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.
Generally I consider myself towards the glass-half-full end of the spectrum, but I must admit the events of last year had me beginning to doubt my sanity in seeing any reason for optimism. However, there are some encouraging signs for hope. Perhaps even, dare I say, the metaphorical green shoots of spring?
One is a positive shift in some of the right-leaning media, away from simple outraged condemnation of environmental protests and towards an acceptance that the climate and environmental crisis is real and must be addressed urgently. In a recent Times column, for example, the writer admits to having fumed at environmental protesters blocking roads and throwing food at artworks, but reflects that he now realises that they are entirely right to be concerned, and that their cause is actually everybody’s cause. He highlights the gulf between what almost every government agrees needs to happen, and what they are actually doing, our own government included.
Another positive note has been HSBC saying it will stop funding new oil and gas fields, and that it will expect more information from energy clients about their plans to cut carbon emissions. Hopefully it will not be just another example of corporate greenwashing.
The innate decency of humans
Something that gives me particular cause for hope is the fact that although we humans can be thoughtless, selfish, greedy and sometimes downright barbaric, we also have a huge capacity for caring and compassion. Where I live in Hazelbury Bryan, the community response during the COVID pandemic focussed on the Red Barn village store, where the proprietors Tara and Darren packed up regular supplies of food and other items for a team of willing volunteers to deliver to residents who were unable to collect for themselves.
Looking forwards
This new year will be what we collectively make of it – we all have a part to play. Let’s look out for those in need, some of whom may face greater challenges than we do, but find it difficult to ask for help. And let’s stay focussed on our capacity to care, both for our fellow humans and the natural world we all share and depend on.
Ken Huggins
for the North Dorset Green Party
It doesn’t seem that long ago that Rishi Sunak and Co stood on their doorsteps every Thursday night along with the rest of us, applauding NHS workers for keeping us all safe during the pandemic. But following the largest strike in the history of the NHS in December, with the promise of more to come, the Prime Minister and his cronies are showing their true colours by snubbing and scapegoating the same hardworking people they once cynically lauded as heroes for their own political advantage.
Key workers from the NHS, Royal Mail and the railways are not just fighting for a pay packet that will put food on the table and pay rising energy bills. They’re also fighting to protect the services they provide and the safety of the people who rely on them.
In the case of NHS workers, it’s the NHS itself that they are fighting for.
The response from the Tories has not been to enter into dialogue with workers and acknowledge their legitimate concerns about the rising cost of living and degradation of services. Instead it has been to try to blame them for an NHS crisis born of 12 years of ideological spending cuts and their total loss of control over a broken UK economy plagued by inflation.
Fat cats not tired nurses
With the cost of energy bills, the weekly shop, filling up your car, rents and mortgages all going up, the only thing that isn’t is wages. Already-squeezed people are being put under ever more pressure. Meanwhile, big energy predicts £170bn in ‘excess profits’ over the next couple of years, with a further £33bn predicted for City bankers. It doesn’t take Carol Vorderman to work out that it is fat cat profits and not nurses pay that is at the root of our current inflationary woes.
Pat Osborne
for North Dorset Labour
At Thorngrove this year, the team have been building you memories – you just need to come along and make them, says Kelsi-Dean Buck
As we enter 2023 we’re feeling a little tired from all the Christmas season’s events, but we’re also feeling rejuvenated. December saw our biggest Christmas ever in terms of hosting events for the community, and our continued push to be more than ‘just a garden centre’, striving to become a place where people can make memories.
Our wreath workshops were the most attended ever, including the final session which welcomed Gillingham Town Mayor Sharon Cullingford. We received some of the most glowing feedback on the workshops and it really made the team effort feel all the more worthwhile. Some people who attended had never tried these sorts of crafts and they went away with a beautiful creation they were rightly proud of. Making our workshops accessible to people of all levels is so important to us, and we look forward to hosting similar events throughout the coming year.
Father Christmas stopped by for four different weekends in our hand decorated Grotto! EmployMyAbility (EMA) students and service users were also involved in the dressing of the grotto (including the amazing hand-made snowman!). We welcomed families from the local area and further afield, doing our best to spread Christmas joy, give out gifts, hot chocolate, and be that location for memories that will last longer than a festive season. This was Thorngrove’s first proper attempt at a ‘home grown’ grotto and we hope to go even bigger for next Christmas!
A new experience
The Fairytale Forest experience with Angel Exit Theatre was another of our Christmas offerings, and something new to us which we were excited to try. This free event was attended by over 1,600 people over the few days, and could not have happened without the creative flair from Lynne and Tamsin and everyone involved with Angel Exit, along with the enthusiasm and support from our staff here at Thorngrove and EMA.
As with the grotto, students and service users were a big part of getting things set up and running smoothly – and yet again the finished experience was a testament to the resolve from everyone behind the scenes. We can’t wait to do more like it in the future.
Come with us!
As we continue to work towards being a community cornerstone, 2023 will mean more events, trying new things, and of course delivering products and experiences that you may not expect. From everyone here at Thorngrove Garden Centre, the retail team, the café, and our Employ My Ability staff, we hope you’ll continue to come along for our journey. Happy New Year!
This month, expert Hannah Wilkins is ready to move you away from your comfort zone wines and keen to introduce you to exciting new terroir
Happy New Year! I hope you had an enjoyable festive break, and naturally that you enjoyed a glass or two of delicious wine. We certainly made more recommendations for a variety of different foods and occasions throughout December than ever before. In the more than 20 years I’ve been in the wine trade, I have never experienced so much variation in menu-planning for the party season – it was genuinely fun to have a new challenge beyond the traditional Christmas feast. We have had so many letters of thanks to the whole team for their selections, which always makes us happy, and this change in Dorset’s buying habits has really spurred us on for 2023.
Wonderfully eclectic
The end of 2022 reassured us that the wine-drinking folk of Dorset are ready for an adventure. We are always asked which area of the wine producing regions in the world we specialise in and the answer is, quite simply, we don’t. We love wine. We know about wine. We are qualified in wine. We love talking about wine. So an open mind is our policy. Our portfolio has always been eclectic – we have an abundance of classics, but we’re proud to champion the weird and the wonderful too!
As I write this, the team is very busy attending tastings and sampling lots of new products from around the globe.
Those comfortable wines
Producers really have raised the bar and are trying to show an authentic expression of terroir and grape varieties.
I love the fact that we have wines made by really passionate winemakers championing indigenous grapes.
Recently, I was asked to be part of a discussion panel about Portuguese wines, which was open to the wine industry.
One question raised was ‘what is the hardest thing at the moment for Portuguese wines and the industry?’ My response was that most of the native grape varieties are quite hard to pronounce, so we need to break them down phonetically and explain the similarities with other wine grape styles to help customers leave their comfort zone wine choices.
My advice to anyone browsing is to be brave; opt for something a little different, even if you have no idea how to say the name of the grape! It’s the only way to find new taste sensations.
If you fancy trying (well, it is ‘Try–anuary’ after all ..) a Bical, Alfrocheiro or an Encruzado from Portugal, pop in and have a look at our increasing range. Plus, keep your eyes peeled for our popular wine tasting evenings – we have some special guests lined up for 2023.
Cheers! Obrigada!
Hannah
Almost 340 struggling local families are currently being supported by the Vale Pantry – and the team of volunteers are only too aware that there are many more in need of the service, without the means of getting to the Sturminster Newton charity. But thanks to a local firm, the new ‘Pantry on Wheels’ van is now able to bring the service directly to their door.
In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, the Vale Pantry was set up to answer a very real need, called for by the local GP surgery, The Blackmore Vale Partnership. It is a new breed of community resource: run entirely by volunteers, the Pantry is far more than a food bank. Instead it offers an exceptionally low cost membership to any family who are struggling financially. Originally planned to support 150 familes, the Pantry currently helps over 330 families living in North Dorset. It survives entirely through donations and with the assistance of local companies to help provide the invaluable service, including local supermarkets the Co-op and One-Stop who regularly donate food.
The team has this month been thrilled by the delivery of a van donated by Rose Engineering, a construction company based near Sturminster Newton. The van allows the team to both collect and deliver much-needed resources to those who are otherwise unable to benefit, and it is already out and about in the area.
Tom Rose, Managing Director at Rose Engineering said, “When we heard that The Vale Pantry were looking for a van so they could reach more local people in need of their food service, we knew we wanted to help. We know, with living costs rising, many families and individuals are in need of their service. They do such an amazing job and we hope the new ‘Pantry on wheels’ will be able to reach many more in need.”
Carole Jones, Trustee of The Vale Pantry said, “We are so excited to be able to extend our services across the whole of the North Dorset area, through into Henstridge and Templecombe too. These are areas which are not served well with food projects, and certainly nothing like the Pantry. It is estimated that 15 per cent of those living in the area are without a car – simply accessing services like the Pantry is incredibly difficult for those who most need it. Now our van can bring the service to their doorstep.
“While food banks support a crisis, the Vale Pantry looks to support the longer journey to help families and households get back on their feet.” Carole said “Some people stay with us for just a short while and others, due to their circumstances, need us for the longer term. Our aim is to help people back on their feet through a variety of interventions – we call it a hand up, not a hand out. If you see us out and about in the van, do give us a wave!”
** Members of the Pantry may visit once a week, paying a £6 membership fee before choosing the food they would like for the week ahead. The variety of foods available include fresh fruit & veg, chilled and frozen produce (including meats, fish, cheese etc.) and store cupboard essentials. A typical weekly shop taken home is worth in the region of £25 to £50.
To find out more – to either support the Pantry with donations or to register as a member – please visit https://valepantry.co.uk/, email [email protected] or call 07968 348481.
It’s been a slog through the worst of the winter at The Glanvilles Stud, but Lucy Procter is excited to see the results of all the hard work starting to shine
August disappeared in a swelter of dust, heat and flies. The following months disappeared in a steadily spirit-sapping mixture of storm and freeze, punctuated by the occasional dry hours or days which afforded some blessed relief from the drudgery of constantly being very wet or very cold. Or both.
Back in the summer the horses were having to cope with the extreme heat but come the autumn and it has been the endless rain and consequent mud that has been the challenge.
The majority of the broodmares have been stabled at night since November, going out into the all-weather sand turnout during the day. A few are going out singly or in pairs into the dryer fields for a couple of hours and some of the youngsters are now in a barn; they won’t go out again until the ground dries up in the spring.
Having grown thick, woolly, grease-filled coats, all the horses have their own natural protection from the elements. However, some of the broodmares are more susceptible to rainscald (constantly wet coats can lead to a skin infection which causes scabs to form in places along the horse’s neck and back), so we do rug any mares we’re concerned about when it’s wet during the day. Others cope just fine and are left unrugged.
However, youngstock are left without rugs all the time. Young horses are just like children: they play, they investigate, they chew. Put rugs on them and they might get tangled in each other’s rugs whilst playing. Or they might pull them off each other and, again, get tangled. Or they might just chew them and rip them to shreds!
When there’s a storm, it’s actually the wind that makes them feel really cold, so it’s best to let their natural coats protect them from the rain and instead to ensure they are in fields with hedges that can protect them from the worst of the wind.
TGS homebred racehorses
We are currently prepping three of last year’s foals for the Doncaster National Hunt Foal sale at the end of January. Technically they all turned one and became yearlings on the 1st of January, but for the purposes of the January sales ring, they are still referred to as foals. These three have been stabled at night and walked in-hand for half an hour every day on their way to their day turnout field throughout December. We walk them to make sure they are fit enough to cope with the sales, when they will be brought out of their stables and walked in front of prospective purchasers a number of times during the day. It is important that they are fit enough to walk as well for the last viewing of the day as they did for the first.
We are also training four homebred young racehorses here at the stud. Two of these are due to go to trainers very soon to do their last few weeks in a licenced yard before they run. Our son Freddie has been busy schooling our Monmartre four-year-old and he is loving his jumping – see video – so we are excited for his hurdling debut in a month or so.
The third is a three year old out of Honeysuckle’s sister, sired by Motivator, that we re-backed in early January and is now happily hacking out. She will shortly go to a trainer for a couple of months work before returning here for a break with a view to running next autumn. The fourth we plan to keep training and run her in point-to-points, but she is just coming back into work after an injury and is unlikely to be fit enough to race before April.
Happy mares
Foaling is just around the corner, with the first three mares due in early February. Two of these are ‘bagging up’ already (udders beginning to fill with milk), and we will once again be sitting up watching them on the cameras overnight very soon.
The rest of the mares are happy with glistening coats and fat with foal.
We are looking forward to seeing the foals that last year’s mating plans have produced – it’s the time of year when we can all dream. And it’s the dreams that get us through having to be outside all day in this hideous weather. We all need a dream to get us out of bed in the morning!
The frost took the cauliflower, says Barry Cuff – and now’s the right time to look back and see what grew, what didn’t, and what lessons can be learned
At the beginning of December about 30 per cent of our allotment still carried vegetables for winter and spring harvest. The remainder was either growing green manure (15 per cent) or was mulched with manure and homemade compost.
With hard frosts forecast we covered the most vulnerable crops with fleece and dug ourselves a good supply of carrots and parsnips. Experience tells us that both are impossible to remove from rock-hard frozen ground!
Under the fleece, the oriental mustards, Chinese cabbage, radicchio, corn salad and winter cress all survived the very low temperatures.
However, the celery and some of our caulis did not make it through the 11 days of below zero temperatures. It was not surprising that the celery died as it is not frost hardy (in previous years with little or no frost we have still been harvesting in February). What was strange was the Medallion cauliflower, which was due to be ready in March. At the end of November the plants looked healthy but every one was lost. Something to be researched; we think at the moment that it is boron deficiency combined with the very low temperatures.
A year’s round up
At the end of the year it is always good to look through the allotment diary and see how each vegetable performed through the year:
On the whole we were very pleased with the quality and yields of our vegetables, despite a year of unusual weather.
Sponsored by Thorngrove Garden Centre
It’s a Saturday lunchtime, and there’s a cosy atmosphere in the bar at the White Horse in Hinton St Mary, just outside Sturminster Newton. In the adjacent Inglenook Restaurant area, a family is discussing a forthcoming wedding, and the seats are filling up fast in anticipation of good food. The walls are full of old equestrian prints and some eclectic local history about the Pitt Rivers family in the building that dates back to the 1700s. So what’s the story behind the White Horse?
I spoke to Barney Hibbert, the landlord, to find out a bit more about the pub.
How did you get started?
‘I wanted to be closer to family in Dorset (he was based in Wales), and I saw this as an opportunity to be closer to them. In 2021 I came to a couple of functions here at the Tithe Barn to see how the weddings work and then I moved in May. We opened the White Horse with a soft opening that month and then opened properly from 1st June. I realised the pub had special potential, so I was really attracted to the project.’
Tell me about the team.
‘We employ all local people. There are three in the kitchen and ten front-of-house staff from the village. I’m the chef.’
But not just any chef. Among his several awards, Barney won the Welsh Sustainable Restaurant of the Year Award three years running with his Barry restaurant, The Gallery. He also won Best Restaurant at the South Wales Echo Food and Drink Awards.
What about local suppliers?
‘We get our bread from Oxford’s Bakery. The meat comes from a local farm – either Shepherd’s Farm or Primrose Farm. Our Ruby Red beef comes from Somerset. We make our own ice cream.’
And what’s really popular at the moment?
‘Well, we change the menu quite a lot as we use seasonal ingredients. For example, Jerusalem artichokes are in season right now. We have wild mushroom gnocchi and a lot of game at the moment. The orange and almond cake on the menu smells very festive.’
(the Thai green chicken curry was delicious, by the way).
What’s been the biggest challenge?
‘We started from nothing, so we had to build up a trade here. But we are gaining momentum. There are not many people in the village itself, so we are aware we need to attract people from further away.’
And what are you most proud of so far?
Barney laughs and says: ‘Sarah! She manages the whole front of house.’
I noticed that Sarah has an incredible way of making everyone welcome. There is even more to be proud of.
Barney says: ‘We have our own beers on tap. So our range is a bit different to the usual ones you find in a tied pub.
Our beer is from the Well Drawn Brewing Company in Wales, including a Bedwas Bitter. I also own the Vale of Glamorgan Brewery, and the beers are on tap. There are other beers as well but we always have something a little different here.’
It transpires that Barney’s list of accolades also include awards for brewing real ale at his two breweries.
What’s next?
‘Firstly, consolidation of the work so far and taking time to review things. We will be having pop-up pizza nights and pub quizzes. We’re also trying to be consistent with the opening times, so people get used to our hours.
And of course, we want to engage more with the local community. We want people to know they can just drop in here for a drink.’
The White Horse at Hinton St Mary is open from Wednesday to Sunday, with opening times displayed on the website – thewhitehorsehinton.co.uk
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