HAVE YOUR SAY ON RURAL ISSUES
Share your views and opinions by writing to us at:
Have your say: BBC Countryfile Magazine, Eagle House, Bristol BS1 4ST; or email editor@countryfile.com, tweet us @CountryfileMag or via Facebook facebook.com/countryfilemagazine
*We reserve the right to edit correspondence
VERSED IN NATURE
I’m a third-year creative writing student. I really appreciate that you’re encouraging readers to share their work in relation to their poetic experiences with nature, as I believe the two go hand in hand.
I thought I would share two poetry extracts I have written based on my freewrites from places close to home in Bournemouth, Dorset. The first, ‘Tall Trees, Clueless Crowd’, was inspired by a visit to the plot of land where Robert Louis Stevenson’s home was in the years before he died. He came to Bournemouth in the 1880s when it was considered a spa town and this is where he began to write Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. This piece explores the process of learning about, and becoming familiar with, the plot’s history.
My second piece, ‘The Garden’, was inspired by a trip to Carey’s Secret Garden near Wareham. It was first built in 1883 as a walled garden, but it has only just been restored over the last three years. This piece comes from the rich, imagery-driven sensory experience I had there.
Tall Trees, Clueless Crowd
You smashed pumpkins in Stevenson’s garden as if you’d become Hyde. We wandered around, a little aimless, observing etchings upon trees and spelling them incorrectly: Is it I heart A? Or maybe I heart J… upon the concrete foundations where it all once lay.
We shouted kidnapped prompts in Stevenson’s garden as the chilly air brushed our fountain-pen hands, gliding across the paper, like he once had. Deciduous trees surrounded us, their lack of abundance, crimson chlorophyll draining from those leaves scattered and fallen around our feet.
I was writing in Stevenson’s garden as it became our treasure island, this empty plot of land, our own Skerryvore, our wonder against ink about what heritage even means as the autumn air froze our clutched digits. His sanctuary, now our own.
The Garden
Your secrets were locked away for forty years. As we searched and scrolled through pages, you blossomed quietly through careful curation, the fruits of May. Come June, we were led astray down nimble white-trail roads. We found you nestled between summer warmth and the frothy kiss of a latte. Sat amongst the seas of a wildflower meadow, bright campions, oxeye daisy, carpets of white clover, you are more than a garden. You deliver peace. My ink flows atop paper, I absorb life into skin, all encased in thick-clad walls of brick and mortar. Secret garden, Victorian old, your well-kept promises never told.
Ben Whistall, Bournemouth
Editor Fergus Collins replies:
We love to receive poems infused with the British countryside – and it’s especially rewarding to read the inspiration and thinking behind them.
THE PRIZE:
This month’s star letter wins a Petromax Cooler Bag, worth £119.95. Its effective insulation and new design keeps provisions cool for up to six days when outdoors, freeing you from electricity. With a compact size, padded strap and carry handles – as well as pockets – this cooler bag can be taken anywhere. whitbyandco.co.uk
A RESERVE AT RISK
The BBC Countryfile Magazine Nature Reserve of the Year winner in 2018, Rodley Nature Reserve in Leeds, is now being endangered by development.
Land adjoining the reserve was a brownfield site that has now been given outline planning permission for housing. Aside from the fact that the land has limited access (a long story involving a swing bridge), the plans are being tweaked to increase the previously agreed amount of tree removal, which would be detrimental to the riverbank area.
Is this issue something you might be interested in featuring? We all know the importance of these precious and dwindling resources and must do all we can to ensure their preservation for the future.
Editor Fergus Collins replies: Thanks for drawing attention to this. It would be very sad if this precious site was degraded. Look out for a future news story on countryfile.com
SCOUT POWER
I would like to comment on Sara Maitland’s article about freedom and independence for children (August issue). My wife and I have been involved with the Scout Association for over 40 years. Scouts are given training in all manner of outdoor activities. They are trained to work as a team. Often, after training, they will organise their own camps, hikes and adventures into nature.
I remember embarking on such adventures when I was 14. Our leaders took us to the Llŷn Peninsula, gave us a map of the area and then we created a route, overnight stop and planned our food. We then got dropped off and left to fend for ourselves until our pick-up point two days later. We thought we were on our own, but I found out – when I became a leader – that leaders checked up on us at various points without us knowing.
So there are opportunities out there for children. The Scout Association and Girlguiding have been providing this for over 100 years. Long may it continue.
PAINTING PRESENTERS
Please will you give the Countryfile presenters some lessons in how to paint things? One recent Sunday, one presenter was “helping” someone paint large plywood panels. She sloshed a dollop of paint in the middle of the panel then proceeded to fiddle about on the same bit for ages, then miraculously it’s finished. You start large panels in a top corner, bring it across then down until completed.
Some weeks ago, a guy was ‘helping’ a man who was restoring an old lifeboat and clearly knew what he was doing. The presenter was waving a brush of blue gloss at a rudder that was obviously finished and proceeded to put paint on the same bit over and over again. He could, at least, have had a go at the other side – assuming that it hadn’t been nicely finished already.
BIRD FLU IGNORED?
BBC Countryfile Magazine is normally excellent, and indeed the Coast special issue was mostly that, with one glaring exception.
Richard Shucksmith’s article about gannets, while pretty and informative, completely missed the present devastation going on with them due to the avian bird flu epidemic. I appreciate writers contribute in advance, but this situation has been going on for a couple of years at least. Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth is now a black rock, instead of a white one covered in gannets, for instance. Most colonies are closed for visitors, which the article is encouraging, listing ‘Where to see gannets’.
Surely it would not have been too difficult to bring the article up to date before publishing?
Editor Fergus Collins replies:
Thank you for raising this point. We work quite far in advance with the print magazine and this issue – July – was sent to press in May before we were aware of the extent of the avian flu issue across so many seabird colonies. It is a deeply worrying situation and we addressed it in our
October issue where we assessed the impact of the epidemic in the UK.