Health & Wellbeing

Meditations in nature: A Jurassic adventure

By Susannah Curtin

DECEMBER arrived with foggy days and gloomy, oppressive graphite-grey skies. I have longed for the sun to break through and, at last, it has. Today has dawned with a hoar frost, an ice-blue sky and not a breath of wind. The bright winter light is all the encouragement I need to head south from the Vale towards the Jurassic coastline, to while away the day looking for fossils and listening to the sound of waves breaking against the stony shoreline.

Some 71 per cent of our planet is made of ocean and I am not alone in being slightly obsessed with it. From time to time, I get a deep yearning to be beside it, in it or on it. Just like in Van Morrison’s uplifting song, I want to ‘smell the sea

The Jurassic coastline stretches for 95 miles from Exmouth to Studland, and is renowned for its frequent rockfalls and fossils. and feel the sky, and let my soul and spirit fly’.

Eventually, I find myself wrapped up warm and strolling beside the incoming tide. Tiny rhythmic waves grace the shore from an ocean as flat and still as glass. Cirrostratus and stratocumulus clouds lace the horizon. It is a perfect winter seascape. Making my way down the beach, much has changed since my last visit. The Jurassic coastline stretches for 95 miles from Exmouth in East Devon to Studland, and is renowned for its frequent rockfalls and fossils. It is designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as exposed in these colourful sea cliffs is a nearly continuous record of 185 million years of Earth’s history. The sedimentary rocks – sandstone, limestone and mudstone – record one of the world’s best sequences of the Mesozoic Era, in which

Use discount code Magazine10 for 10% off your first order.

Handmade natural skincare and jewellery inspired by nature. Shop local and support small businesses this Christmas. www.kunewyk.co.uk

there occurred a rapid diversification of life and several major extinctions.

Here on my favourite stretch, recent storms have washed the beach clean of pebbles, leaving limestone pavements that are decorated with fossilised belemnites, ammonites, oyster shells and seaweeds – fascinating works of art created by nature, rocks and time. It is not long before I find my own shiny, iron pyritised ammonites cleaned by the sea and carefully deposited to lie gleaming on the shore for me to discover. They are not always perfect specimens but that doesn’t matter, things do not have to be perfect to be beautiful or awe inspiring.

As I reach the end of the bay, sinister clay mudflows emerge from the cliffs like slow flowing lava. Yet, above my head desert-like sandstone ridges frame the blue sky. It is a place of enormous contrasts. Sat on rocks away from the cliff face, I watch as the sun drops beneath its watery horizon. A lone peregrine falcon sweeps over and beyond the headland, and rock pipits tweet their last tunes before dusk is upon them. Behind me, I am startled by the sound of a small stream of rocks that are tumbling down the cliff, dislodged by an invisible force. Maybe it is time to move on now.

My day has gently unfolded along with my thoughts and emotions. Immersed in the stark beauty of the cliffs, the wonder of the Earth’s history, my fossil finds, the sea air and the freedom all this affords, I feel lucky to live where I do. Research based on Census data suggests that the closer people live to the coast the more they perceive themselves to be happier and healthier. I can see why this may be so.

Driving home under an orange sky and a rising full moon, I go home with a happy heart. n Dr Susie Curtin; email curtin. susanna@gmail.com

London Road Clinic

56 London Road Clinic has had a facelift! We now sport a brand new logo and freshly painted exterior woodwork. We offer the best in health and beauty care, and we are ready for the festive season. Established in 2005, this integrated clinic offers various therapies, in five well-equipped and beautifully-furnished rooms, where you can relax and know that you are in safe hands. Our highly trained therapists offer the very best in their field: physiotherapy and acupuncture; structural and cranial osteopathy; integrative counselling; trauma and bereavement counselling; advanced clinical massage; luxurious hot stones treatment; Bowen technique; scar work; sports and remedial massage; soft tissue therapy; Shiatsu for chronic pain relief and long term health; microblading by MJC; professional foot health care; and solution-focused hypnotherapy. Professional beautician Serina Galliers will be joining the team in the New Year. The clinic is conveniently located on the A30 in the pretty village of Milborne Port, near Sherborne and has disabled access and free parking nearby. Please do take a look at our website to find out more: http://www.56londonroad.co.uk or call (01963) 251860.

Ginger and cinnamon: Sweet smells

By Fiona Chapman

I WAS talking to my husband and happened to mention that I needed to write the next article for the New Blackmore Vale. Well, he said, it must be about holly and ivy for Christmas. A nice idea but not really herbs.

It did, however, get me thinking about ‘Christmassy’ herbs and, of course, ginger and cinnamon popped into my mind as both are smells of, and used at, Christmas in mulled wine and cakes, puddings and some of those delicious ginger and cinnamon drinks local to us all.

Mistletoe is another very obvious herb that you think of at Christmas but it is a powerful pagan herb that, like all the ancient celebrations related to the sun, including the Roman festival of Saturnalia and the Nordic Yule festival, were incorporated into the Christian religion to convert the masses.

Ginger and cinnamon are lovely warming spices and very useful to us at Christmas if we over-indulge. Fresh ginger in a tea can stop you feeling sick and cinnamon tea will help to balance out the blood sugar.

I made a cinnamon, liquorice, burdock and dandelion decoction the other day which nearly blew my head off it was so sweet. It was to help liver detoxification, balance blood sugar and keep things regular and moving. When I gave it to my unsuspecting father his surprise and horror was comical. His eyebrows, quite large anyway, disappeared into his hair and he started making spitting sounds. Perhaps not for everyone, then!

As the leaves fall off the trees the mistletoe becomes more obvious. You can see all sorts of trees with great balls of green suspended in the air. The Stour Valley seems to be an incredibly good area for

How to do the festive season your way

By Alice Johnsen EVERY year Christmas is preceded not just by Advent but by a steadily building pressure cooker. From media and merchandise to crazy diary planning and an excess of carols, Christmas can feel a bit overwhelming. For those grieving, Christmas is especially challenging.

We all have different

From December the Physio Centre will close and be replaced by

SMART PHYSIO

Physiotherapy treatment in your own home

Jacqueline 07956 477222

help@physiocentre.co.uk

reasons for Christmas being special. For some, it is the food, for others, catching up with friends and family, and, of course, the presents. Centred around the religious festival are so many cheering things that bring joy and light to the depths of winter. And that is a good thing until it leads to such a high through

LEARN TO MANAGE ANXIETY LIKE A PRO

Visit http://www. mysafehaven.uk to discover at least five ways to improve your mental wellbeing using the Everyday Freedom from Anxiety Handbook

its excess, the inevitable fall that follows outweighs the benefits.

The drive behind that excess is all too often fed by an enforced expectation from outside sources pushing us to presents, food, tableware, new sofas – why? – new homes, new, new, new…But let’s just remember, the people selling those things are not concerned with our budgets and real needs.

What is important to you at Christmas? And how do you want to feel in January? Can those questions become the reminders you use to keep your Christmas plans realistic?

We all know it is too easy to overspend. I’m not suggesting we cancel Christmas. But this is a plea for individuality and self-monitoring. What are we teaching our children if we say yes to everything? What pressures are we creating for ourselves if we set the bar too high?

Reining in Christmas excess is not easy. It can help to have a few stock answers ready. For example, when a friend invites you to bring your children to something and you know that’s beyond your budget: “That sounds wonderful and I’m so touched you thought of us, but the diary is already full enough that week so not this year, thanks.”

Or presents for teachers at school – a potential minefield but something small, delivered discreetly, is just as right and heartfelt as a large, ribbon-bedecked parcel paraded up the aisle of the nativity play. This is not a competition.

It might help to identify your own Christmas values, to decide what is important to you at Christmas. Once you focus on what matters to you

For 1:1 Mind/Body Coaching

www.thehealinghorses.org

07855256338 - nicolacorbett@mac.com “In order to heal, we need to feel”

My sessions include a number of healing modalities, breathing, movement, Nutrition, Energy healing, intuitive teachings & more, all alongside the healing horses.

FOOT CARE AT HOME

Professional, friendly service since 2005. All common problems treated. Blandford, Sturminster Newton, Gillingham and Shaftesbury areas. Ring 01258 820203 www.bmvfootcare.co.uk

of Christmas...

mistletoe, which means the environment is healthy and there is a good amount of mistle thrushes and black caps to disperse the seed.

I have written about mistletoe and its properties for blood pressure, nervous diseases and cancer before, but at this time of year it is for hanging in your house at the winter solstice. If you want to follow Pagan or Druid tradition, you give a sprig of mistletoe at the start of the New Year which stays hung all year bringing good luck and warding off evil. This is then burnt once the new mistletoe is brought in the following year. I expect I will be doing this, somewhere out of the way so no one notices! Happy holidays. n Fiona Chapman is a naturopathic herbalist; email Pellyfiona@gmail.com

Parents have to ask what they are teaching their children if they say ‘yes’ to everything. PHOTO: Jill Wellington/Pixabay

and your family it is easier to build a Christmas around that, leaving aside the excesses that do not serve you well.

n Alice Johnsen is a life coach

based near Sherborne (07961 080513; alicejohnsen.co.uk)

SEASONS GREETINGS

Martin, June and the volunteer drivers wish all our customers a Peaceful and Safe Christmas and Happy New Year

CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR OPENING TIMES

We will be closed from 6pm on Friday 23rd December 2022 until 9.00 a.m. on Tuesday 3rd January 2023

NEW OPENING HOURS FOR 2023 From 1st January 2023 our office hours will be Monday to Friday 9.00 a.m. – 5.00 p.m. Saturday 10.00 a.m. – 1.00 p.m. SUNDAYS AND BANK HOLIDAYS CLOSED Pre-booked hospital and medical trips can be made outside these hours. No same-day non-medical trips available.