Budleigh Past and Present

    An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) is an area of high scenic quality which has statutory protection in order to conserve and enhance the natural beauty of its landscape. There are only just over 30 Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in England , and here in East Devon we are lucky to be living in one of them. Fairlynch Museum and the Otter Valley Association have teamed up to present a talk by Kimmo Evans, Community Development Officer at East Devon AONB.    With a degree in Marine Biology, Kimmo Evans has gained most of his experience in the conservation sector - both marine and land-based. He has worked on traditional aspects of protected landscape work such as events planning, conservation tasks and media work. But he has also been involved in more innovative interpretation work linked to mobile phone technology, working with local businesses and community based renewable energy projects. He is now also Board Director on the Heart...

  Orchis mascula, the early purple orchid Well, what a summer! A real summer at last, which left most things in the garden gasping for rain, which finally came, only to be followed by another long drought. The one part of the garden which seemed not to care too much what kind of weather we were having was the lawn. The back lawn anyway. And that’s because it consists of inches of moss. Conditioned as I was to expect a traditional English greensward when we bought our house in Devon six years ago I’d lost no time in calling out the experts to see how they would tackle the problem. They nodded wisely when I showed them our green expanse - which actually looks quite convincing especially with the stripes left after mowing. But those footprints that we left in the deep pile of what was supposed to be a lawn was clear evidence, they told me, that there was probably not a single blade of grass in the whole thing. The only solution would be to have it all re-turfed, fol...

  A sudden outburst of flowers in the sunshine is telling me that spring is on the way, especially the cheeky dandelions flowering earlier than usual. Just look at that seed head ready to invade the garden, and it’s only mid-February. Now there’s one flower which will be soon be making an appearance and from what I heard at a recent meeting on the theme of ‘Environmental Aspects of the River Otter’, organised by the Otter Valley Association it’s even more cheeky and persistent than dandelions. For wildlife trusts it’s actually one of the most worrying sights anywhere in the countryside. Just imagine some scientist telling us that cancer spores could be cleared up as easily as litter from our streets and hedgerows in order to totally eradicate that horrible disease. Think of the national effort that would be made as everyone scoured streets and pavements, our woods, fields and river-banks. From the tiniest toddler to the most wrinkled granny we’d all be out there on ha...