The Annular Solar Eclipse

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7 July 2021

Since we were treated to an annular solar eclipse last month on June 10th, and it was of course inevitably mostly cloudy during this celestial event, I thought I’d share one of the glimpses that I managed to get of the eclipse as so many would not have been as fortunate. The moon appeared to bite a chunk out of the Sun beginning at 10:08am and covered a maximum of 25% of the Suns surface at around 11:13am. This image was taken close to the maximum.

What was great about this shot is that I like many, was stuck in the home office on conference calls during the event, so I didn’t really get to see the event with my own eyes. With a bit of forward planning though, I made sure that if there were any break in the cloud I was going to capture an image of it! With a star tracker equatorial mount, in my case the Skywatcher Star Adventurer fitted to a tripod, I set up earlier in the morning and did a rough daytime polar alignment using an app on my phone. I setup my DSLR camera with a 70-200mm telephoto lens using a 10 stop Neutral Density Filter, which is usually used for blurring motion in landscape photography by reducing how much light reaches the camera sensor. In my case though, I used it to help me get a clearer image of the sun itself that wouldn’t be so overexposed. I set the tracker going after pointing at the sun (without looking directly at it!) and then used a device called an intervalometer which kept the camera shooting over the whole event while the tracker helped to keep the sun in frame. By the time my conference call ended the event was nearly over, so I’m grateful that I was still able to obtain some images of this amazing event!

The sky at night this month – July 2021

With the Summer solstice now behind us, the nights will start to draw in, a welcome transition for Astrophotographers!

On July 11^th, you’ll find a narrow crescent Moon to the right of brilliant Venus, the so called ‘Morning and Evening star’.

On the 12^th July, Venus gets up close and personal to Mars , with the Moon above and Regulus to the left, when they rise in the southeast.

On the 13^th July, Venus will be close to Mars. Look right from the Moon to find these two planets, you’ll also see Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo the Lion, this brilliant blue-white star is easily noticeable in the evening sky, just after the sun goes down.

Jupiter reaches opposition on the 14^th, look to the southern skies to spot the largest planet in our solar system.

On the 17^th July, the waning crescent moon will be in conjunction with Venus shortly after the sun rises, so look for the pair above the eastern horizon before dawn with the red giant star Aldebaran close by.

Mercury is most visible in the third week of the month, in the north east dawn sky, at around 4am as it brightens in magnitude to -1.0.

Saturn reaches opposition on the 20^th. Look to the south around midnight, it’ll be a dazzling sight for naked eye observation but a treat through a telescope too.

What is Opposition? During opposition, a planet will on the opposite side of the Earth compared to the sun (configured in an approximately straight line). This means the planets will be roughly at their closest distance to the Earth making them appear slightly larger and brighter. This makes it the best time to spot them.

On the 24^th July, Saturn will be visible above the Moon with Jupiter below and on the 25^th, the Moon will appear to pass below Jupiter.

Look to the constellation Aquarius on the 28^th/29^th July to catch the peak of the Delta Aquariids meteor shower. It’s not a very strong shower with a meteor count of 20 meteors per hour, however the waxing gibbous moon will set shortly after midnight which will leave you with darker skies to spot the meteors in the early morning when the radiant will be at its highest. Face south and scan the skies using just your eyes.

By: Rob Nolan RPN Photography

Fresh Black Summer Truffles | Notes from an Epicurean

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Editorial team

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7 July 2021

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Summer is supposedly here!! The good news is, even if the weather is not great, summer truffles are now fully in season with a better flavour than at the start of the season. The season runs from May to August.

Truffles are a type of fungi but unlike mushrooms, they grow underground attached to tree roots, commonly ones bearing nuts. Hazelnut, beech, oak, and birch are often the best places to look but they are not easy to find. Places where they grow are closely guarded secrets as they are an expensive commodity and quite rare.

Traditionally a truffle pig was used to sniff out the truffles. They would be taken by their owners to an area where they are known to grow and the pigs with their keen sense of smell would be able to locate them. Unfortunately, the pigs love the taste of them and so if the hunters were not quick the pig would dig them up with its snout and snaffle them, an expensive drawback. Dogs are now used as they can be trained to find them but will not eat them.

Most black truffles look similar, round, dark brown to black with a very knobbly exterior, once cut open the interior is creamy or dark in colour and marbled, when fresh and ripe they have an amazing aroma, earthy, but hard to describe, if no aroma they are to be avoided as this indicates they are old and past it!! Fresh truffles have a short shelf life, up to 7 days.

Unfortunately, the British truffle is the same as the commonest variety in Europe, Tuber Aestivum, and is not as pungent as the winter varieties, that said they are cheaper to buy, possibly a good place to start if unsure whether one likes them. The winter varieties, especially the magnificent white truffle, are far stronger and a lot more expensive, more on those later in the year!

Personally, I think the best way to enjoy truffles is to keep it simple, cooked plain pasta, olive oil, salt, black pepper with a generous amount of truffle finely shaved over the top. Alternatively, a simple risotto, some truffle cooked with the rice and more shaved over the top.

A great source of truffles is www.trufflehunter.co.uk with delivery by post.

Good hunting!!

By: Simon Vernon

Know the signs of flystrike…

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Editorial team

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7 July 2021

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Flystrike, also known as myiasis, is a serious condition that is seen in animals that live outside; it is more common in rabbits and guinea pigs. This occurs more commonly throughout the summer months with the increase in the amount of flies. The flies are attracted to damp fur, urine, faeces and the odour of, particularly, rabbit’s scent glands. This condition can happen extremely quickly during hot summer days.

The flies lay their eggs on the rabbit, usually around the bottom area, and these eggs will hatch into maggots within a couple of hours. These maggots then will look for a source of food, in these cases this will be the animal’s skin and flesh. Flystrike is extremely painful and can often be fatal if not discovered quickly enough. Treating flystrike can be very upsetting and requires veterinary professional’s to clip, clean and remove the maggots one by one, whilst also providing pain relief and sometimes even fluid therapy dependent on how the rabbit has presented. The rabbit may appear lethargic, painful, innappetent and have visible wounds, although you may not see maggots they could have burrowed into the skin.

Prevention is always preferable to prevent any suffering and so identifying any animal that may be more at risk is always beneficial. This includes older animals that may be unable to clean themselves.

Steps to help prevent flystrike:

Ensure enclosures are regularly cleaned out.

Ensure animals are a healthy weight, as those that are overweight will be less able to clean themselves.
Keep bottoms clean and assist with cleaning in older, more compromised animals where needed.
Ensure their diet is not too rich as this will cause their faeces to be soft and they will be more likely to have dirty rear ends. Rabbits and guinea pigs should have a diet that is a minimum of 85% hay to increase roughage, as well as commercially prepared pellet food and vegetables.

Check your pet nose to tail regularly, this should be at least twice a day and more frequently when fly strike is more likely. Check for fly eggs, maggots, sores and ensure that any urine or faeces is cleaned away.
A topical treatment can be used every 10 weeks during the summer months; it works by repelling flies from laying any eggs.

Prevention of and early identification of flystrike is vital in the treatment of this devastating condition, due to its rapid development in a short space of time. If you are concerned about this condition then contact your veterinary surgery for information and remember flystrike is an emergency.

Naomi Gough Dip AVN (Small Animal), Dip HE CVN, RVN: Nurse Team Leader at Damory Vets.

Great aunt’s love and care inspired fund for young people

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Editorial team

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6 July 2021

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THE love and care of a great aunt has inspired retired finance worker Stephen Uden to set up a fund that aims to help disadvantaged young people reach their potential.

He and his wife Ingrid set up The Gladys Watson Fund with Dorset Community Foundation three years ago and it has already awarded more than £10,000 to groups across the county who make life better for young people.

The former senior manager at Microsoft and Nationwide Building Society and Ingrid, a former teacher, wanted to become involved with the voluntary sector in Dorset when they moved to Shaftesbury.

The roots of the fund stretch back to the 1960s when he was born out of wedlock in Abingdon, South Oxfordshire. His mother gave birth to him at a unit for unmarried mums in Croydon but she returned to a specialist hostel in Oxfordshire.

“In those days if you gave birth in that situation you weren’t expected to keep the baby,” said Stephen. “But my mother wanted to keep me so I went to live with my Great Aunt Gladys who lived nearby in Abingdon.”

He stayed with Great Aunt Glad for three years and it was his memories of the way she helped him and influenced him that shaped the couple’s thinking about the fund he wanted to set up in Dorset.

They decided to work with Dorset Community Foundation after Stephen had a good experience working with Wiltshire Community Foundation while at Nationwide, where he had built up a charitable fund via a company scheme with Charitable Giving.

Ingrid said: “Having moved down to north Dorset we didn’t really know who the groups were in the charity sector so setting up a fund with Dorset Community Foundation and leveraging its local knowledge was really useful in helping us get to know charities in our area.

“The thing we like about it is that, as a donor-led fund, we have still got control over it. Yes, we are paying the community foundation to help manage it but they will identify a series of charities that meet the criteria that you’ve established, which in our case is helping disadvantaged young people realise their full potential.

“Then we sit down and look at the requests and decide which ones we are going to fund each year.”

“We try to make the grants a different mix between the groups we know and also try some new ones and use that as a way of getting to know people,” said Stephen.

Find out more about the Dorset Community Foundation at dorsetcommunityfoundation.org.

New report reveals impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on our village halls

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Editorial team

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5 July 2021

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New research sheds light on the extent to which village halls and community buildings have been affected by three successive national lockdowns.

Much has changed since England’s 10,000+ village halls were surveyed at the beginning of 2020 by national charity, Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE).

Whilst 3 in 20 halls supported Covid-19 relief efforts, the majority stayed closed and will need ongoing support and funding to recover. 15% of halls contacted said they had played an active role in supporting their community during the pandemic, including many Dorset village halls and community centres who provided a valuable community service despite the challenges presented by Covid-19 lock downs.

Herston Village Hall for example acted as a base during the pandemic for the Friendly Food Club to make ‘food bags’ to be delivered locally to families in need, and other community centres such as Littlemoor, Weymouth provided foodbank services. Dorset Community Action’s centre in Wimborne continued to host organisations like Reach and Innovate, who provided a limited number of ‘essential services’ to support vulnerable members of their community, including drug and alcohol support services. The community centre in Fontmell Magna has been working to develop a community cut flower garden in partnership with the Blackmore Vale Partnership social prescribing team to promote the health and wellbeing of local residents.

However, aside from these inspiring examples of the community coming together, many halls expressed concern that they would find it hard to attract volunteers and users back once they reopen, particularly older generations who may be less inclined to meet in person.

Dr Tom Archer, of Sheffield Hallam University who authored the report said, “Halls face major challenges in reopening and re-establishing services. The pandemic has had a significant impact on their volunteers and staff, as well as their users, and the future remains very much uncertain.”

Deborah Clarke, ACRE’s Rural Evidence & Village Halls Manager said, “The research demonstrates a clear and urgent need for continued funding support to be made available to village halls during this period of uncertainty, particularly those facing financial difficulty. This should involve bridging funds and continued relief from business rates.”

Through its membership of ACRE, Dorset Community Action is here to help local community centres and village halls to reopen. Please contact Jo Keats if you would like support [email protected]

or go to our website for further information https://www.dorsetcommunityaction.org.uk/covid-19-latest-guidance/

Oil Tank Fitter / Groundworker | Ford Fuels

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Editorial team

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5 July 2021

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Vacancy for Oil Tank Fitter / Groundworker

Location: Stalbridge – DT10 2R

Salary: Up to £22,000 per annum depending on experience and qualifications

Immediate Start Available

The successful applicant will be an energetic, hard working person who is preferably OFTEC qualified, but not essential as full training will be given, has a full clean driving licence and a friendly approachable attitude. Ideally you will be an experienced groundworker.

In return we will offer a competitive salary, full training, development opportunities, company pension, 28 days holiday (including bank holidays), Cycle2Work scheme, Employee Assistance Programme, Eyecare Scheme and Retail Discounts.

For Full Job Role Description please click here – https://www.totaljobs.com/job/groundworker/ford-fuels-job93512166

Please apply with CV to [email protected]

www.fordfuels.co.uk

Kingcombe Meadows Nature Reserve Walk- 13 miles | Dorset Walks

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Editorial team

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5 July 2021

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Kingcombe Meadows – and adjoining Powerstock Common – have just been designated a National Nature Reserve (NNR), recognised as nationally and internationally important landscapes.

An early form of crowdfunding bought the farm for the Dorset Wildlife Trust in a rundown condition in the late 80s – Dorset Life covered the story on the 30^th Anniversary, do take a read here it’s a wonderful story.

It’s an amazing place to explore – the public are welcome to wander freely thought the Kingcombe Meadows reserve, not restricted to public footpaths only. You are simply asked to respect the crops. And this is one of my all time favourite Dorset walks, with the start and finish winding through a series of ancient-feeling meadows all filled with a vast array of native plants and wildlife. Whenever I follow this route, I feel like I’m stepping back through time.

To follow this route using the Outdooractive App, please find the route here.

Every month in the BV Magazine we publish Dorset walks under the heading ‘Take a hike’ – you can see them all here. Not always in the heart of the Blackmore Vale perhaps, but always within reach for a day’s walk.

We have created and then walked them all ourselves – we always aim to create interesting, unpopulated routes with as little road use as possible and of course as many beautiful views as we can squeeze in.

You can always see the routes we take and follow them yourself via the Outdoor Active App – see all our routes here. – Click on contents tab.

We usually aim for between 10 – 15 miles, although due to many requests and to keep everyone happy we have now added some shorter routes between 5 – 10 miles in length.

Above all, we hope you enjoy reading about the walks that we do and enjoying the pictures of course, but if you are taking them on yourself, we would love to receive your feedback on how you found the individual route and any suggestions you might have. Oh and of course we would love to receive your pictures to share as well!

Kingcombe Meadows Nature Reserve Walk- 13 miles

(for shorter versions there’s the obvious pinchpoint in the middle of the route – the Jubilee Trail joins the two sides and you can enjoy the full route as two shorter walks )

This is a beautiful and varied walk through Dorset’s stunning AONB, covering some ancient and untouched parts of the county – it’s one of the most ‘Dorset’ of our Dorset walks.

The route covers woodland, protected nature reserves and holloways. If you’ve never visited Kingcombe Meadows, it’s a wonderful step back in time with flower rich grassland, ancient hedgerows, rough pasture and wet woodlands, almost untouched by artificial fertilisers and pesticides, with a handy cafe & water point at the car park. Definitely worth a visit and explore.

There are a lot of streams on this route (a favourite is the streambed section as you leave South Poorton, it’s truly magical on a sunny day) – beautiful in a dry spell, but probably quite sploshy in the wetter months!

All paths are clearly signed, and all stiles/gates easy to navigate.Number of people encountered – zero. Utterly unspoilt and tranquil walking, with just the birds and the odd cow for company.

The wonderful valley sitting between South Poorton and Loscombe Nature Reserves. The climb up is lung-burstingly STIFF – but the view is definitely worth it.

The track through South Poorton Nature Reserve is just a footpath but feels like an ancient drovers way.

My favourite path; C always has to stop and wait for me along here. I adore this track along a deep, secret streambed from South Poorton, overgrown with ferns and the water burbling across the stones underfoot.

Stop to appreciate the views across the Dorset AONB before you descend into Powerstock.

Another slice of secret Dorset – the grassy lane approaching Wytherston Farm.

A Twilight Walk

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Editorial team

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5 July 2021

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There is a veritable abundance of wildlife in our gardens and parks, as well as in the wider countryside, at this time of year, but many of our native species live extremely secretive lives; hidden from plain view in the undergrowth or venturing out only at night. Thought you need only pop your head out of doors to see (or hear) birds and insects, you are less likely to come across small rodents, slow worms, frogs, toads and such like, as you go about your daily life. And unless you happen to be sitting outside in your garden, or taking a late evening or early morning stroll, you might not catch sight of nocturnal species like bats, moths, and owls, from one summer to the next.

During the first lockdown, my husband and I started going for our daily walks in the evenings, around dusk, rather than during the day. We did this, initially, to avoid adding to the ever-increasing numbers of walkers and cyclists in the little lanes around our home, but after a while it became our preferred time to walk. As we became more used to walking in the dark, our vision adjusted, and we started to notice things we hadn’t been aware of on our daytime walks. It wasn’t just sights and sounds, but scents as well, the most obvious being the intoxicating scent of wild honeysuckle growing in the hedgerows.

Through the warmer months there were night-flying insects (mostly moths) and wherever we saw these, we often found bats, at least two, occasionally three, different species at one time. The bats were silent, appearing suddenly from the darkness ahead, and disappearing again, in the blink of an eye. The Tawny owls, on the other hand, were far from silent – their hoo hu calls becoming so familiar that we were more likely to remark on the evenings we didn’t hear them than those we did. We rarely caught sight of the adults, but we stopped one evening beneath a veteran Oak, after hearing an unfamiliar call somewhere directly above our heads, and were enchanted, when we looked up to see two Tawny owl fledglings, huddled together on one of the branches.

There’s something incredibly peaceful and magical about walking outside in the twilight hours of dusk and dawn, as though an invisible veil has lifted and you are no longer separated, the way we humans have become, from the natural world. You should give it a go…

By: Brigit Strawbridge

Live music returns to Dorset! | Minterne House

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Editorial team

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5 July 2021

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Live music returns to Dorset!

This summer the grounds of Minterne House will be filled with live music as the house launches ‘Minterne Festival of Music’.

With three concerts taking place across three days, each concert is a standalone event celebrating a different genre of music from classical to pop, ensuring there is something for everyone.

Join us on Thursday 22nd July as one of most exciting British cellists of his generation, Guy Johnston, to perform a programme that includes Mozart’s sublime Clarinet Quintet

Friday 23^rd July will have everyone tapping their toes with internationally renowned jazz pianist Ben Waters and his band.

Saturday 24^th July sees the three-day event close with 70’s pop nostalgia filling the grounds as Les Gray’s MUD II will have you stomping your feet singing along to their chart topping hits.

To make use of our natural setting, performances will offer time to picnic and enjoy the grounds before the concert begins. With a selection of hampers available, guests are welcome to enjoy Minterne’ s delicious offering delivered straight to their group. Alternatively, if they would prefer, guests are able to bring their own. So come and enjoy our beautiful surroundings alongside and evening of sublime music.

All of our events will be run safely with social distancing measures in place with guests being seated in their groups of up to four, and we ask that our audiences take all possible precautions and not attending if they have any signs of infection or have been asked to self-isolate. Should you be unable to attend due to any reason related to the pandemic, we will offer you a full refund of your ticket including the booking fee.

Tickets for each event are sold in ‘pods’ with a maximum of four guests per pod and guests can select from ground or chair seating within their pod. Guests are able to select the location of their ‘pod’ at the time of purchase only.

The dress code is discretionary so if you enjoy dressing up, please do!

Minterne House looks forward to welcoming you to its beautiful grounds to enjoy an evening of sublime music in a beautiful setting.

To book your tickets or find out more visit https://minterne.co.uk/minterne-festival-of-music/ . Contact: [email protected]