The world from my window

Ancient folklore features in my latest posts for the website  A Dorset Year . For the first one, in which we ponder the fate of the 2,000 year old yew tree  in Lush Places, I'm joined by my new neighbour, the lovely Natamagat, who is helping me with photographs. You can tell which ones are hers. They're much better than mine, but then she is a photographer. In the second post, I'm surrounded by rooks and a solitary raven . Nevermore. That's about it. Love Maddie x

Just close to Halloween, the time of year when the threshold between our world and the next is oh-so- thin, there is a new addition to the Lush Places square. In between the plaque for the children's play area, in memory of two Bernards who were killed in two World Wars, the sign announcing and sponsoring the village fireworks, the notice campaigning for a 20mph limit through the village and a board pointing to the community shop, a circular mirror has appeared. It's been installed to help motorists easing out of the junction, which, at times, can seem like the starting grid for Wacky Races. I swear I've just seen the Creepy Coupe with the Gruesome Twosome just heading the wrong way up the one-way street. Everybody is talking about the new mirror (conversation can be limited in these parts). It's large, it's orange and it's even more clutter in the middle of the village. But it works. You can see what's coming when previously you couldn'...