APRIL marks the 80th anniversary of Exercise Smash at Studland, a dress rehearsal for the D-Day landings, which took place at Studland Bay, and many other points along the south west coast, in 1944. The event will be marked with a series of commemoration events on 3rd, 4th and 5th April, including a display of…
JAPAN is famous for its cherry blossom season, when people flock to admire the ethereal and transitory beauty of the trees in full bloom. This spring, the National Trust team at Mompesson House in Salisbury’s Cathedral Close is launching a Festival of Blossom, with a trail around the Close until 4th June. You can pick…
LEARN about opportunities to volunteer with the National Trust properties in West Dorset and at the charity’s famous Stourhead House and Gardens in Wiltshire at some upcoming recruitment days. In West Dorset, would-be volunteers can find out more at a volunteer day on Saturday 24th February, from 10am – 4pm, in Stourton Memorial Hall. Roles…
THE award-winning FOLDE Dorset bookshop and gallery at the top of Gold Hill, Shaftesbury, has an impressive line-up of speakers for the autumn series of talks at the Grosvenor Arms. Next up is Tristan Gooley’s talk on 15th November, about his book How To Read a Tree is sold out, and there is a waiting…
NIGHTJARS, one of our most mysterious and elusive birds, are making a comeback, according to the latest report from the RSPB – numbers across the bird charity’s reserves in England and Wales hit a record high in 2022, up 11 per cent on 2021. RSPB Arne in Dorset, where the number of territorial male nightjars…
YOU sometimes hear about pigs in clover, but the three little pigs who have arrived at Bere Marsh Farm near Shillingstone are happy as Larry finding lots of interesting things to explore and even roll in. The new arrivals are Oxford Sandy and Blacks, a trio of females of this rare breed who have taken…
A TRAIL inspired by The Lost Words has opened in Thorncombe Wood, a Local Nature Reserve three miles east of Dorchester, and will be available until April. Thanks to funding from Stepping into Nature community pot, you can pick up a leaflet from the Thorncombe visitor centre and follow the seasonal trail on the theme…
THE national conservation charity, the Countryside Regeneration Trust (CRT), is planting fast-growing willows (osiers) on Bere Marsh Farm near Shillingstone in Dorset and is appealing for public donations to help protect the young trees. Deer cause catastrophic damage to trees by stripping the shoots, foliage and flowering buds. The fence will protect the recently planted willow…
A NEW reserve at the Countryside Regeneration Trust’s Bere Marsh Farm, near Shillingstone, has been opened in memory of the pioneering farmer and conservationist Angela Hughes, who died in 2009. Angela was a dairy farmer who championed wildlife-friendly farming and was committed to protecting and conserving the natural world. She owned East Farm at Hammoon,…
ONE of Britain’s rarest birds, the dimunitive Dartford warbler, which was threatened with extinction, with just a handful of pairs in Dorset in the 1960s, has made an impressive come-back, with 183 pairs recorded on RSPB reserves in 2021. The recently launched RSPB Ecology Report records this good news, which is attributed to concerted conservation…