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NATURE NOTES
Written for the local Parish Magazine
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Our Parish Magazine is published every month and covers the whole of the Marshwood Vale. It mainly deals with church matters but villagers can get articles or information published in it about any subject. As mentioned earlier my list of local butterflies was published in it and some time after this the Editor of the magazine actively sought articles for inclusion because insufficient copy was coming forward. At that time there was quite a lot being written about the effects of global warming so I decided to write an article for the magazine about its possible effects on local flora and fauna. The article pointed out how certain wild flowers, insects and amphibians were appearing earlier and earlier each year and suggested that this might be due to global warming. I did not see myself as a naturalist but rather as a nature lover, so I made the article as simple as possible leaving out any technical or scientific facts. It was illustrated with a simple line drawing of red admiral butterflies sipping nectar from wildflowers. For want of a better title I called it ‘Nature Notes’. The article was accepted and duly published in the magazine. It was warmly received and several people phoned me and asked whether I could write any more articles. So ‘Nature Notes’ was born.
For the first couple of years I wrote an article every two months. The subject varied greatly but there was a standard layout on an A5 page with several illustrations down the left-hand side. Again they were warmly received by magazine readers and I came under pressure to write an article on a regular monthly basis. Finding completely different subjects to write about each month, and also illustrations about those subjects, entailed a lot of research on my part but I also learnt a lot about nature that had passed me by earlier. These discoveries included fiction, poems, music and folklore about nature. There were sayings about the weather, the time of year and church festivals, as well as more down to earth matters such as what food to eat, what trees to plant, or how birds and butterflies might be attracted to the garden. I also found out a lot about the need for action to preserve the many species that are under threat because of the way we farm, hunt, fish or cut down trees for timber. This need for action also encompassed global warming, a subject I often returned to, which was seen as the greatest threat to many species. There were a few local success stories however. In Dorset these included a campaign to save the water vole from disappearing completely and another to keep track of a decreasing number of brown hares.
I continue to get people contacting me about various aspects of subjects raised in Nature Notes. In some cases I can help right away, but if not I try to find an answer by further research. The learning process continues! Recently I became involved in The Living Churchyards Project. This is a project set up by the Dorset Wildlife Trust to encourage wildlife in many of Dorset’s old churchyards. Our wonderful churchyard of St. Candida and Holy Cross has been accepted as the Best Newcomer to the Project.
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