Would you like to join an enthusiastic, friendly team, working for a children’s charity in Dorset? The successful candidate will be responsible for supporting the Referral Team, dealing with schools, local authorities, parents and counsellors. Processing referrals and reports.
Requirements:
Minimum 1yr administration experience
Excellent communication, telephone and networking skills
Excellent organisational skills and time management
Ability to work as part of a team
Excellent knowledge of Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access, Outlook)
Closing date: Friday 30th September 2022
Further details and application form available from:
Mosaic is a Dorset wide charity offering support to bereaved children, young people and their families facing the death of a loved one.
We are seeking fully qualified counsellors/therapists as sessional workers in North and West areas of Dorset and Purbeck. If you have experience of working with bereaved children, young people and their families and would like to be part of our friendly and supportive team, please contact us for further information and an application form.
Requirements:
BACP or similar accreditation in Counselling
Minimum of 2 year post qualification
Experience of working with children, young people and families
Driving licence
Further details and application form available from:
Monthly updates from the various North Dorset Police Teams. This month’s news is from Sturminster Newton’s PCSO 5352 Mandy Robinson
The pedestrianised section of Sturminster Newton’s Station Road comes under attention after reports of an increased amount of traffic
“Local NPT officers have been patrolling areas near to the Steam Fair, a visible deterence to criminals that may be in the area, providing a reassuring presence to locals who feel vulnerable.”
Station Road in Sturminster Newton, the top section, has been pedestrianised for a significant number of years. Recently we have received reports of an increased amount of traffic, with suggestions that some drivers are not permitted to use this section of road. We will be showing an increased presence on this section of road and any driver caught contravening the traffic order will be subject of a fixed penalty notice, resulting in a non- endorsable fine of £50.
“Station Road is pedestrianised; following recent complaints about misuse and unnecessary usage there will be an increased presence from the local team.”
Anti-social behaviour Making Communities Safer is a nationally-run campaign with the aim of bringing communities and organisations together take a stand against anti-social behaviour (ASB), in order to make communities safer. During ASB awareness week, and due to recent ASB in Sturminster Newton, the neighbourhood Policing Team PCSO Mandy Robinson and PC Phil Sugrue invited district councillor Carole Jones and town councillor Debbie Mantock to join them in ASB preventative foot patrols in Sturminster Newton. This was an opportunity for working with our partners and to engage, jointly, with the young people who meet up in the town. We patrolled the Railway Gardens, the town area, Butts Pond, Rixon Rec and Ricketts Lane Rec (also known as the Town Rec). Only two groups were seen and spoken to during the evening.
“Make sure you remember to drive to the conditions. Heavy rain and standing water can take the driver by surprise – often with dramatic consequences. This driver got caught out & tipped over just outside Shaftesbury, fortunately was uninjured.”
Banking scam Recently a local residence was contacted by phone by a male purporting to be from Barclays Bank. The caller stated that there had been fraudulent activity on the bank account and that it was necessary to move the money to a ‘safe’ account. The caller then shared bank details for this safe transfer account. The intended victim was told to attend the bank and to phone the caller – the scammer – when they arrived, and to keep the phone line open. Fortunately, the bank realised this was a scam and no monies were lost. DO NOT ENGAGE WITH FRAUDSTERS AND HANG UP! Please be on your guard and report suspicious activity to the police either by calling 101 or via the police website www.dorset.police.uk/
If a crime is occurring or a life is in danger, always call 999.
The dry summer continues its impact on Dorset farmers as we move into autumn, says NFU county advisor Gemma Harvey
A parched Cranborne Chase during August image: Laura Hitchcock
We all know by now that July 2022 was the driest July in England since 1911, and it has been the driest nine months (November 2021 to July 2022) since 1975/76. Met Office figures show that there has only been 24 per cent of the average rainfall for July. The impact of this prolonged spell of dry weather is hugely challenging and causing concern for many agricultural and horticultural businesses across the country. The dry weather is severely hampering grass growth. In Dorset, as with much of Britain, most livestock is grazed in a grass-based system, meaning that livestock eats grass from the fields in the summer, with farmers harvesting surplus grass to feed animals in the winter in the form of silage. The lack of grass this summer will inevitably hit feed supplies for the winter – many farmers are already having are already having to feed their livestock the forage reserved for winter to compensate for the lack of grass currently available. For the county’s arable farmers, the dry weather has meant that harvest came early this year, with many having finished in time for the Gillingham and Shaftesbury show, which is somewhat unprecedented.
Fire risk still high Attention now turns to the planting of winter crops; with the ground still cracked and parched, the establishment of crops such as winter cereals and oilseed rape will be difficult. On top of all this, as I’m sure many will have seen and heard, the dry conditions are having widespread implications for fire-risk and farm safety. The county has experienced several fires over the past few weeks. This is devastating and dangerous for all those involved but is also a heartening example of how the farming community is able to pull together in times of need. Neighbouring farmers are making great use of WhatsApp to alert one another to fire risks, and coming to one another’s aid with tankers of water to help extinguish fires and cultivators to stop them spreading (see the story our news pages). This does serve as an important reminder though, with weather conditions so dry and temperatures high, the fire risk remains high. With an increased number of people making the most of the weather and enjoying being out and about in the countryside, there has also been an increase in the use of disposable barbecues. The NFU is reminding the public to be safe and responsible when out enjoying the countryside.
Growing a wildflower meadow in your back garden isn’t quite as simple as you might think – but it’s important to try, says writer Jane Adams
About ten years ago, I decided to grow a mini wildflower meadow on what was a rather forlorn patch of grass. It was lumpy and weedy, and I could tell it really didn’t want to be a lawn. Actually, allowing it to grow seemed an obvious win. I wouldn’t have to mow it and pollinators like bees and butterflies would benefit from any extra flowers. From what I’d read, insects needed all the help they could get. But I swiftly found out thet proper wildflower meadows are deceptively hard to grow. In that first year I planted chamomile, knapweed, orange hawkbit, bird’s-foot-trefoil, yellow rattle, and devil’s-bit scabious plug-plants to boost the diversity of plant life. My old lawn buzzed and crawled with insect life, and I felt pretty smug. The following year hardly anything grew except the devil’s-bit scabious. I know now what I did wrong. I didn’t research what wildflowers would and should grow in my sandy Dorset patch. I hadn’t considered the rich mosaic of interconnected plants and fungi that were needed to make a lowland meadow – even one as small as mine. In short, I thought copying nature would be simple, and it wasn’t.
The common carder bee on devil’s-bit scabious Image: Jane Adams
A few fragments In the UK we’ve lost a staggering 97 per cent of our species-rich grassland since the 1930s. That’s equivalent to 7.5 million acres; and quite a few of those acres would have been in Dorset. Over the years meadows were mismanaged, undervalued, and unprotected. What took hundreds, even thousands, of years to grow disappeared almost overnight. But we do still have fragments of flower-rich meadows in our countryside. We just need to join them up so that wildlife can flow from one to another. Which is why conservationists are keen for us to create green corridors for wildlife and plants by growing wildflowers in our gardens. Just imagine if we could sew a giant living patchwork of native flowers right across Dorset. In the meantime, the devil’s-bit scabious, and the bees that hang from their button blooms, are a joy to watch on my old lawn. And they are a reminder we can all do our bit to help wildlife during this ecological crisis.
The wildlife-rich shallows and seashore of Kimmeridge Bay were designated as a protected area under UK law in 2019 and form part of the Purbeck Coast Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ). The intertidal zone (the region between the high tide mark and the low tide mark) in Kimmeridge Bay is the only stretch with this level of protection along the open Dorset coast and an important part of our work at the Wild Seas Centre is to record and monitor the marine life along this coastline.
Migrant crabs One such survey focuses on the furrowed crab, Xantho hydrophilus, a native to the south west coast but a recent arrival in Dorset. Further west, this crab has undergone a population explosion in recent decades, raising concerns about its impact on other long-term residents. First sighted on the seashore at Kimmeridge in 2019, the survey records the population size and any concurrent changes to other crab species on the seashore, including the edible crab, Cancer pagurus, of which there is an abundance of juveniles. Edible crabs move to progressively deeper water as they grow, so the ones found intertidally are the small, immature youngsters. A team of trained volunteers records the number, size and sex of crabs, along with the habitat and associated animals. While the population of furrowed crabs is still at a low level, something interesting has been discovered about the edible crabs; out of the 125 recorded, only four were females. Crab experts appear to have no explanation for this gender discrepancy and further research is needed to solve the mystery.
DWT Volunteers
The need to monitor Climate change is known to be altering the distribution and survivability of many wildlife species and it is thought that the furrowed crab may be one of these, hence its recent colonisation in Dorset. The effects of shifting distributions and the fortunes of both winners and losers in these changing times are unforeseeable, so monitoring changes and their impacts is vital to our understanding of how we can help. Of course, the most urgent need is to slow the global temperature increase, which will at least give species more time to adapt. Meanwhile our volunteers will continue to monitor this most difficult of ecosystems and share our understanding far and wide.
The dry summer has been difficult, says flower farmer Charlotte Tombs as she makes plans to work around drought with her 2023 plant choices
Some of Charlotte 2022 dahlias – Seniors Hope, Creme de Cassis, Burlesca, Franz Kafka, Molly Raven and Zippity Do Da Images: Charlotte Tombs
I won’t bore you with how I was going to have natural free spring water for my flower beds this summer. Nor how I was going to have irrigation in all the beds. Or how (like always) the plumber never came when he said he would, and has only just turned up some eight weeks later – which is rather late. Or even how I’ve spent hours watering and keeping things alive this summer and I’m never going to get those hours back. In fact I just had to give up on some beds and as a consequence had to cut down on the flower orders I’ve been able to take on. But of course there is always next year to do things differently; with different plants and different varieties. The great thing about gardening, as I’ve written before, is you always get another season to try again.
These dahlias remind me of fruit salad penny sweets – they are Daisy Duke, Totally Tangerine, Burlesque and Molly Raven, with cosmos apricotta and scabious salmon rose.
Climate change plants Perennials are the way forward if our summers are getting hotter and our climate is changing – I will certainly be looking to grow more drought-tolerant plants myself. Of course they are more expensive, but they can be grown from seed and some will flower in their first year. Good choices for this are achillea, yarrow and eryngium, or sea holly, which is the most beautiful steely blue colour and the bees LOVE it so it’s a real winner for the garden. It’s a good idea right now to take the time and have a good look around your garden; see what has survived and thrived in your poor parched flower beds. Drought-tolerant plants tend to have grey or silver leaves – the light-coloured leaves reflect the sun’s rays. Often the leaves also have tiny grey hairs on them, which help to retain moisture around the plant’s sensitive tissues. Some plants which really don’t mind a drought are echinacea (or coneflower), nepeta (or catmint; be warned, cats really do love this plant!), agastanche, salvias, lavender and rosemary. A lot of ornamental grasses thrive in dry conditions, unlike their moisture-loving cousin otherwise known as your lawn. The zinnias this summer have been amazing; they love it hot and dry. They are considered a ‘dirty flower’ because they make the vase water dirty, but a small drop of bleach will help prevent this. There is an autumnal nip in the air first thing now, and thankfully a heavy dew which is helping my thirsty flowers. It’s certainly been a challenging summer for a cut flower grower.
September is a month of abundance, even after a summer drought, says foraging expert Carl Mintern as he enjoys the literal fruits of the season
meadowsweet or mead wort, Filipendula ulmaria, with flying insects searing for honey and pollinate the flowers
This year has been a test of water management for both us humans and the natural world, with droughts seen across much of the country and record temperatures to boot. Indeed, many of our trees have decided to shed brown leaves as early as mid-August, giving some areas a very autumnal look and feel already. I, along with you I am sure, am hoping that the coming weeks and months give our surroundings a chance to recover from this summer with some much-needed rainfall. I have also noticed that many of our hedgerow harvests seem unaffected by the conditions, with a bumper year for blackberries and also many nut trees looking extremely bountiful. One such tree is the walnut (Juglans regia), a prized tree in the forager’s inventory. While many people are surprised to hear that we can go foraging for walnuts in the UK, the walnut tree has been growing here since Roman times and can be found in many parks and larger gardens, as well as on roadsides. Indeed, it is one of the things I will often spot from my car on journeys all around the Blackmore Vale and surrounding area. As with most nut trees, the trick is getting to the ripe nuts before the squirrels, who are particularly adept at outwitting us human collectors when it comes to timing our harvests. Ideally you will wait until the shell has started peeking through the green husks which are in clusters of two to five. They are green and oval in shape, looking a little like a lime from a distance, and inside is the wrinkled seed. As the nut ripens, the shell forms and hardens around it. Once collected and dried out it can be stored for up to a year. In the world of foraging, nuts hold a special place for me, alongside mushrooms, as they can form the centrepiece of a meal and offer a huge amount of protein and other nutrients. As such, it should come as little surprise when I say that the walnut tree is by far my favourite tree to find on the landscape.
Wait to harvest walnuts until the shell has started peeking through the green husks
Meadowsweet The next plant I wish to share this month is meadowsweet, (Filipendula ulmaria), a truly abundant wild herb that likes a damper environment – hopefully the autumn will deliver one. This sweetly-scented plant was famous both as a strewing herb, scattered on the floor for its scent, and as a flavouring for mead. Today I use it to infuse many things, from vinegars to custards. Last September I undertook a challenge where I only consumed food I could procure myself, with not a single thing bought from a shop, and I made meadowsweet custard by infusing my goat’s milk with the flowers from this plant, which deliver an almond flavour with hints of vanilla. All parts of the plant are edible and can be added to soups or sauces, giving a deliciously sweet aromatic flavour to sweet dishes such as stewed fruits. The bitter roots, along with the leaves and flowers, have been used dried as a tea. Traditionally found in damper meadows, meadowsweet grows prolifically in the Blackmore Vale along roadside ditches which have been created and maintained to irrigate agricultural land. It is both abundant and easy to find and identify.
Wild pears are free for the picking, and just the same as those you’ll buy in the supermarket
Wild fruit Finally this month, I would like to draw your attention to the possibility of finding other fruits we usually associate with cultivated harvesting. While I will spotlight no one in particular, I think its easy for us to forget that wild strawberries and raspberries proliferate in wild spaces all around us, along with wild blueberries and currants. As I sit to write this article, I can see a heaving bowl of pears, collected from a wild pear tree growing on an almost unused roadside connecting two small hamlets. The differences between the pears I have and the ones in the shops? Well, apart from the fact mine taste better, and were free, not much at all …
The hot and sunny summer will have been a blessing for all the parts of our lovely county that benefit from the tourist trade. After a difficult two years with the effects of the pandemic, to have full beaches and local attractions (and therefore full bars, restaurants and shops), will have been wonderful for all kinds of local businesses. The weather has definitely made the last couple of months more interesting for our local farmers though. It still remains to be seen how much of an impact that will have on the levels of locally-grown produce in our shops. While some crops will have benefited – it’s been good for the blossoming wine industry – others are struggling. If you want to show support for our local farmers and those who source their ingredients from them, then do try your local farm shops and delis and buy from them direct – even an occasional small spend helps if we’re all doing it. This recipe is made using apples which are just coming into season. Dorset has a wide range of apples and while some apple turnover recipes insist on Bramley apples, I would recommend you try any kind – sometimes the texture of the apple inside the pastry adds something wonderful to the bake, rather than just a soft inside. Heather x
Ingredients
2 packs of ready rolled puff pastry (fridge cold)
10 to 12 apples
1 tsp cinnamon
2 to 3 heaped tbsp soft brown sugar
1 egg (beaten)
1tbsp Demerara sugar to finish
Directions
Peel and core the apples and chop into small pieces (0.5cm cubes).
In a small saucepan, add the apple pieces, the soft brown sugar and the cinnamon. If you are using a sweeter apple variety then use less sugar here; you can always taste and add more if you need to. If using a sour apple variety, like Granny Smith or Bramley, then use slightly more sugar.
Mix the ingredients well until the sugar and spice coat the apple pieces and then turn on the heat to medium. Gently cook the apples pieces until they soften. If you are using a Bramley apple, the apple pieces will completely lose their shape, but something like a Pink Lady will just soften to lose the ‘crunch’ when you bite them – this is what you are looking for. This will take 5-10 minutes and be careful not to let them burn on the bottom by giving them a stir as they cook.
Leave this mixture to cool completely (you can make this stage ahead and leave in the fridge until you are ready to make the turnovers).
Pre-heat the oven to 180º fan/Gas 5. Grease and line two baking trays.
To make the turnovers, roll out the pastry and gently cut into squares – there are no rules here, the size of the square is up to you. Some love a huge turnover, some like little turnover bites.
Dab a little of the beaten egg around the edge of the squares. Place the apple mixture onto one diagonal half of the square and fold the pastry over to make a triangle with the mixture inside.
Press down the edges with a fork.
Carefully move them to the baking tray. Brush beaten egg across the top and sprinkle over some of the demerara sugar.
Bake for 15-20 minutes (depending on how large they are) until crisp and golden brown.
Heather Brown is on the committee of the Guild of Food Writers; she is a home economist with a passion for Dorset’s brilliant foodie scene, as well as a dab hand at fixing websites, and with a penchant for taking a good foodie photo. Heather runs Dorset Foodie Feed, championing Dorset’s food and drink businesses, as well as working one-to-one with clients.
