Page 58 - BR September 2023 (1)

September 2023 September 2023
BERE REGIS WILDLIFE AND

ENVIRONMENT GROUP

Despite the somewhat indifferent weather we hope
From Wednesday 20 – Sunday 24 you’ve enjoyed your Summer, whether it was spent
September, Inside Out Dorset will wow locally or away. Summer is now passing and we are
audiences in Bere Regis, at Dorset Wildlife entering Autumn and the season of morning mists and
Trust’s Wild Woodbury site. This mellow fruitfulness. We can take pleasure in the rich
international outdoor arts festival will colours of ripening fruit in the hedgerows and maybe
transform some of Dorset’s most enjoy picking and eating some blackberries! Enjoy them, but do leave some for
remarkable locations. our wildlife.
Gather at the land undergoing rewilding There are also many other fruits, seeds and nuts to
in Bere Regis for food, stories and be found in the area, sustaining wildlife. You’ll see
plenty of hazel nuts shells on the ground, but be
performances. Connect, forage and lucky to find any nuts ripe enough to eat yourself -
cook together with French company the mice and squirrels always seem to get there first!
De Chair et d’Os. Join local artists who Another feature of Autumn is the emergence of a
have been commissioned to share a range of fungi – take a look to see what you can
‘Soup and a Story’ inspired by the find on woodland floors, on trees and dead wood.
landscape. South Asian dance But, be aware - some are poisonous including the
company, Akademi, explores the bright red colourful Fly Agarics in the photo, which is
climate migration of people across often found in wooded areas – so, leave well alone.
India and Bangladesh in their

performance Pravaas. And French Souls Moor
company Le. G. Bistaki offers a
timeless satire of our relationship with Our regular annual visiting ponies that graze on Souls
money and power in their Moor were somewhat delayed this year because
one of them needed a replacement horseshoe and
performance of Baïna[na]. Whilst Mark, who owns the ponies, had been waiting for a visiting blacksmith. Then
designer-researcher Alice Stevens unfortunately the young foal had a minor accident becoming tangled on a
invites you to wear weather-sensing piece of barbed wire. However all is well now and the mare and foal are doing a
wellies that play poetry from Zakiya great job
McKenzie.
The insects have been busy enjoying our
There’ll also be a bar and Food village nature reserve and here are three
Village, in partnership with Dorset Food and Drink and Dorset Area of Outstanding examples that have been photographed on
Natural Beauty, with local traders serving up delicious meals and delicacies. sunny days.

Inside Out Dorset promises extraordinary events in extraordinary places. As well as It has been a good year for butterflies, and the
Bere Regis, the festival will have events in Poole, Wimborne, Weymouth and Moors first picture shows a couple of Small Skipper
Valley Country Park & Forest from 15-24 September. butterflies on mud at the edge of the pond
Inside Out Dorset is produced by Activate Performing Arts. that were part of a group doing what is known
as mud puddling. This may seem to be unusual
www.insideoutdorset.co.uk

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