New Blackmore Vale, August 6, 2021
Local Services ARCHITECTURAL, BUILDING & ELECTRICAL
ECR Services All types of building and electrical work undertaken Fully qualified New builds Extensions Maintenance Attic conversions including rendering, plastering, paving and tiling Free on site estimates No VAT No job too big or too small
01963 364553 07966 496299 www.ecrservices.co.uk
DORSET WOOD TRADITIONAL BUILDINGS
Oak Timber Framing Bespoke Timber Building Traditional Building Specialist inc All Building WorkGAll aspects of Lime External and Internal Rendering/Plastering/Repointing Lime Crete Flooring Chimney Rebuilds and Repointing
www.dorsetwood.co.uk Contact Dave Welsh 07838 654468
djwelsh@btinternet.com
Free estimates for all electrical work, no VAT North Dorset location, will travel. Call Alan Brown, C&G 2330, 2391,2382 on 01258 446258 or 07976 630 904 Email: alan@acbelectricals.org.uk
www.ACBElectricals.org.uk
Period and listed Property Specialists See our main advertisement in the Property section
ELECTRICIAN: Small jobs B.LUCAS to full rewires. Fusebox General builder Upgrades. Testing & 25 Years Experience, City & Guilds Qualified Certification. Prompt, quality Extensions, Renovations, Alterations, New Build, Floor and Wall Tiling, Brickwork, service at reasonable rates Plastering, Blockwork, Stonework and Patios, (no VAT). Call Alan 8amFencing and Decorating. 8pm 07388696147. Email FREE estimates, No VAT 01747 228827 07809 362919 alanaac@me.com
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Tel: 01747 832386
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Tel: Wincanton 01963 202382 Mobile: 07881 504426 Email: maplepres@aol.com www.maplepreservation.co.uk
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Health & Wellbeing
Delightful dancing demoiselles bring so much colour and joy During an exceptionally hot day, I decided to walk down by the river in the hopes that just my imagination of the cool running water will ease the effects of the high summer sun. There is hardly a breath of wind and the River Stour is flat and glassy with only faint undulations of current. The swallows dip low over the river scooping a drink as they rise. Noisy reed warblers chatter from the margins, and tiny insects, on breaking the surface tension, send out wide concentric circles that slowly dissipate towards the banks. Grasshoppers, gatekeepers and meadow brown butterflies grace my feet as I momentarily sit to absorb this bustling kaleidoscope of life. Then along come the beautiful demoiselles. Wisps
of metallic blue and green sprites whisper past me, elegantly and gracefully dancing from perch to perch in a flamboyant aerial display. Beautiful demoiselles are one of our largest damselflies. They are usually found following shallow streams or rivers, and decorating wet woodlands. The male of the species has dark-coloured wings and metallic bluegreen bodies whilst the females have brown wings and green bodies. They are smaller and more delicate that dragonflies and can be distinguished from their cousins by their thinner abdomens, wings that are
closed at rest, and eyes that are separated rather than joined. Like dragonflies, they belong to the insect order of Odonata, and have been on earth for more than 300 million years, predating the dinosaurs. Fossil remains have revealed magnificent giant species with 60cm wingspans. As they dance around the riverbank, I recall the time I watched a dragonfly nymph climb up one of the flag irises in my pond to begin its miraculous transformation. For anyone who has witnessed this, it is a slightly uncomfortable yet compelling process to behold, as the dragonfly
slowly emerges headfirst out of their nymph body, pushing out and extending their long wings that hang beneath them. When these fine gossamer wings have expanded with haemolymph (insect blood) and their globular compound eyes furnished with thousands of lenses, they stretch out to dry and then they fly away leaving their empty, ghostlike, nymph carcasses clinging to the vegetation. Because of this incredible circle of life from air to water and back again, dragonflies and damselflies symbolize wisdom, change, transformation, light and adaptability. Most of all, they have brought colour and joy on this steamy hot summer’s day. Dr Susie Curtin curtin.susanna@gmail.com 59
