We are looking for a Senior Lettings Advisor to replace our lovely Rosa who is relocating overseas this Spring. The new team member will work across all three of our offices in Bruton, Shaftesbury and Wells.
The successful candidate will:
Have experience of lettings and is ideally ARLA quailified or working towards their qualification.
Love meeting with and talking to people every day.
Be really well organised and proactive, with a hunger for building our lettings business.
Have brilliant IT and digital skills for this fast-moving sector.
Have a driving license, plus own form of transport.
Be available to work Monday to Friday 09:00 – 17:30
You will be working collaboratively with our Sales and Marketing teams and will have the opportunity to let some fabulous houses across Somerset and Dorset.
Think you or someone you know would fit the bill and would like to be part of our forward-thinking, young, dynamic agency?
Please email our Managing Partner [email protected] or call our office on 01749 605099
When winter drags and you crave comfort food, it’s many of us turn to convenience carbs. But healthier options are simple, says Karen Geary.
Sweet potato fries with sea salt in a metal bucket – shutterstock
Swap mash for rootveggie mash
Mixing up winter vegetables such as carrots, parsnips and swede into a mash with a dash of olive oil can bring a wider variety of veg into your diet, more nutrients and will help you feel fuller and satisfied for longer. White potatoes when mashed release their sugars quickly which will make you hungry sooner.
Swap rice forcauliflower rice
Curry night? Swap white rice for cauliflower rice. Blitz raw cauliflower in the processor or chop finely into rice-sized pieces. Spread out on a baking tray and bake on 180 deg C until dry and slightly charred (about 30 mins). You need to stir it every now and then to make sure it dries and browns evenly.
Cauliflower is a cruciferous veg, very low in calories, high in fibre, vitamins and minerals and has one of my favourite nutrients, choline which supports our metabolism and also a healthy nervous system amongst many things. If you hate cauliflower, try quinoa instead, a fantastic source of protein.
Swap chips for celeriacor sweet potato chips
Chopping celeriac or sweet potatoes into chips, massaged with olive oil, salt and your favourite spices (I like hot paprika with a touch of cumin), bake in the oven fast – they take about 20 minutes on 190 deg C and are hassle-free.
Swap potato crisps forkale crisps
This sounds a bit new age California, but if you have some kale hanging around in the bottom of your fridge, strip the leaves away from the stalks, massage the leaves with olive oil, spread on a baking sheet and bake on a low heat, eg 120deg C for an hour or so until they are dry (they shrink a lot!).
Sprinkle with salt and enjoy. Another great way to get your cruciferous vegetables into your diet, high in fibre, vitamins, and minerals and none of the additives that you get from a bag of crisps.
Swap flavoured yogurtfor Greek yogurt orkefir
A lot of the fruity yogurts are ultra-processed and aimed at dieters because they are low fat, but instead are loaded with sugars, preservatives or emulsifiers which can give people an upset stomach.
Switch from low fat yogurt to Greek yogurt – it is high in protein and fat and will keep you fuller for longer. If you don’t like the consistency of Greek yogurt – give kefir a go. It is one of the best fermented foods for gut health around. Add stewed apple and cinnamon and you have a lovely dessert or an indulgent breakfast. Your gut will thank you for it.
by Karen Geary, a Registered Nutritional Therapist DipION, mBANT, CNHC at Amplify
Part-time Carer / PA for busy mother in wheelchair East of Shaftesbury.
Cheerfulness, good humour and flexibility more important than qualifications.
This is a very varied role, with housekeeping tasks, admin, meal preparation, minor personal care, trips out and dog walks all included. Children are uni age and above, but life is busy, and adaptibility is essential. Afternoon hours. Strictly non smokers.
References required
Please contact 07790 524 241 for more details or a chat.
Louise Stratton interviews George Hosford, Dorset NFU County Chair, and discusses poppies, worms and the excitement of school visits.
George Hosford’s break crop has fallen foul to politics. One of the main products from poppies is morphine, but this can no longer be exported, halving the financial return on the crop.
Our Dorset NFU County Chairman is George Hosford, in his second year of the two- year Chairman’s term and he is passionate about our farming industry and home-grown produce. George farms in partnership with his brother on 800 hectares outside Blandford. The farm is all rented from a private landlord and is made up of 650 hectares of arable land, 110 hectares of permanent pasture with the remainder being woodland and farm buildings. It’s a busy farm, employing several full-time members of staff to manage the mixed enterprise. Within the arable land, the farm is always trying to maximise the area of wheat being grown. Therefore, the ‘break crop’ – a crop grown to interrupt the repeated sowing of cereals to prevent disease build up – is important to the rotation. George has some unusual break crops, growing spring beans, oil seed rape and even poppies.
Letting the sheep in
Oil seed rape, predominantly grown for edible vegetable oils, is recognised by its bright yellow flower. An insecticide was banned in the UK in 2013, which was the farmer’s way of protecting oil seed rape from the cabbage stem flea beetle, which can decimate fields of the crop. Without the insecticide, farmers like George have very little control over the beetle attacks. But this hasn’t put him off and one thing that is evident from conversations with George is that their farm is always challenging and experimenting with new production techniques. They now bring the sheep flock to the fields of oil seed rape in autumn. The sheep knock back the crop, eat weeds and remove the need for a fungicide as they eat the leaf material away, which would otherwise catch fungal spores floating around in the air, and reduces the leaf area for the beetle to land on. The sheep will reduce the crops yield, but you save on growing costs making it cheaper to make a margin. It is all about doing the sums.
Poppy politics
The poppies have historically been a success, but unfortunately, after 15 years of growing them, they have fallen foul to politics. One of the main products from the poppies has been morphine but this can no longer be exported. George, alongside other poppy growers, has been working to put pressure on the Home Office to grant poppy growers a licensing scheme, but so far this hasn’t materialised and without it, halves the return from the crop, so it isn’t financially viable anymore. The area will be replaced with more beans, increasing the protein crop production.
Leave the worms alone
The farm is in environmental land management schemes and herbal leys. These are a new addition to the farming system and George has added them to the rotation to improve the farm’s soil. Soil is an area George has become increasingly passionate about and as we talk you realise it has driven many of the changes in his farm management. The biggest change has been the ‘retirement’ of the plough, last seen working on the farm in 2012! George has moved to a no- till drilling technique, shallowing up cultivations over the past ten years. Many factors influenced this decision, but fundamentally George recognised that it was bad on the soil structure. The worm is an arable farmer’s unsung hero; they recycle organic matter and improve soil structure as they burrow through soil. For George, as the plough turned the soil upside down once a year, it became maddening watching the waiting seagulls feed on half the worms in the soil. Now, by leaving the soil undisturbed whilst drilling the seeds for the next crop, the worms are left to work their magic.
Earthworms are an excellent indicator of soil health; plough-based horticultural systems have been found to have the lowest worm populations
It is so enlightening to hear George talk about what drives him to continually improve his farming system; he recognises over his farming career the industry’s change, and his change, in approach to farming. The environment has risen up the agenda for us all and on his farm it plays a key role in the decision-making process.
The farm also runs cattle and sheep; there are 55 beef cattle and two handsome bulls, a Red Angus and a Hereford. The farm hosts some of the river Stour valley water meadows and the cattle always ‘finish’ well on these lush pastures.
Farm, school
Alongside George’s desire to fine tune the farming detail, he has another passion that he confessed he drops everything to do. Hosting schools on his farm. With a farm in which all subjects can be taught (although there was a distinct lack of enthusiasm for covering the languages!) George feels strongly the benefits to opening children’s eyes to farming.
The visits are centred around food production and the environment. George sees that everyone has a connection with our industry by eating food every day and he hopes that he sparks some interest for the children to go away and question what is out there and what is being produced.
There is clearly a high level of satisfaction taken from these school visits and George is keen to encourage fellow farmers to take the plunge or encourage a school to get involved, not forgetting that in Dorset the County Show’s Fabulous Food & Farming | 1840 Education Fund has been set up to support schools with travel costs to a farm.
When I asked about the future of farming, there was real positivity: of course, the Government plays an important role in this period of change for our industry in shaping the surrounding policy, but there was a real positivity about the future from George, exploring ideas of branding and increased traceability for the farm business.
Alongside all George’s farming activities, he still finds time to scribe a monthly farming broadcast – View from the hill | Day to day life on a Dorset Farm – and I’d encourage you to hear directly from George what he’s up to, because for someone who is open to learning all the time, it makes for exciting times and reading!
An eating problem is any relationship with food that you find difficult. Anyone can experience eating problems and adopt extreme behaviours as a result, explains Dee Swinton, regardless of age, gender, weight or background.
Eating disorder symptoms can manifest as cravings, eating more or less than usual or trying to eat healthier. Changing eating habits every now and then is normal, but if you feel like food or eating is taking over your life, it may become a problem. Eating disorders are not just about food or weight though and you don’t have to ‘look sick’ to be diagnosed or need help. An eating disorder can be about difficult emotions or painful feelings that come at any stage in life as a result of external life stressors or past/present trauma, both of which are not mutually exclusive.
Dorset’s high levels
But the fact remains: eating disorders have the highest death rate of any mental health illness and are estimated to affect 1.6 million people in the UK (The Telegraph, Nov 2018). During the first lockdown in 2020, monthly referrals for eating disorders amongst young people in Dorset rose drastically by 42% according to NHS England, Jan 2022 This isn’t surprising when you consider how the increased levels of anxiety and isolation had such a devastating impact on vulnerable young people. It has now been estimated that Dorset has one of the highest levels of eatimng disorders afmissions in the country.
It’s safe to say that early intervention is of utmost importnace, and ahead of Eating Disorder Awareness week that takes place between 28th February and 6th March, we want to bust the myth about the stigma (and self-stigma) of asking for help. Shame felt by sufferers can result in their silence and reluctance to reach out for support. But by doing so, it can save a life. With treatment, most people can recover from an eating disorder.
Taking the first step to recovery So, what do you do if you think that you or someone you know might be struggling with food issues?
The first step should always be to seek help from your GP. But if your situation is life threatening, we recommend that you get yourself or your loved one straight to A&E if you can do so safely, or dial 999 and request an ambulance.
Choose your journey
At Dorset Mind, we aim to increase awareness about eating disorders and help support people’s recovery journeys. ‘Restored’ Eating Disorder support comprises professionals with lived experience, who support people (aged 16+) who might be living with anorexia, bulimia and binge-eating disorders or another specified feeding or disordered eating. You don’t have to have a diagnosis to use our services. We provide two pathways to assist recovery: mentoring, and a weekly online peer-support group. Mentoring provides 1-2-1 support from trained mentors who coach you through an 8-week, CBT based programme. Our online Recovery Group facilitates weekly peer-support in the form of a discussion group that utilises a 26-week programme.
How to access our support:
To Book your initial assessment with our team email Romy at [email protected]. Please note, this isnot a crisis service. Dorset Mind charity supports adults and young people with a range of 1-2-1 and group mental health support, education and training across Dorset. Find out more at: dorsetmind.uk
Regular face to face contact, camaraderie and time together at the officeare important, says Dorset Chamber ‘s CEO Ian Girling,
Hello and a warm welcome to my February column – can you believe it’s February already? I hope 2022 has got off to a good start for you and I think we can look forward with some positivity and the fact that hopefully we have now finally turned the corner with the pandemic and get on with things.
Personally, I was delighted when we could get our teams back in the office with the end of the ‘work from home’ guidance. After two years, I have mixed views on working from home. I’ve always been a firm believer in trying to be a family-friendly employer, doing what we can to enable people to strike a good work/life balance while keeping their productivity in the workplace high. Home working can offer many benefits. As I say, it helps maintain a good work/life balance (although it can sometimes result in people working longer hours than they would in the office) and takes out the need for travel, helping ease road congestion and reduce our carbon footprint. This was all so evident during the various forms of lockdown over the last two years. It provides a freedom in our daily lives and many have adapted well to home working. Both my wife and daughter are permanently home-based and it works very well for both of them. They use technology well to keep in regular contact with their colleagues and both have a good home setup.
Downsides to home working
However there can be downsides. It is vital that people have the right home environment to work productively. Balancing a laptop on your knees to work isn’t at all ideal, and employers have a duty of care to ensure employees have the right environment if home working for substantial amounts of time.
We’ve all read also about the social isolation that many experienced when home working. We’ve come to realise that face to face time with our colleagues is important – not just for our wellbeing but also that productivity and creativity rises when you are with your colleagues. Home working may also not be such an attractive prospect for people who live alone.
The obvious solution is….
It’s also important that home workers do not become isolated from the business; a focus can tend to be on just your area of responsibility. It’s vital that we keep our teams fully engaged and they don’t become disconnected from the wider business. Communication is key. An obvious solution that many have adopted is the hybrid model, where employees work partly at home and partly in the office. This can allow the best of both worlds, offering the benefits of home working but still maintaining that contact and engagement with our colleagues. Many firms have actively adopted this approach and indeed many employees are requesting this. I’ve missed having our team together and am really happy that finally we are back together. A few staff are working on a hybrid basis but we are making sure there are times when we are all in the office together. It’s been great to see our office come to life again after the pandemic and for me, that regular face to face contact, camaraderie and time together is so important. While it’s been a very difficult two years for us all, we’ve learned so much and it’s important we embrace the positives that came through as we adapted our working practices during the pandemic.
Lovers of historical murder mysteries will enjoy this exquisitely researched tale of dark goings-on set in Victorian Dorset and told in the vernacular of the time. Author Andy Charman explains the story behind Crow Court.
The paperback edition of Crow Court, a novel set in 19th century Wimborne Minster, is published by Unbound on February 3rd. Crow Court is my first novel and I was proud to see it long-listed for the Desmond Elliot prize 2021. Set in Dorset and centred on Wimborne Minster, it tells the story of several townspeople who are drawn into a mystery surrounding the drowning of a choirboy and the disappearance of the choirmaster.
Rather than telling this story with a single narrative, I used Crow Court to explore the lives of as many different characters as possible, so the tale unfolds through fourteen episodes, each telling different aspects of the story. The narrative is passed from the vicar, to a cordwainer, to a wine-merchant, a farm-hand, a sailor, and a well-to-do composer of parlour music – among others. While the events are entirely fictional, I was determined to make the characters and their lives as realistic as possible. It took a great deal of detailed research, to the level that, for example, every name and profession is drawn from census data. Most importantly, the voices needed to sound right, and rural labourers of the 1800s spoke in Dorset dialect. Fortunately, William Barnes (1801-1886) left us fabulously detailed records of both the vocabulary and grammar of the time. Using this, I was able to attempt a recreation of fulsome Dorset expressiveness. ‘Proper trimmen crop o’ rushes here,’ says Bill Brown in the opening chapter. ‘You joinin’ us a-labourin’?’ asks his more mischievous friend, John Street.
After a lot of practice, I attempted a few sections as if narrated entirely by a farmhand. I kept the spelling modern for clarity, and aimed at as good a re-creation of Dorset dialect as I could manage; the jokes are predictably earthy. Anyone who knows Wimborne Minster will find the setting of this novel familiar and it ranges out to Sturminster, Swanage and Lyme Regis. With such a broad survey, I hope that Crow Court captures the warmth, good-humour and quick-witted nature of the Dorset character.
Sometimes selling wine feels like a dating service, says Sadie Wilkins
Wine is not just a drink; it’s a talking point, it’s a social tool, a thank you, a sign of gratitude, a celebration, an overdue catch up… the list goes on. Quite simply, we connect through wine, and the bottles we crack open bookmark our lives.
So, every time we recommend a bottle to a customer, whether it be a midweek pause to punctuate a long day or an occasion to mark something special, we see it as a privilege to be trusted with all those small and large moments in people’s lives. In short, we better make sure the wine sings the right tune from the glass, which is a real skill when faced with a library of wine made up of 1500 plus bottles!
Equally, every bottle on our shelves tells a story – from the terroir to the winemaker and everything in between. We follow every wine we source from grape to glass, meeting winemakers along the way, before sharing its story with the good folk who come into our wine shop. So, there’s a lot to consider when making a recommendation – we’re like a dating service for wine drinkers, and we want to make sure that we get a second date.
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For us, shopping in an independent should mean finding not only great examples of the grape varieties, but also interesting interpretations of grapes and wines that hail from regions not so mainstream – the ‘weird and wonderful’ grapes. We sample everything we source for the shelves, and we carry it out blind too, without knowing the price – just the varieties and region. It’s something we are slightly obsessive about as we like to have zero pre- conceptions and let the wine do the talking. When you put this altogether, it means we know and love our wines for what they are, and feel passionate about sharing them with others.
We’ve got you
So, let’s put our skills to the test and find your perfect match this Valentine’s Day. Can we be so bold to guess your brief?
You want something ‘nice’ to go with a tasty meal that’s more special than your usual but doesn’t break the bank, right? Well, here’s my thoughts, and I’m going to go with a red and a white that never disappoint! Though for a personalised recommendation, we’d love to see you in person, at the shop, where we can take on the challenge of your brief – whatever it may be!
Sadie’s suggestions: For a red – steak is a Valentine’s staple, and most people choose a Malbec, but here is a little twist. Morande Reserva Carmenere is simply divine. Think green bell pepper meets hedgerow fruit, with a firm backbone but without a huge tannin hit. This wine over delivers and every time I enjoy a glass it seems to give me another level of complexity. £12 per bottle.
For a white – Karim Mussi was inspired by his favourite poets to create this wine: William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Jorge Luis Borges and Walt Whitman.
Los Poetas Semillon is a fantastic wine from Argentina that is bursting with white flowers and peach aromas that lead onto citrus and tropical fruit flavour. Fantastic with white meats, salads, flavoursome fish dishes and even a goat’s cheese tart. £13 per bottle.
