Barnyard Buzz – July/Aug/Sept 2024

Dorset’s Western Vale

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CAMPSITE AND RALLY

Probably the most significant event that occurred on the campsite during the summer holidays was the arrival of a Camping and Caravanning Rally.  This had been planned during the summer of 2023 when outline details were discussed.  The next step was to agree how much of the big field would be taken up by them.  Eventually the area on the map [map] was permitted.  We staked out the area they could use so that other campers would be able to access the top of the field. [2] We also erected 3 portable toilets in the area next to the garden. [3]  At the end of the day less that half the number of rally members expected arrived. [4] This was mainly because the 4 hookups available to them were not advertised.  Needless to say the campers who did arrive were very nice and some of them enjoyed being involved with Bluntshay.  [5]  The Rally stewards were very friendly and one of them was always on duty on the site.  [6]   The Rally people never did use the portable toilets!

As usual both adult and children from the campsite enjoyed the poultry, [7] the geese, [8]  feeding the cows with apples [9] and bedding down the geese. [10]  I had several campers from Europe, [11] some who arrived by bike, but with no cash expecting card facilities.  One family had a free stay because they never did pay later when they got back to their own country!  Perhaps I should invest in a card machine?

The local beaches were popular as usual with interesting stones and fossils being gleaned. [12]  Two campers went out late at night, to Charmouth, with ultra-violet torches to look for minute pieces of sea glass on the beach. [13]  I had no idea that sea glass was so interesting.  They are naturally weathered pieces of the anthropogenic glass fragments of typically drink ware, which often have the appearance of tumbled stones [natural frosted glass] that have been physically polished and chemically weathered by the sea.  Sea glass is used for decoration, most commonly in jewellery., and takes takes 20-40 years, and sometimes as much as 100-200 years to acquire its characteristic texture and shape.

FARM

Some improvements were made around the yard during the summer.  The two manhole covers relating to the sewerage system from the farm house and cottage had both been in quite a dilapidated state for some time.  [14]  The area around the two tanks was dug out to a depth of 10 inches and then cemented over to give a good strong and tidy patch of cement suitable for any weight driving over it.  [15]

George tried out my late 1960s Massey Ferguson 135 tractor to make sure that it was still in order.  [16]  We intend to put a scraper on the front of it to make it easier to do the cow yard in the winter.  George and Harry chalked down the floor of the polytunnel to give a much better surface, ready for the turkeys in the autumn.  [17]

Hay was brought in from elsewhere and placed in the hayloft for the winter.  It was good to see that the area was being used for what it was originally built for.  I have no memory of hay ever being stored there before.  [18]

Another job that needed to be done was to wash the hooves of the sheep with a mixture of Formalin diluted in water.  This is to prevent “strip” which affects sheep if they are in long grass for long periods.  [19] [20]  [21]  With all of my niece’s family [the Lamberts] working full time at the local foundry it means that, at this time of the year, they have to do work associated with their animals and mine after dark, even in late September.  This photo shows straw bales being carried by a grab. [22]

PEARL  AND DAN’S WEDDING CELEBRATIONS

Pearl and Dan stay on the campsite quite a lot and decided to get married in Lyme Regis and then have a blessing and a party at the Shave Cross pub, up the road, in September.  The night before this event some of their friends stayed at the campsite and had a party of their own. [24]   [25]  On the following day there was a wedding schedule for guests to know the forthcoming events, [26] and flower ladies gave out flower petals [which had been collected and dried by 3 friends for over a year]. The cones they were placed in were made out of Harry Potter books!.  [27]  There were flowers, [28] and small children everywhere; an ideal mix for a bubbly atmosphere!  Soon Pearl arrived with her parents  [29] and then the blessing took place. [30]  Their daughters Indigo and Aurora, were bridesmaids, but I never did manage to get a photo of them all together.  Pearl and Dan had been together for 17 years before this memorable occasion.

Dan and a friend run a pizza business, Chariots of Fire, so the wedding breakfast consisted of a large variety of pizzas to choose from. [31]

The party went well on into the night, but I had to leave early unfortunately.  The next morning I had a chance to meet some of the guests in their units, and was amazed to see a former teaching colleague from Colfox School who used to teach art. [32]   Another guest was the son of a former colleague who was a drama teacher.  What a small world!

SHAVE CROSS MARATHON 75TH ANNIVERSARY

This local event celebrated its 75th birthday in August.  [34] It was started in 1947 after a wager in a local pub, and the proceeds given to Marshwood Primary School. There were only two years when it did not run, one because of the Foot and Mouth outbreak, and the second during Covid.  What an achievement for the Rendell family and their friends to keep it going for all these years!  Runners need to book ahead and be ready for the start at 7 pm.  This year there were 81 participants who paid £10 to enter. The 5 mile course is across fields and on the roads in the Marshwood Vale, going up hill and down dale. It takes about 30 minutes for the faster ones, or over an hour for the slowest! Whilst the visitors [about 400] were waiting for the runners, [35] to return home there is a bar to drink from [36] and a delicious barbecue to tuck into. [37]  The indoor skittles are popular for all ages, and the tombola is always well supported. [38]  There is also a race for the under elevens and games for children such as the sack race, wellie boot racing and the egg and spoon race.

George Rendell is always the MC for the event, making all the announcements and giving out the various cups.  [39]  Shaun Dixon from Bridport was the first male winner, with Deborah Whiston the first female.  The oldest runner was Peter Brown aged 75, whilst Sam Bugler from Pilsdon was the youngest aged 12.  The person who travelled the furthest to participate was from Brentford, but was probably a holidaymaker!

The event raised £4,500 for charity.  The ones chosen for 2024 were Marshwood School, Marshwood Church and Symondsbury School.  Some of the funds from last year were used to buy new marquees, and some of the funds from 2024 will be used to buy new chairs.

On the following day [40] there was a tractor trundle, where dozens of like minded tractor enthusiasts, drove very old and not so old vehicles along the lanes, and created a memorable spectacle for miles around during the morning – in slow motion – compared to the usual traffic during the summertime!

DAHLIAS IN ABUNDANCE

Dahlias have always been my favourite flower, and fortunately it appears to be popular when I sell them at the local farm shop.  The Women of Whitchurch group were lucky enough to be invited along to Anna May’s dahlia plot in Whitchurch in September when their blooms were still magnificent. [41]

The family moved into Whitchurch about 9 years ago, but Anna had bought her first dahlia about 11 years ago.  The trend grew like topsy as the next year it was 7 dahlias and the following it grew to 30.  The most she has grown was about 1000 but now she cultivates between 600 and 800 each year, and covers about 100 different varieties. [42] [43]  [44]  [45]  To get the best out of the dahlias manure or soil booster is added to the soil, and they are fed with a combination of seaweed and tomato feed once they are flowering.  Anna uses horizontal horticultural netting to give the dahlias some support in the field, but in the kitchen garden she uses canes and string.

Anna opened her dahlia field to the National Garden Scheme for one day this year which was very well supported.  She also give talks about dahlias.  Most of the dahlias are sold wholesale to florists for weddings and other events.   She also sells to brides who do their own flowers, and supply a couple of florists with dahlias for their shops.

At the end of the season the dahlias are lifted because the ground in this area is so wet.  Anna stores them in crates anywhere cool, dry and frost free.  Most of them will survive the winter but she would expect a few casualties.  In the spring the tubers are divided before planting.  This is partly to increase stock but also because tubers don’t perform so well if they are too large.  She also takes cuttings.

The Genus Dahlia is native to Meso-America principally in the high plains of Mexico, with some species being found in Guatemala. Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Costa Rica.  It came to Europe over 250 hundred years ago – from Mexico to the Botanical Gardens in Madrid.  Once it had arrived in Europe it was discovered that the dahlia was a natural hybrid and when grown from seed it readily changed it form and colour so that today we have a huge range of dahlia types that offer something to please everyone.  But today’s dahlia specialists are still seeking the true blue dahlia, as well as one with a scent, and that is frost hardy!

I took over growing dahlias from my mother, and for many years I showed them in local flower shows, exhibiting varieties such as pompoms, decorative, small ball and the like.  I used to sell them at weekly farmers’ markets, but now I only sell them to campers, and regularly supply a local farm shop with dahlias from July right through to November. [46]

AN INTREPID TRAVELLER NOW RESIDING IN SLEEPY MORCOMBELAKE

Dave Green has been living in Morcombelake for over twenty years. Dave and his wife Gilly exchanged London for living amidst some fresher air and ozone. Lyme Regis was originally on their radar but after finding Wisteria Cottage they moved to Morcombelake.    [46a]

Unfortunately, Gilly’s cancer returned after a short while and she passed away in 2004. Up to this time Dave had been working for Food and Travel Magazine. After a break following Gilly’s death Dave decided to develop his unique blend of Bed and Breakfast accommodation at his residence on the side of Hardown Hill, which has fantastic views over the Marshwood Vale.

I discovered that Dave has visited almost 100 different countries. There are 195 countries in all the world and there are still more countries that he wants to visit in the future, but probably not all 95!

His childhood was spent in Sanderstead, near Croydon, then part of Surrey and he was a late entry into the family. [47] He didn’t know his elder brother for the first three years of his life as he was serving with the RAF in Germany.

As is usual in your teens and early twenties you socialise with friends of your own age [48] and after bouncing ideas about what to do in this energetic and exciting stage in your life, at the age of twenty Dave and a couple of schoolfriends hatched a crazy plan to buy a Land Rover and drive it across Africa. The Land Rover needed a lot of work and preparation for the journey,  none of which Dave says they really understood at the time. However, four schoolmates and one girlfriend left England in 1975 and headed south through France, Spain and across the Straits of Gibraltar into Morocco. It was then along the coastline into Algiers to attempt to obtain some visas that were needed. [49] Then southwards across the Sahara, eventually seeing the coast again further down in Lagos, Nigeria. [50] The trip then veered eastwards (We never got the visas, he says) through Cameroon, Central African Republic, [51]  [what is now South Sudan] before getting to “the easy bit” – East Africa. Then South via Zambia, Botswana, what was then Rhodesia, to Johannesburg. 8,000 miles, seven months and lots of punctures!

On occasion during this great odyssey the total weight of people, fuel, equipment, etc exceeded four tons, but the Land Rover they were travelling in had an all up official recommended maximum weight of 2 ½ tons! He has a lot of respect for Land Rovers and their capacity to take abuse. Also, there was only one person in the team whom had any real mechanical nous – Bruce and he pretty much kept the show on the road. Of course, in those days it was somewhat safer to drive in this way through Africa and have adventures on the way. Nowadays it would be way too dangerous to attempt it, due to civil wars and ISIS activity, especially on the trans-Saharan route.

The journeys end was in South Africa.  He briefly worked in Johannesburg before being “invited to leave” as he had been working there illegally.

He then hitch-hiked up to Kenya, via Rhodesia, Botswana, Zambia and Tanzania, [52] which bought additional interesting experiences, including a night out on a pub crawl in Gabarone, the capital of Botswana with the future President of the country and a week later cadging a ride in President Kaunda of Zambia’s motorcade.

A brief visit to Ethiopia was curtailed when he and his travel buddy, (who he had first encountered in Algiers) were stopped, when walking along the street, by a man in a car with a plummy English accent and told to get in. It was an embassy car and they were summoned to meet the ambassador who told them in no uncertain terms to get out whilst they could, as there was about to be a Marxist coup – it happened the day after they flew off to Mumbai.

They spent three months in India and a month trekking in Nepal. [53] They arrived in Varanasi, India – where Hindu cremations take place at the waters edge whilst the twelve yearly Kumbh Mela celebrations take place nearby. It is considered the world’s biggest religious gathering and the day they arrived at the railway station a million other people had also arrived that day. Further travels by local buses took him back home eventually through Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and into Europe via Turkey.

Subsequently, Dave lived and worked as an English teacher in what then was West Berlin – much more interesting when it was East and West Berlin than now, [54]  [55]  he says. Dave also did nearly a year as a volunteer on a kibbutz in Israel, [56] before spending three enjoyable years guiding tour groups around Austria, Switzerland, Germany and what was still communist Hungary and Yugoslavia. He loved guiding in Hungary – you never knew what was going to happen on crossing the border from Austria but usually it was lively!

Once Dave had decided to come back to live in England “and get a proper job” he rejoined London Weekend Television, where he had worked ten years previously, working in marketing in their advertising sales department. He quips, “This mainly involved presenting to manufacturers about how lovely we were and then taking them out to lunch” . He decided it would be a good wheeze to specialise on the Travel and Tourism sector, as he knew a bit about it by this time and they always had the best conferences, often in exotic locations, and which of course it was essential for him to attend. Eventually LWT was taken over by Granada TV and what had been a great entrepreneurial company to work for at LWT was subsumed into something less imaginative, in his opinion.

He stuck it out for another six years before taking redundancy and going to work for Food and Travel magazine. Hard work, but lovely people, says Dave.

He has never lost his fondness for travel and has notched up a substantial number of visits since residing in Dorset. [57] [58] [59]

He particularly likes the Balkans and feels he needs to spend more time in South America. [60 [61] [62] [63] However, he considers that places are rapidly changing and travel destinations are becoming more homogenised, compared to a decade or so ago.  He even did a roots tours back to where he grew up, earlier this year. [64]

So, he is not one for a beach holiday or a cruise and his tip would be: If it’s possible to do so, plan your own trip. You’ll meet locals and also other like-minded people. If you can, avoid the places the tourist organisations promote as being deserted. They won’t be. The whole world is travelling now, so research it a bit and travel on for an extra day after you arrive and get to somewhere less crowded. It might not be so famous, but you’ll probably have a better time.

I hope to publish my October, November and December newsletter during the first half of January 2025

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Pearl and Dan, George Rendell, Mark Bircher and family, Anna May, Hilary Joyce, Christine Peat, Alisha Lambert, Julie Weller and Dave Green.