Barnyard Buzz Dorset January 2024

Barnyard Buzz January 2024: Campsite News

There has been a steady trickle since Christmas of campers braving the elements in West Dorset.  This family drove all the way from Birmingham to go fosselling.

After I gave them “a very exciting trip” around the farmyard to see all the animals and birds, they took off to Charmouth to do some searching.  They had a very good day on a deserted beach,  (1) and found some good fossils. (2) (3) (4)

It was getting quite late by the time they had finished with the sun nearly set. (5)

Farm And Garden Updates January 2024

Alisha’s Springer Spaniel Millie had 7 puppies on 16 December.  It was all quite traumatic.  Millie obviously wasn’t sure what was happening to her and even though her whelping box was downstairs in the sitting room she somehow jumped the gate that was supposed to keep her out of the bedrooms, and then proceeded to be sick on one bed, pooed on another bed and had the puppies on a third bed!

Five female puppies were born quite quickly and that was thought to be the extent of it, but a few hours later a male was born, and then after another hour another male popped out!  All the puppies were about the same size and Millie was such a good mother.   (6) (7)

When they were big enough they went down into the goose house under a heat lamp, (8) and small children from the campsite were allowed to cuddle them. (9)  The next job to do was to get a kennel ready down in the yard (10) so that the two sheepdogs, along with Millie and Nellie (the puppy that Alisha is keeping) could live there when all the other puppies were sold.

I installed an owl box last year and we checked it out to see if there was any action.  (11)  Unfortunately there wasn’t.  Perhaps the tractor coming in to get bales of straw in the covered yard, along with the spreading of straw for bedding down, didn’t encourage the birds to choose to live there!

SNOWMAN DRIVE AT BLACKDOWN ( 12)

This is usually called a Beetle Drive but Blackdown Church Committee decided to change the format somewhat and have a Snowman Drive instead. As we paid to come in we were given a sheet with either a pink or blue mark on it, (13) this was to ensure that there was an equal number of pinks and blues given out.

Once at the table of four players a “pink” sat opposite a “blue”. Once the game started it was necessary to throw a 6 to start (which meant that you needed to have a body).

In some cases you could sit there for quite a few rounds waiting for a 6 to roll out of the shaker, Whatever score you had or your partner gained (after you got a “body”) was given to the other so you really had to concentrate and listen.

Eventually, someone in the room would shout “snowman” and everyone stopped, the winner of that round had managed to draw a whole snowman and gain 14 points! The winners for each round were given a box of chocolates!!

The skill in the game was to shake the dice as quickly as possible and move it around the table at the speed of light. When I partnered with the MC for a game we seemed to win in no time as he had it off to a fine art, and always got the numbers we needed!

At this point, the winning pinks went to a table with a lower number, whereas the winning blues moved to a table with a higher number. The two non-winners (who didn’t move tables) then moved to sit next to each other on the original table so that they would have new partners for each round.

Phillip, the MC, had to double-check before each round that people had moved to the right place and were sitting opposite the right person. It was a bit like a stuck gramophone record!

At the end of the evening, more prizes were given out: one to the highest “pink” and one to the highest “blue”. Some special prizes were given for under 11 and 16 for each colour. The youngest winner was the second youngest child in the room. I was hoping to get the booby prize – but there wasn’t one!

The event made £520 profit and 57 people attended – some were paired up eg mother and child, or brother and sister playing together. The youngest child playing was 5 years old. As usual, the homemade puddings served at half-time, were delicious, made by the brilliant team of ladies in the kitchen.

Photos From The Late 1950s

A friend has recently sent these to me and they go back a long, long way. My family had friends from Redhill in Surrey who used to visit us when all the children were small. It was quite normal for us to walk the 5 ½ miles from where we used to live, to Charmouth, because no one had a car. (14)

I think the next photo was at Lyme Regis. (15) I suppose we must have caught a bus from Charmouth to reach this beach. It would not have been any further away as my mother had to get back to do the milking by early evening, (4 cows on the small holding that my mother ran at the time).

The third one (16) was here at Crabbs Bluntshay during thrashing time after getting the sheaves of wheat in from the cornfield. Hair bows for little girls were obviously popular in those days. If only today’s life was as uncomplicated as it was in those days.

Colmers Hill Boutique

The Colmers Hill Boutique (17) (18) is situated within the Symondsbury Estate complex, near Bridport. When I visited the boutique today I was taken aback at the brilliant décor. As soon as I walked through the door I saw this lovely bicycle bedecked in pink on my right. (19)

On my left was this attractive dressing table which was really eye-catching. (20) As I walked further around the boutique even more displays caught my eye. (21) (22) One of the ladies in the shop had to quickly finish dressing one of the manikins in the window, to make sure that she looked “decent”. (23) I even discovered one of my many distant cousins serving behind the counter. (24) They were really quite busy today as it was part of the end-of-season stock being sold.

I first heard about the business when I visited Blackdown Village Hall recently when Colmers Hill Boutique held one of their village “End of Line Designer Clothing Sales”. (25) (26) I had hoped to buy an attractive red dress there but it didn’t fit me! I met several people I knew and had some delicious coffee and cake. (27)

Each rail of clothes had a pricing code to make it easier to keep within a budget. (28) The event was on for 5 hours and there were plenty of customers milling around buying lots of bargains for most of that time. (29) (30) (31) One of the staff at the boutique was modelling one of the outfits. (32)

Penny Callaghan, the owner, was kind enough to give me some background on herself and her business. Penny studied Creative Arts at University as she had always had a creative spirit. After moving back to the South West she found there were very few clothing shops that offered the style and diversity that she had previously enjoyed. Penny wanted to offer creative, modern and stylish collections with quality fabrics and styles that excited customers.

She initially had a large shop and cafe in Lyme Regis for 11 years. She started with accessories and shoes initially and gradually extended the range to include designer clothes.  She set up her boutique in Symondsbury in August 2015. She felt that Symondsbury was a beautiful location and there were excellent hairdressers and beauticians on site, and also a cafe, art gallery and home and garden store. It could be where customers enjoy a relaxed environment rather than the hustle of the high street. She felt that it would be a perfect environment for a designer clothing store.

Three years ago she also launched her own clothing label “From My Mother’s Garden (www.frommymothersgrden.co.uk) at the Abbey Farm Abbotsbury, near Weymouth. Colmers Hill Boutique has a broad range of collections suitable for 30 + years.

Besides clothing the store sells accessories such as hats, gloves, scarves, handbags, belts, makeup bags and sunglasses. The business has won the 2020 Bridport Awards “Business of the Year” and Retailer of the Year”. It also won “UK Brand of the Year for her clothing label in 2022, which was awarded by Boutique Magazine.

Stop Press News – The Incubator

Today George lent me an incubator so that I can hatch out some hen and duck eggs in a few weeks. He says that there are plenty of male ducks to female ducks so that should mean that the duck eggs should all be fertile.

Unfortunately, there is only one cockerel to lots of hens so George couldn’t guarantee that the fertility rate would be quite so high with the hens!

Firstly we had to put the incubator together. At the base, we had to half-fill the little trenches with water. (33) Then we put in the tray with the dividers, and then put the eggs on it. (34) Once the lid was placed on top we had to wait until the space inside heated up to the correct temperature. This was when the red light came on.

The whole incubator slowly rocked from side to side so that the eggs would be rotated. You can see the two different positions from these two photographs. (35) (36) The water at the base helps with the humidity inside the unit. The water will have to be checked once a day to make sure that there was enough to keep the humidity at the correct level.

After about 10 days the eggs will have to be candled to see if they are fertile.

But I will tell you all about that in the next newsletter and also how many of the eggs hatched in 21 days!!

I just pray that we do not have a power cut while the incubator is working. I am at present doing a CEVAS course at Highlands End, Eype near Bridport which will culminate in getting a teaching qualification for having groups (including school children) at Bluntshay.

I am hoping that the eggs are going to hatch before the second part of the course at the end of February when I will use the chicks and ducklings as part of my lesson plan.

Acknowledgements

Raymond Newman, Alisha Lambert, George Lambert, Phillip Hardwill,  Penny Callaghan and the Colmers Hill Boutique staff and  Ashley Lawrence.