Arts and Crafts
Some of my best friends are artists. Or rather… some of my best friends are really good artists who can draw and doodle at the drop of a #4 Red Sable brush. Some of them are also pro artists and Read more »
Author Archives: MV
A Songbird makes a Welcome Return to East Devon
The Cirl Bunting is an attractive songbird once found throughout the southern half of the UK. Its numbers declined precipitously in the second half of the 20th century following changes in farming practice and, by the late 1980s, it was Read more »
A Nest of Songbirds
Margery Hookings makes some musical connections when she discovers the raucous singing past of her local pub, The White Lion at Broadwindsor. When folksinger and folklorist Nick Dow visited West Dorset with his wife in the late 1980s, it Read more »
UpFront 05/19
We never really know what people are thinking. We might believe we do, but in reality, the complexities of the brain and the human ability to distort embellish or even completely invent thoughts and scenarios make it impossible for us Read more »
The Sound of Distant Drums
Margery Hookings has a go at drumming and meets the founder of Organic Rhythm to find out her story I’m in the parish hall at Ilminster where there’s a drumming session organised by Organic Rhythm. The sound of friendly chatter Read more »
The Canterbury Tales
Do you listen to The Archers on Radio 4? (“An everyday story of country folk”). We used to listen regularly years ago but now only occasionally. One annual event portrayed by the Archers has been the Christmas pantomime or similar Read more »
People in Food – Rich Wright
Stumbling out of bed at 3.30 am every morning isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but as Rich Wright from The Wobbly Cottage points out, “you don’t become a baker if you don’t like early starts”. Mind you, he hasn’t far Read more »
Devon & Dorset Detox
Do you feel exhausted and burned out? Do you fail to get a proper night’s sleep? Perhaps you crawl through your day like an eyes wide-shut tortoise? If so, you’re probably suffering from TATT! Yes, really… TATT stands for ‘Tired Read more »
‘A Private War’ in Bridport
In February 2019, the family of the much celebrated foreign correspondent and war reporter, Marie Colvin, remembered the seventh anniversary of her death in the knowledge that a US court had just found the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad guilty Read more »
People at Work – Jason Hill
As Watch Manager of Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service, Jason Hill gives an insight to his job by describing himself with a smile as, “the one with the white helmet, think of Fireman Sam, I get to sit Read more »