DORSET – Page 9 – ROLLING HARBOUR GALLERY

ST GEORGE, PORTLAND, DORSET: UNUSED BUT NOT UNLOVED

Published on April 29, 2014May 1, 2014 by Rolling Harbour2 Comments

St George, Portland stands high up on Portland, Dorset. Built from the famed local Portland stone in an unusual mish-mash of styles, it is now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust, which will at least ensure its survival even if services are no longer regularly held there. Pevsner calls it “the most impressive c17 church in Dorset”.

The church and churchyard contain plenty of reminders of Portland’s past both as a significant stone quarrying area, and as a place of major nautical importance. There can’t be many churches with a memorial for those killed by a press gang.

The churchyard is rather wild in places and contains some large commemorative statues. We were intrigued by one quite tidy grave (below) and were left wondering about the design – the little roofed gateway, the raised apart in the top right corner. What does that indicate?

The thick grey walls of St George are typical of the local stone.

The unkempt churchyard is a good place for wildlife, with plenty of hunting perches for kestrels

SPRING IN THE AIR IN DORSET THIS WEEK

Published on April 17, 2014 by Rolling Harbour2 Comments

The sun is shining, the birds are twitterpating (©Disney), the trout season has opened. Also, the first swallows arrived on Tuesday, followed by the martins on Wednesday. These birds are already checking out the mud nests under the eaves that remain from last year. Martins' Nest Totnell 4.14

The hedges are suddenly greening up and the grass is beginning to grow fast. The Alpacas, formerly the official lawnmowers for the paddock, have been banished to another field to give the ground a rest. That means resorting to the mechanical method for the first cut of the year.

Some creatures appear to have got Spring fever. The rabbits for a start, who are clearly ‘going at it’ for all they are worth. And the sheep over the road surprised me one evening when I opened the kitchen door (the notice on the gate is good for their self-esteem). Sheep climbing bales Totnell 14

My first fishing of the season yesterday, on the River Piddle (as in Tolpuddle) – very pretty, pretty unproductive… Today on the River Frome, the swallows were skimming insects off the surface of the water. There were heron and egrets, and a pair of common sandpipers clearly looking for a suitable nesting site. It’s been a great Spring week.

The moon and stars have been wonderful all week. There have been plenty of moon photos around, pink or otherwise, but one evening Mars was gleaming brightly too. Only one shot was steady enough to use – at maximum zoom most of the images looked like squiggles.

Full Moon Totnell 14 Mars Totnell 14

DORSET SPRING

Published on April 2, 2014April 2, 2014 by Rolling Harbour4 Comments

A GOOD YEAR FOR HELLEBORES

FRITILLARIES PLANTED LAST YEAR ARE DOING WELL

PEACOCK BUTTERFLIES ARE PLENTIFUL

THE ALPACAS ARE ENJOYING THE SUNSHINE

JOCUND COMPANY: DAFFODILS IN DORSET

Published on March 29, 2014March 31, 2014 by Rolling Harbour6 Comments

We’ve been away from Dorset for 4 weeks. We left a cold, still-slumbering winter garden and have returned to a colourful Spring one with birds, bees and butterflies. I took a look at the daffodils that are rather randomly dotted around. We let them decide where to grow, and occasionally divide a clump to spread them around a bit. I found eight varieties, of which I only know the name of one (pheasant’s eye) and a half (the half being our nickname for it, see below).

The daffodil below grows on the west coast of Ireland. It is a type of hardy narcissus, with stout leaves and a liking for exposed windy places in the garden. We call it ‘Narcissus Marcus Malus’, because our friend Mark ‘liberated’ some from close to his house in The Burren, Co. Clare. Bad Mark! They are very robust, with small flowers. The second image shows them with a ‘Standard British Daffodil’ (= One ‘Wordsworth’) as in the top image, for size comparison.

TRIG POINTS AS THE FOCUS FOR A DORSET WALK

Published on February 26, 2014 by Rolling Harbour5 Comments

Batcombe in the heart of Dorset is a hamlet of farms, cottages, and a tiny medieval church with a fine stone screen. It is also the name of the long hill that rises steeply above it, which we see from our house. This is green Hardy country. The sinister ‘Cross in Hand’ mentioned in Tess is still there, a small battered stone pillar by the roadside now protected by a neat council fence. The fields have mostly been cleared of flints, on the surface at least. There are three trig points across the length of the hill. The advantage of Trigs is that their tendency to be on high ground often goes with nice countryside and scenery. The middle one on Batcombe is a perfect focus for an easy country walk with huge views in 3 directions, especially south towards Hardy’s Monument and the coast. Time to explore.

TRIG POINT S1513, BATCOMBE, DORSET

Batcombe Trig Point walk 3 Batcombe Trig Point walk 2

Looking back towards the Trig Point down the ‘tractor avenue’ Batcombe Trig Point walk 7

This was one of the few sunny days in February and the ground was firm and dry despite the appalling rain that had flooded the lower land and swathes of the Dorset valleys, e.g. those of the Yeo, Frome and Stour. Every 20 metres or so we put up snipe that were invisible amid the stubble and stones on the ground. We were accompanied throughout by a throng of skylarks. These were annoyingly hard to photograph both on the ground (hard to see) and in the air. Here’s an effort.

Some fields were very flinty, with some surprisingly large chunks. Despite the sunshine, it was easy to image poor Tess (or any other Hardy tragic heroine) shivering out in these fields in terrible winter winds and sleet, clad only in a thin kirtlet and shawl, picking the stones bare-handed and putting them in the thracking stoop for transportation as building material to the expanding Casterbridge.