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The West Dorset Magazine, March 25, 2022
Down to earth
Living life with more sustainability Environmental charity campaigners are calling for West Dorset residents to support their cause. Sustainable Dorset, based in Dorchester, works throughout the county to increase people’s awareness of and involvement with sustainable living projects. These projects include sustainable transport schemes that promote cycling over driving in suburban areas and sustainable food projects, including a community garden in Poundbury.
Sustainable Dorset also works to support the founding of Transition Town schemes, where local schemes aim to combat climate change and the use of Peak Oil. A charity spokesman said: “Sustainable Dorset is the central hub of all sustainable and resilient activity across the county. “We aim to raise awareness and so increase interest and involvement in sustainability. “We connect people and communities, supporting individual well-being,
community enterprises and businesses in order to nurture resilience. “We bring together the many and diverse sustainable activities across the region, and showcase to the world at large what we are already achieving. “We provide sensible advice on how you can live more sustainably, and more importantly, we can connect you with projects and like-minded people across the county who are already on that journey and can provide
practical ways to be involved.” For more information about joining Sustainable Dorset go to sustainabledorset.org. To raise funds for Sustainable Dorset, the Green Martinstown project is hosting a film night, followed by talks by naturalists and supper, at Martinstown village hall from 7pm on Saturday, March 26. n For more information about the event or to book tickets call 07874 910877.
Plenty of treasure to be found hidden in rubbish
BEACHCOMBING with JO BELASCO BA Hons History of Architecture and Design
Today, I am on the hunt for the skeletons of Pink Sea Fans and driftwood. We are on the Chesil Beach at Abbotsbury. Like most, this beach has a very different character in the summer than the winter. Unlike most, it is not overtaken by buckets and spades but fishing rods and tents. Of course, the Chesil is famous for its pebbles being curated by the methodical tide and wild hands of the waves from the largest at Portland to the smallest at West Bay. Some beachcombers
ANIMAL MAGIC: Coral used in a peacock collage
collect particular pebbles here, some are drawn to naturally striped ones or ones with animal shapes. As Stocks and Lewin write in The Book of Pebbles ‘a favourite pebble can become a talisman, a minor household god’. Scanning the strandlines, I always pick up some rubbish during beachcombing and it seems the more litter you pick up the more treasure you are rewarded with. Having said that, it’s not really possible at this beach
to have one bag for rubbish and one for treasure as the two are often entwined. Until I moved to West Dorset I had no idea that we had coral around our seas. Or that coral is classed as an animal and not a plant as it does not make its own food. Fishermen’s line is one of the things to rip coral from the seabed. The coral I find is called Pink Sea Fan or Warty Gorgonians; they are dead, sadly, but still beautiful. Here I have used the coral in the peacock
collage as a new skeleton, this time for a bird. I find driftwood fascinating. I love the odd shapes tide and time have wrought and the more blanched the better! Driftwood crafts have blossomed in recent years, and I often see driftwood Christmas trees for sale in season. On Facebook there is a great group called Driftwood Around the World which feeds my addiction when the weather is cautionary. Due to the stones and shingle makeup of the beach, it is hard walking. Dogs are welcome all year up to the Tank Teeth boundary which is locally known as the Dragon’s Teeth. Talking of teeth, please watch what your dog eats during your visit as occasionally there can be fishing hooks caught up in the debris.
