Archive for June, 2010
27/06/2010 No comments

Lush Places: a shaggy dog story

old cigarette packet

Something got stuck up the chimbley

In Lush Places, the village square is full of tradesmen’s vans of varying hues. They park where they can, while the bus attempts to do a three-point turn and pedestrians do body swerves to get to the post box.

As the builders go for it with the angle-grinder on the roof of the Grigg extension, there is a thick layer of dust over everything.

Up in the eaves, the builder finds a keepsake tucked away by someone from a past life. Not for us a petrified raven, or a pair of shoes to ward off the witches.

In Lush Places, our hidden gem is an old empty packet of Players cigarettes. Two cards fall out, part of the interesting dog collection. We have an Irish setter and what Mr Grigg reads as a ‘wohc wohc’.

‘They used to be called chow chows when I was a boy,’ he says, peering at the image.

‘They still are,’ I say, picking up the card and looking at it closely.

‘It’s a transfer.’
23/06/2010 1 Comment

Lush Places: a game of two halves

The bunting has disappeared from Lush Places, apart from the Union Jack above the shop and two hopeful-looking St George’s crosses either side of our bedroom windows.

Mr Grigg is on top form as a lunatic football fanatic: devastated when his second team (Greece) were knocked out last night by Argentina and hoping against hope that England will put their best feet forward in this afternoon’s match against Slovenia.

For the benefit of those who neither understand the game nor care, today’s match is crucial. Winning it means England qualify to be knocked out in the next round instead of getting it over and done with and knocked out now.

To be honest with you, I’m of the ‘don’t care’ variety, although it would be good to have the buzz of winning in our ears instead of those damned vuvuzelas. I remember 1966 with a warm glow. Geoff Hurst was my pin-up and those pink and yellow flying saucers were my favourite food.

I was only four at the time.

Yes, it would be nice for the England team to defy the odds and live to emerge from the tunnel another day, skipping hand-in-hand with their coach.

But I can’t helping thinking the coalition would seize upon it as yet another victory for the ConDems.

No, surely not.

Hush my mouth before Mr Grigg tapes a St George’s cross over it.

Come on Inger-land!
23/06/2010 3 Comments

New Dorset cider company starts selling around Bridport and Beaminster

CIDER made by award-winning West Dorset cider maker Nick Poole is on sale for the first time in shops and pubs.

Unsurprisingly, it’s proving popular – a decade of hard and thoughtful work has gone into it.

Mr Poole set up West Milton Cider Club near Bridport 10 years ago – the video above shows the early days of the club – and he founded the now famous Powerstock Cider Festival.
22/06/2010 2 Comments

West Dorset bids to BLAST young people into work

A NEW training centre could be set up for young people in West Dorset if a bid for European funding is successful.

The aim is to get 16-25 year-olds developing business ideas that will improve the local environment.

Ros Kayes, the director of Bridport Local Area Skills Training (BLAST) has asked the European Rural Development Fund Local Action programme for £210,000.

Ms Kayes thinks that agriculture, horticulture, renewable energy systems and tourism could all benefit.

Kingston Maurward (photograph by Chris Shaw, reused under Creative Commons licence). The college is one of the partners in a scheme which hopes to encourage more environmentally-friendly forms of tourism

BLAST’s partners include local FE colleges at Kingston Maurward and Yeovil, and private training providers at Windmill Training, Monkton Wyld and Trill Farm.

Subject ideas for courses and diplomas include:

generating energy from waste

anerobic digestion

wind and solar power technologies

wood fuel technology and developing supply chains for solid fuel and water heating systems

setting up a smallholding

permaculture

organic growing

creating herbal products

biodynamic techniques for farm and garden

food preparation

sales and product development

reuse of materials

design and marketing

promotion of eco-tourism

rural business skills

the  use of composites in sustainable construction

and animal husbandry.

The aim is to reshape West Dorset's rural economy and encourage growth. (Photograph of topiary at Kingston Maurward by Chris Downer, reused under Creative Commons licence).

Ms Kayes, who is also a West Dorset district councillor and Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesman for South Dorset, said the project embodied “an audacious vision for transforming the rural economy”.

Ros Kayes

She went on: “West Dorset has always been a hard to reach area for further education, because of the high numbers needed to make a college sustainable financially.

“As a result in Bridport we have very low levels of qualification post-16.

“That’s the rationale behind BLAST. We decided to find a way of bringing in colleges to provide training without colleges having to invest in premises or do the recruitment or have the overheads.

“We find the students, we identify the training needs through liaising with employers and schools, and we liaise with the colleges to deliver courses they can afford to deliver.”

Ms Kayes said that Blast had so far focused on helping post 16-learners Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEETs) through its successful ASPIRE educational outreach project, and on the delivery of E2E (education to employment) at its new West Dorset skills Training Centre in Bridport, funded by Nacro.

But she continued: “Rural Dorset has also historically had a problem with developing its economy beyond traditional agriculture. We have poor transport infrastructure which means that our tendency is to support light industry and agriculture, but the latter has become increasingly unprofitable in a global economy, which is why so many small farmers are turning to organics and local food markets.

“Bridport has become known as a town which specialises in local food production (with our excellent farmers’ market) and the community and town council have very strong environmental leanings.

“Many, many people have moved here in order to live more sustainably. The town has many allotments, a zero waste group and a renewable energy group.

“I felt it was time to add some of these things together – our genuine desire in the town to live more sustainably; the excellence and expertise available, and the importance of developing the rural economy here.

“We think it ticks all the boxes”

“The bid is designed to support members of the community who want to live more sustainably but also to train up our young people to be entrepreneurs in areas like eco-tourism, renewable energy, sustainable construction and organic farming which have been identified as the growth industries of the future.

“We are linking the courses with mentoring and business support and hope to be setting up a business incubation centre with another of our training partners as a follow up to the project.”

She added: “My experience of working in South Dorset over the last 18 months has convinced me that this is a model that can be rolled out across Dorset as a whole, especially in the Purbecks where there are similar problems with access but a huge interest in sustainable technology and local food markets.

“Also if you look at somewhere like Portland, with its proposal for an academy to rejuvenate the economy and a huge windfarm about to be located off the coast, there is clear potential to roll out something like this there as well.”

Bid partners have been supported by West Dorset District Council, Dorset County Council, Bridport Town Council, the Learning and Skills Council and the South West Regional Development Agency.

“We think it ticks all the boxes,” said Ros.

“We had a big hold up because I was standing in the general election but now that’s over we have finally managed to get it finished.

“Now we just have to keep our fingers crossed and see whether it’s successful.”
21/06/2010 No comments

Council submits plans to move Mountjoy School

PLANS to rebuild Bridport’s Mountjoy School in Beaminster have been submitted by Dorset County Council.

The county council wants to move the special school on to land next to Beaminster Technology College (BTC).

A national schools adjudicator gave his approval for the idea last year, and last month county council cabinet members agreed a budget of just under £9 million for the project.

If planning permission is granted, work could start next spring and a new Mountjoy could open in autumn 2012.

The aim is to serve 48 pupils with physical and learning disabilities, aged from two-and-a-half to 19.

BTC and Mountjoy would remain separate establishments, but the county council argues that Beaminster would benefit from improved sporting facilities, such as a new synthetic pitch, and alterations.

Changes would include new car parking facilities for Beaminster staff, which would be accessed from Tunnel Road, and should therefore reduce traffic along Fleet Street. An improved footpath would also link the schools with the town centre.

Answers to frequently asked questions about the scheme are available online at http://www.dorsetforyou.com/mountjoyschool

Full details of the application will be viewable later this week at http://www.dorsetforyou.com/planning

Search under the town name of Beaminster.

Editor’s Note: Based on a press release issued by Dorset County Council. I’ll update this piece when the planning application can be seen online.
21/06/2010 No comments

A Bridport alternative to the World Cup

NOVELIST Ioana Morpurgo is to lead a discussion of Romanian literature at Wild and Homeless Books in Bridport.

Ms Morpurgo will focus on the ‘period of transition’ that followed the revolution in Romania in 1989.

Ten years after the toppling of Ceaucescu, two young Romanian poets wrote a manifesto proclaiming that authenticity should primarily mean responsibility.

Ms Morpurgo explained: “Amongst other things, they were rightfully reacting against the hijacking of the literary scene by ‘frustration writing’ (i.e. writers unable to publish their work before 1989, now producing manuscripts detailing the awfulness of the communist past).

“The responsibility the two poets and the group that rapidly formed around them were referring to meant that whoever takes to the pen in that claustrophobic chaos of the aftermath of the revolution, must do so fully acknowledging that words should not serve the aesthetic rhetoric, not add to the public language of separation and dissipation and will not dodge the reality no matter how difficult it is.

“I shall discuss these urgent conclusions reached at the turn of the millennium in Bucharest by a group of young writers, outlining the so-called ‘period of transition’ and its reflection in poetry and prose.”

The venue will be Wild and Homeless Books, 12 South Street, Bridport, the time 7.30 for 8pm on Thursday, 24 June.

Biographical note: Ioana Morpurgo graduated in English and Romanian literature from the University of Bucharest in 2002, and was then awarded an MA in Cultural Anthropology in 2004.

She is the author of a novel – Birth Certificate (Polirom, 2004) – that explores the decomposition of the self in a post-communist, transitional society and of several pieces published in Romanian and British journals (such as Contemporary Review, the New Internationalist).

She now lives in Bridport, runs a project celebrating the hedonism of knowledge (‘Lectures on Everything’) and is currently at work on her second novel, on the subject of East European immigration to the UK.
18/06/2010 1 Comment

The wonder of a West Dorset chilli

Joy Michaud

THE CHILLI plant that my husband bought from Joy Michaud at the Melplash Show was the best thing we have bought at a food show, ever. I didn’t even particularly like chillies when I met my husband but he cooks with it quite a lot and my palate has evolved over the years. I suppose I can stand the heat now, a little bit anyway.

Anyway, picture the scene… That plant stands on our kitchen table – the sunniest spot in the house – from Summer all the way in to November. The leaves are pretty enough and the dainty white flowers are cute. But the best part is obviously the fruit. The tiny, pale green, tear shape that quickly grows and turns purple, white, yellow, orange and red. By the end of Summer you have a display of dozens of amazing colourful fruits from a fairly small potted plant. At £5 a pot, talk of great value.

What about the taste though? One of the best we have ever come across. Its flavour is unique and reasonably hot but without scorching or numbing your mouth. We all looked after the plant, kids were checking colour progress, we counted, watered, picked and ate different colours to check the difference, we cooked, froze and dried. Do you get as much fun from a small bunch of flowers?

The Michauds had an open day this week prior to the Bridport Food Festival so I visited with strict instructions from the husband. He’d look after the kids but I had to bring back a new plant. We were sad that our first one did not survive the winter. Probably, it  did not like being relegated to the toilet having been the centre of attention for so long.

I now know that we had been smitten by a NuMex Twilight.

NuMex Twilight: "Do you get as much fun from a small bunch of flowers?"

The Michauds are one of these inspiring couples that you could spend hours chatting to. In fact I did. What a fascinating set up they have in West Bexington. They sell chillies, chilli plants and seeds. Anything they sell they have tried several times. The seeds are planted in different conditions, the vegetables from the seeds are tested and they have to come up to the expectations of the Michauds’ palates.

The afternoon was particularly hot and believe me, walking around the poly tunnels, I am glad I do not spend every day in there. When I entered the Dorset Naga tunnel, I thought I might faint and I had to walk back out. The heat was unbelievable. It figures that this is one of the hottest chillies in the world! I don’t know that I’ll ever pluck up the courage to taste this Dorset wonder.

The Michauds will be among many exhibitors at Bridport Food Festival this Saturday, June 19. If you cannot get there, you can buy their seeds by post.