Winter doesn’t have to mean resorting to supermarket flowers, says Charlotte Tombs. Perhaps we just need to think a little differently
Create an indoor spring bulb garden in the depths of winter All images: Charlotte Tombs
The answer is YES; with a little imagination, planning, organisation and determination you can have British flowers in your house all year. Of course, the flowers might not be the same as those you would buy from the supermarket along with your weekly shop. But stick with me – there is a way which is kinder to the planet, which has little to no carbon footprint. If you’re thinking about your eco choices, why are you still buying imported flowers with who knows how many chemicals sprayed on them or fed to them? I certainly know what I’d rather have in my home.
Hellebores provide subtle but splashy winter colour
A simple twig with lichen on can be quite beautiful
‘Plant’ narcissi on gravel in a storm lantern
Dried flowers can be a wonderful investment
Thinking differently Even in the depths of the coldest months there are winter-flowering shrubs, hellebores, berries, seed heads, winter-flowering honeysuckle … if you look hard enough you can always find a bit of colour. I think we can be quite conservative in our approach to vases of ‘flowers’. Sometimes a simple group of twigs with lichen on can be quite beautiful. There is also the option of forcing branching by cutting twigs when you can see the first leaf/blossom buds. Bring them inside and place in water – given the indoor warmth you’ll get to watch the leaves unfurl. It is wonderful to watch. Something else you can do is plant bulbs that have been cooled to fool them into winter dormancy. By planting these specially-treated bulbs (look for ‘pre-chilled bulbs’) you can cheat Mother Nature and have an indoor spring bulbs garden. Some bulbs, such as narcissi, don’t need to be kept in a dark cool place if they have had the cold treatment. Instead you ‘plant’ (more like ‘place’!) them on gravel in a glass storm lantern and watch them grow. The flowers will fill your home with scent. Use your forced branches for these blooms as support for the long stems. Or perhaps you could invest in an everlasting bunch of flowers – dried ones. I say invest as these have been grown from seed, potted on, planted out, fed, watered and nurtured until they were harvested, sorted, dried and stored … before being made into a vase arrangement for you to enjoy. It seems fair that they are more costly. There is an awful lot of effort in that dried bunch. Some brides are having all dried flowers for their weddings now. I’m not sure I could go down that route but there is always room to enjoy fresh and dried. If you have any questions on techniques or varieties, please do send me a message on Facebook, Instagram or email me on [email protected] and I’ll happily help.
An opportunity has arisen for a dynamic, enterprising and inspiring person to join our Business and Enterprise department at Clayesmore School.
The ideal candidate will have an understanding of what a modern and relevant business curriculum should offer and have the ability and understanding to motivate and inspire pupils and colleagues. Experience of teaching A Level Business is essential and A Level BTEC Enterprise would be an advantage.
In addition they will be keen to contribute to the life of a busy boarding school.
This is a permanent, full time position; a competitive salary and attractive benefits are provided for the successful candidate.
For further information and an application pack, please go to:
Closing date: 8.00am on Wednesday, 7 December 2022
The vacancy may close earlier if a suitable candidate is appointed. Early applications are therefore encouraged.
Clayesmore is committed to the safeguarding and promotion of children’s and young people’s welfare and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
To commence in January 2023 Full time, fixed term for Spring and Summer 2023 terms
We wish to appoint a Teacher to contribute to the Girls’ PE and Games programme in Key Stage 4 and 5, and a small number of lessons each week to our Key Stage 2 pupils.
A competitive salary and attractive benefits are provided for the successful candidate.
An early application is recommended as we may interview and appoint before the deadline if the right person applies.
For further information and an application form please go to:
Closing date: 8:00am on Wednesday, 7 December 2022
Clayesmore is committed to the safeguarding and promotion of children’s and young people’s welfare and expects all staff and volunteers to share in this commitment. www.clayesmore.com
After the hot dry summer, three inches of rain in September made a noticeable difference to the plot, never achieved by the watering, says Barry Cuff.
Barry continues to enjoy autumn salads, and the plot’s brassicas have never looked so good
With above-average temperatures and higher-than-average rainfall for October, growth of both vegetables and weeds was phenomenal! The one slight frost wasn’t cold enough to kill off tender plants. Within a week, newly moved soil had produced a flush of weed seedlings, especially chickweed, groundsel, fat hen and sowthistle. Many of our flowers – cosmos, nasturtium and dahlia – still attracted hoverflies, bees and Red Admirals. Lots of weeds were still flowering too – black nightshade, red deadnettle, weasel snout and shepherd’s purse. We were still picking runner and French beans till at least the middle of the month, but they have now finished, and we cut our last courgette on the 25th. Our first parsnip was dug mid-October and cooked as wedges; tasty enough, but they will be better after a few frosts. We have had some wonderful autumn salads too, all harvested fresh from the plot. Ingredients included red frills mustard, green streaks mustard, mizuna, lettuce, cauliflower florets, red moon radish, blue moon radish, baby carrots and radicchio. The brassicas have never looked so good, having lost most of the whitefly and with little-to-no caterpillar damage. We have cut excellent Cheesy and Fargo cauliflowers, eating them both raw and boiled. Our Ironman calabrese are producing good-sized heads and will eventually have smaller side shoots. All the lower leaves of the Brussels that were covered in honey dew have been removed, making the plants look much better as the sprouts themselves begin to develop. Both the leeks and celeriac are growing well and we will start harvesting those next month. Celery and carrots continue to be harvested as required and we are using potatoes, squash, onions and garlic from our store. From the freezer we have this summer’s peas, French beans, broad beans and sweetcorn. We were still picking raspberries on the 28th of October and we are enjoying the last of the pears which we picked early in the month.
Looking ahead Next year’s garlic was planted on the 12th. We are trying two varieties which are both new to us – Garcua and Carcassonne Wight – and have planted a total of 40 cloves. A highlight of the month was the arrival of our seeds from Kings. We ordered 37 packets (31 vegetable and six flower), making the most of the 50 per cent discount we get as our allotment is a member of The South West Counties Allotment Association. The first of these will be sown next February – broad beans and peppers.
‘Rock Around The Christmas Tree’ with the Gillingham Festive Light Switch On – 2nd December 2022
Street Market Santa Claus Food and Drink Children’s Activities Daily Deals Santa Parade Live Music Festive light switch on
Come to Gillingham this Christmas, so much to see and do …
The festive day starts from 12pm with a street market of fabulous stalls for all your Christmas shopping delights. Throughout the day there will be live music, childrens activities and plenty of great food and drink on sale. There is a Santa Parade and you can personally visit the jolly man himself from 3pm.
And finally at approximately 7.05pm there is the Festive Light Switch On itself… a day not to be missed!
There is even *Free Parking* for everyone in the council operated car parks!
PLUS!
There are daily December deals to be had from Gillingham’s businesses in their digital advent calendar
Kicking off with the Letters to the Editor, we’ve then had some fascinating conversations with some well-known local personalities, including Sonnaz from the Repair Shop (who answers our 19 random questions), and Athelhampton’s owner Giles Keating sharing his Dorset Island Discs:
Letters to the Editor – listen to what others think (our postbag is always open – send emails to [email protected] )
Sonnaz Nooranvary is a British-Iranian upholsterer who lives near Wimborne, best known as the resident upholstery expert on BBC One’s The Repair Shop. This month she braved the BV’s Random 19 questions.
Filleting since he was 14 – meet John the Fish, Wimborne’s fourth generation fishmonger with no better fish to fry when it comes to his life choices.
Pies, pasties and sausages are on the menu at Yeovil-based Wild and Game as they promote the use of wild British game into our diets.
Giles Keating, the owner of Athelhampton House, one of England’s finest Tudor manors, has overseen a major plan of maintenance on the much-loved building. He shares his story through his Dorset Island Disc choices – be ready for Dr Who, LEGO and Taylor Swift.
The BV magazine is the monthly digital magazine from Dorset – you can read the entire latest issue here and why not subscribe (it’s FREE!) so that it drops into your inbox every month on publication day? Just click here!
Former resident of Gillingham sadly passed away on 16 November 2022. A former member of Town Twinning group, local crib league (Buffalo team), British Legion and member of Dorset masons died aged 95 after a short illness in Norwich where he had moved in 2021. Missed by many including his family and friends
Hedgerows have inexplicably been left out of the climate change action plan, says Rupert Hardy, chairman of North Dorset CPRE
A view of Dorset’s hedgerows from Ibberton Hill. Image: Rupert Hardy
Last year we wrote about the importance of hedgerows in offsetting climate change (The BV, Aug 21). We welcomed the government’s 2019 Committee on Climate Change report, which called for a 40 per cent extension of the UK’s hedgerows. Sadly the government did little to implement this in its 2021 action plan, which aimed to restore and enhance trees and woodland, but inexplicably left hedgerows out. CPRE therefore set out to promote this instead, proposing a target of 40 per cent by 2050, with the campaign called #40by50. We commissioned the Organic Research Centre to provide an overview of the impact on nature, climate and the economy – and they suggested that for every £1 spent on hedgerows, a return of up to £4 can be expected from ecosystem and economic activities such as biodiversity enhancement, carbon sequestration and woodchip production for biofuel. Planting hedgerows on arable land can boost yield by ten per cent and reduce artificial pest control by 30 per cent. This is all rather ironic when you consider how many hundreds of miles of hedgerows were grubbed up in the post-war period to supposedly to improve agricultural efficiency! Healthy hedgerows teem with life and more then ten per cent of the UK’s priority species are associated with hedgerows, including dormice and hedgehogs. There is huge potential to increase the carbon sequestration of hedgerows, if they are allowed to become wider and taller. They also improve air quality and can reduce soil erosion and flooding.
Volunteers planting a hedge in Dorset. Image: Ian Duckworth
Hedgerow Heroes The CPRE has worked with Farmers Weekly to engage with farmers who want to be involved in our hedgerow management survey and has received no less than 1,100 responses, which we are analysing now. There will be a parliamentary reception in December to launch the results of our farmers’ survey. Dorset CPRE has also been involved in a project to plant or restore more than 15 kilometres of hedge across the county, including the planting of over 50,000 trees. On the Hinton Admiral Estate straddling the Dorset/ Hampshire border, this has involved the planting of 1.7 kilometres of new hedgerow and improving a further 1.3 kilometres of existing hedgerow to create a better habitat for wildlife. We are asking parliamentarians to sign up to become Hedgerow Heroes and to call on the Secretary of State to make a firm commitment to our 40 per cent target. Fifty five have signed up to our campaign – but sadly they do not yet include any Dorset MPs. Our fellow campaigners, Dorset Climate Action Network, want to facilitate hedgerow restoration through their Great Big Dorset Hedge (GBDH) Survey project. Dorset CPRE members are helping with this too. John Calder, who has a farm in Charmouth, is helping to start that journey by designing the hedgerow surveys on the major trails that traverse our county – the Jubilee Trail, Stour Valley Way and Brit Valley Way among others. Hopefully this will start a conversation in every parish they visit. The aim is to bring together volunteers and/or contractors with landowners who want to have their hedgerows assessed, then restored or extended.
Hedgerows in Toller Porcorum In September various volunteers, including those from Dorset Wildlife Trust (DWT) and Dorset CPRE, made their observations on nearly a mile of the Jubilee Trail to the west of the DWT’s Kingcombe Centre in West Dorset. They looked at what species are in a hedge, found one English Elm tree, and used the Adams Condition Code infographics sheet to determine the distinct stages of the life cycle of a hedgerow. Almost every hedge surveyed had an interesting story to tell but they found a particularly wonderful old pathway in Mount Pleasant Lane. It was far too important historically and complex structurally to fit tidily into the streamlined hedgerow assessment process that has been developed for the GBDH project. It is worth so much more than that, so they added a sheet especially on it. Hopefully data collected will be added later to a Quantum GIS database so everything can be recorded in one place and then used in mapping software such as Dorset Explorer. This will help to identify the hedges that have already been surveyed and sections that may need additional planting. If you would like to join John and other volunteers on future surveys, or find out more about the GBDH project, please visit www.dorsetcan.org/hedge.html.
Hedgerows in North Dorset In 2000, our future CPRE president, Bill Bryson, wrote: ‘For well over a thousand years hedgerows have been a defining attribute of rural England, the stitching that holds the fabric of the countryside together. From a distance they give the landscape form and distinction. Up close they give it life, filling fields and byways with birdsong and darting insects and the furtive rustles of rodents … Hedgerows don’t merely enhance the countryside. They make it.’ Nowhere is this more true than in the pastoral landscape of North Dorset, with the added realisation of the key role hedgerows can play in halting biodiversity decline and tackling climate change. Thomas Hardy’s “Vale of the Little Dairies”, the Blackmore Vale, is characterised by its irregular patchwork of small fields divided by ancient hedgerows. Some are Bronze Age or Neolithic in origin. They may have been boundaries then, but now we need them for other reasons. Please consider planting a new hedgerow as well as more trees. They are vital for our own survival.
We’re looking for an enthusiastic and ambitious person to join our Development Team, ideally with previous web agency and/or software developer experience, to work on new and exciting digital projects and mobile apps.
12-months ago we launched a new app product – called Holidaymaker – to the tourism and hospitality sector, which is seeing fantastic growth. So, this is the perfect opportunity for an ambitious and hardworking individual to put their coding skills to use, and to make their mark on a great new product and within a growing digital agency.
You have:
An understanding of code concepts such as object-oriented techniques, and languages
Strong teamwork and communication skills with a great attitude
Knowledge of software engineering practices, ability to follow house standards, and what defines good quality code
A keen interest in learning new technologies and approaches to building good software
Acute attention to detail and desire to achieve perfection
Ability to work autonomously and manage your workload and deadlines effectively
A readiness to embrace and use new approaches and to keep up-to-date with industry advances
Been involved in the full lifecycle of development from design and implementation, to testing and deployment.
A technical degree level education is desired, but other relevant qualifications, experience, or knowledge would be considered.
What makes you special?
Previous experience of developing mobile applications, web services, or full stack software.
Knowledge of any of the following is advantageous:
Native Android Apps built in Android studio using Java, or Kotlin, and XML user interfaces
Native iOS Apps built in XCode using Swift, and user interfaces in Xib/Storyboard or SwiftUI
Web service / API development using PHP and MySQL or Postgres
PHP Development using the WordPress CMS engine for custom plugins and/or themes
Knowledge of SQL and relational database concepts
Web front-end concepts using HTML, CSS and JavaScript
Other knowledge of API and server-side systems
Other knowledge of OOP software languages and frameworks such as C#, C++, or Delphi
Knowledge of version control systems
Ability to research unknown solutions or concepts, and apply to your own code in our house standards
Previous experience in an agency, or working with clients
Ability to write suitable tests for your own code, and debug other’s code when required
A desire to contribute to team practices and help push them forwards
What we can offer you:
A super friendly team
Skilled senior staff who will help you to achieve your very best
25 days holiday plus bank holidays
A growing agency with lots of interesting and varied projects to get your teeth into
A relaxed working atmosphere
Company pension
Modern office with free parking, close to cafes and lunch stops
Flexible working option for some part of the week.
McD’s Friday, social events
Hours:
Full-time (37.5 hours per week), Monday-Friday
Salary:
£25K-£32K – dependent on skills and experience
Permanent role with an initial 6-month probationary period
Location:
Poundbury, Dorchester, Dorset
Required experience:
Web or software developer experience: 2 years (professional)
How to apply:
Please send your CV, covering email, including GitHub page (or similar) with links to any apps you’ve worked on. If you are selected for interview, we will want to have a friendly, detailed conversation about your work, including looking at and discussing code on your projects.
Preference will be given to candidates who can provide examples of relevant work or projects. We’d love to see apps or digital projects you’ve developed that can be used by us to review your application and discussed as part of the interview process.
We will consider recent graduates if you can demonstrate projects.
Street Market 
