Up Front 07/09
I was neither big enough nor angry enough to be a bully in school, but I still harbour a feeling of guilt at the memory of laughing when a chap called Ian was taunted about his weight. He and I Read more »
Daily Archives: 01/07/2009
Moonraker
I am a ‘Moonraker’, born in Wiltshire, but with a Dorset Mother and grew up a couple of miles from the supposed Moonrakers site, a large pond at Devizes. The story is that about 200 years ago, smugglers were there at night with their contraband when they heard that the Excise Officers were hard on their heels. The smugglers threw their barrels of goods in the pond and held them under the surface with hayrakes.
July in the Garden 2009
The garden show season continues; Last month I was at the ‘Gardeners’ World Live’ show at the NEC in Birmingham. I hadn’t set foot in the place since I’d last filmed there in 1995. To begin with the scale of Read more »
Greenfly & Other Pests
It’s a good year for greenfly, blackfly and aphids. The real answer is to grow strong, healthy plants, and encourage as many natural predators as possible. We’ll look at why spraying works against you in the long run.
Derek Stevens 07/09
On D-Day plus one allied soldiers in Normandy, exhausted by their first day of battle, turned on battery operated radios supplied to their units, to hear the first sounds of the Allied Forces Network. Introduced by a recorded message from the supreme commander, General Dwight Eisenhower, the AEF comprised American and Canadian broadcasting services, together with and the services of the BBC to bring to the troops the comfort of popular music and news from home.
Christopher Roper
When I left West Dorset to go to university in 1959, I never expected to return to live here. I grew up in Forde Abbey, where I was born in December 1939, and my earliest memories are of the War, with the house full of displaced relatives, many knitting sweaters for seamen in the evenings, the lawns given over to grazing rabbits; and as D-Day approached, the lanes blocked by trucks full of gum-chewing American soldiers.
At Home for the Holidays
Because of all the financial gloom and in a bold effort to save money, I have been debating whether to stop going on my traditional summer holiday. Being a keen fisherman in my spare time, this normally involves me on Read more »