat it all and to enjoy it. But! Along comes the Inflation Monster who swallows a great chunk of it. You lose out.
You may then buy a larger chocolate bar but the Monster only comes back to take a slightly bigger chunk. No matter what you do the Monster always wins. The Monster always comes back. He never really goes away.
You only have a chance of enjoying your chocolate bar if we ‘starve’ and defeat the Monster. We need to starve and cage, rather than feed, the inflation monster. Inflation-busting pay increases do not bust inflation, they feed it, adding fuel and stoking the rates higher.
Anyone in current public life knows this is not an easy message to communicate or accept. It is the political economy version of tough love. Unless we beat inflation everything else will be in vain, so that is currently the central and all-focussing task of the Government. It is not easy, but it is necessary.
Get in touch
Throughout this year I will continue my regular Advice Surgeries to provide help and support for those who need it. Please email [email protected] to make an appointment.
May I close this first column of the year by wishing everyone across North Dorset a belated but sincere happy, peaceful and safe 2023.
The New Year provides the opportunity to reflect on the past 12 months, and also to look ahead. My personal highlights of 2022 include knocking on doors in the villages around Wem in North Shropshire during our by-election effort. The experience told me that there is always much to play for, whatever the apparent odds. I found a great similarity with the Blackmore Vale. There were strong echoes at the Gillingham & Shaftesbury Show in August: a rural community that wants to have the wherewithal to get on and create its own better future and to lose the constraints of a centralising bureaucracy and top-down diktat.
The low points of the year were the events that gave us three PMs within a month and a half, ending up with someone with no mandate whatsoever outside the House of Commons. Yes, there is now a sensible, if managerialist, pair at the helm. The besetting sins of managerialism are that you believe you have a right to be in charge, have a right to say what gives and have a tendency to disregard the views of workforce and shareholders alike.
Does the cap fit? Is this sustainable? Is it even democratic? The questions of our age …
A broken dozen
We are likely to see a continuing focus on inflation which has now probably peaked. Success will be claimed even though prices will remain at their new higher levels. The underlying reality is that heating our homes has become a luxury, buying a home has become even more of a stretch for the young, travelling to work chews up a greater proportion of our income than ever and a decent diet is beyond the less advantaged. Who would have thought it after 12 years of a Conservative government?
We also have broken systems in health, social care, the railways and the Royal Mail. The issues are not just about pay; they are about long-term viability, about the motivation, energy and productivity of the people involved. Add in the fragmentation of the Union as a result of Brexit and you get a very sorry overall picture of incompetence and failed dogma.
Looking ahead, though, a different kind of government is available.
You see it everywhere the Liberal Democrats are at work – an approach based on listening, understanding and caring. On building for the future, harnessing creativity and creating opportunity and fairness for everyone. Both Tory and Labour depend on narrow views and the dividing lines between have and have not, city and countryside, north and south … inevitably, the solutions from either side are demonstrably and palpably polarised.
In the face of global warming we have Putin, Xi, an inward-looking USA and an arms-length EU. It won’t do. Our best chance is to come together and develop a broad, unifying and more effective way ahead for the good of everyone: broadly based and unifying. Unifying, above all.
Mike Chapman
for Liberal Democrats across the Blackmore Vale
Sadly passed away January 16th 2023 aged 92
Dearly loved wife of the late George, devoted mother to Lydia and Gillian, Grandmother to Marc, Ellie and Peter, and Great Grandmother to Tess, masie, Cory and Sam.
She will be greatly missed by all who knew and loved her.
Cremation to take place at Yeovil Cremetorium 3rd February IIam. Family flowers only please.
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