Farming & Environment A day at the farm with

Tiffany Fleming

Tiffany Fleming is a volunteer at High Mead Farm in Longham, Ferndown. High Mead Farm is a working farm run to promote the benefits of engaging with animals, soil, and nature. They ‘create purposeful roles for our co-farmers, young people and adults alike, to help bring about a sense of well-being and self-worth that many have never experienced before’.

What do Oniscidea (Woodlouse) Racing, Exotic Animal Displays and Stilted Balloon Walkers all have in common?

The High Mead Farm Spring Fayre of course!

The timing of the Farm’s annual fayre varies from year to year and, when it’s held in the autumn, it transports me back to my childhood and simpler times, celebrating harvest and giving thanks for all the good things in life; but this year a Spring Fayre filled with all the excitement and promise of the season felt right. The event was expected to be an energetic and hugely enjoyable affair, full of May madness, and, if all I hear is to be believed, it did not disappoint. Sadly, I was unable to attend, but I have enjoyed it vicariously. I was slightly concerned that the reports back from my (usually wholly reliable) sources might have been a tad exaggerated but, the more I hear, the more my sources’ seemingly shaggy- dog stories are to be believed! On that subject, local dog behaviourist Vicky Mansfield, of ‘Paws on Board’, hosted a dynamic dog-show at the Fayre, appealing to a wide

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Full time position covering North Dorset, Somerset & Wiltshire. Contactlawnstolandscaping@ gmail.com variety of four-legged visitors. With categories as diverse as Waggiest Tail, Speediest Sausage Eater and dog ‘That Looks Most Like Its Owner’, there was a class for everyone. Vicky assures me that every dog deserved to be a winner. Another ‘show-stealing’ feature was the ‘Tortoise Creep’. The very fact that a group of tortoises is called a creep is enough to make me chuckle. I spent the Friday before the Fayre watching the tortoises grazing in the sunshine, their

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slow, exaggerated snatches at the grass. This, somehow prehistoric, primeval scene was extraordinarily relaxing. As some of the oldest living animals on earth, tortoises are to be admired, but the fact that they have barely evolved means that their design must be fit for purpose. I am a little lost as to what that purpose is, but they bring a great deal of pleasure to us at the Farm. Tortoise shells are, despite their tough appearance, very sensitive to touch, so we must limit our amount of interaction with them, but they seem to command a level of respect akin to that bestowed on aged- grandparents by small children, often our visitors are quite happy to simply stand by and quietly survey them roaming their run.

By Monday, peace had been restored to High Mead and, if there wasn’t so much photographic evidence, you would be forgiven for thinking the chaos of the Spring Fayre was simply a figment of our imagination... well done to all those involved. The organisation, the execution, and the restoration to the norm is quite a feat. What an absolutely extraordinary and awesome team we are blessed with.