When I Was Your Age! Fun FREE intergenerational art and oral history event in Braunton

Kick off the summer holidays with a fun FREE creative event for families in Braunton. We are looking for twelve people from Braunton of varying ages (from 8 upwards) to take part in a workshop with professional artist, Jo Bushell, exploring the topic of 'community' today and in the past. Community film making organisation, North Devon Moving Image (NDMI), will be producing a short film of the event to be shared in their online collection. Creative Director Amanda McCormack says "We are looking for Grannies & Grandads, Grandchildren and those inbetween to take part in a collaborative work of art. No creative skills are necessary and the project is designed so that people of any age and ability can have fun and make a contribution. We will be using the workshop to draw out stories of what community means to our local people." Jo Bushell will work with the group, using rope weaving and decoration to represent the interweaving of land and sea which sums up the environment and heritage of Braunton. Following her research for the project at Braunton Museum Jo Bushell says "The reason I chose to highlight land and sea based industries is because it is something really quite unique to communities in North Devon. One thing that really strikes me about this topic is that, as we can see from photographs in the museum there was a strong sense of camaraderie among the workers within both these industries. People worked hard and conditions were harsh but they had to work very closely as a team to get the work done and this in turn brought people together. The bulb farm pictures particularly demonstrate this and you get the impression that they regarded themselves as part of a close knit group sharing life, hardship, laughter on a daily basis." 

Fun FREE intergenerational art and oral history event in Braunton on Tuesday 29 July 2014, 10am until 2pm at St Brannock's Church Rooms, Braunton. Refreshments provided

Funding from Fullabrook CIC has enabled NDMI to offer this as a free event and there will even be refreshments provided! Places are strictly limited so even though there is no cost, booking is essential. Please contact Amanda McCormack at NDMI on 01271 860610 or email northdevonmovingimage@outlook.com to find out more or to reserve a place.

Photo: Jo Bushell, Community Artist at Braunton Museum Copyright Amanda McCormack

SHORT SHORTS FILM COMPETITION - LOOKING FOR NORTH DEVON'S MOST COLOURFUL CHARACTERS

Eccentric, inspirational, fascinating or just plain bonkers, we all know plenty of colourful characters in north Devon. Now you have a chance to capture these characters on video and preserve their lives and their stories for posterity.  North Devon Moving Image (NDMI) is calling for submissions of sixty second video profiles of local people; it could be your postman, a chatty market stall holder, a selfless volunteer, your football coach or even your cheeky Grandma! First prize is a Sony Handycam HDR-CX220E kindly donated by NDMI supporters J&A Cameras and other prizes include a night out with entertainment and a meal at The George Hotel, South Molton.  The competition is open to all ages, free to enter and you don't need expensive equipment or professional software to make your short film.  You could use your mobile phone, digital camera or tablet.  Just make sure you have permission to film and the right to use any music you want to include and off you go! Amanda McCormack, Creative Director of NDMI says "Here at NDMI we believe in the power of film and know that wonderful stories can be told in just a minute. We want to get to know the people who make up the communities of north Devon.  We want to hear their stories and be amused, inspired or have our heart strings tugged."

• The competition closes on Wednesday 1 October 2014 but don't wait until then to send your film in as the North Devon Journal will be featuring the best films on their website as they are submitted.
• You can submit your film via We Transfer to northdevonmovingimage@outlook.com, by post to North Devon Moving Image, 2 Cullamartin, Instow, Bideford EX39 4LU or by dropping it in to J&A Cameras in Barnstaple or Bideford. 
• Full terms and conditions are available on the NDMI website at www.northdevonmovingimage.org.uk or by calling Amanda McCormack, Creative Director of NDMI on 01271 860610.

A celebratory screening and prize giving will take place in November in Barnstaple and the best of the films will be preserved and shared in the NDMI collection online and on DVD.

 About North Devon Moving Image: NDMI is a community film making organisation which aims to create, collect and share short documentary films about north Devon.  As well as providing a social documentary archive for the future the films, and the process of producing them, allow us to examine how we live our lives today.

North Devon is understood to be the areas covered by North Devon Council and Torridge District Council.

Wildflowers spread colour across city

A dash of bright and beautiful colour is set to spread across some of Exeter's best known green spaces this summer. Last year saw more than three hectares of new wildflower meadow planted across the city. Now, with summer just beginning, the seeds have grown into plants and their beautiful blooms are beginning to show off their true colours. The new wildflower meadows are the work of local residents and school students. All volunteered under the Exeter Wild City initiative, a scheme led Devon Wildlife Trust and Exeter City Council, and funded by The Big Lottery Fund and Devon Doctors. The aim was simple, to create colourful summer flower displays and help some of our most important city wildlife including minibeasts such as bumblebees, hoverflies and butterflies. In recent months more wildflower seed has been sown across Exeter by the City Council, creating wildflower beds in some of the city's most popular green spaces including Bull Meadow, Rougemont Gardens, St Thomas Pleasure Grounds and Northernhay Gardens. Planting involved a wildflower seed mix of colourful plants such as cornflower, poppy, corn chamomile and corn cockle. The results of all this planting and hard work is now beginning to show. Galvin Short from Exeter City Council said: "Biodiversity and sustainability are relatively new 'buzz words' but in partnership with Devon Wildlife Trust we have been chipping away at bland evergreen landscapes for over ten years. Most of our principal parks now have a wild corner which we leave for the mini beasts and nesting birds and our larger sites have significant areas that are maintained as wildflower meadows or as a developing wildlife habitat. The results of this project are there for all to see, and indeed listen to. Even in our city centre parks we have very active colonies of bats, bees, butterflies and moths and an almost jubilant dawn chorus." Emily Stallworthy of Devon Wildlife Trust said: "Cities such as Exeter are essential places for wildlife such as bumblebees, butterflies and birds. People's gardens and city parks provide a huge variety of flowering plants that help to feed pollinating insects. These insects then go on to do a very important job in feeding us by pollinating our orchards and crops." Emily continued: "For anybody wanting to help pollinators at home the best advice is follow the principles that we've used on this Exeter Wild City project. Our main aim has been to provide a variety of flowers throughout the year, in this way we can feed insects with nectar over long periods of time. Different insects also prefer different types of flowers, for example, open flowers such as daisies, and bell shaped such as foxgloves, so it's good to have a mix. It's also best to avoid hybridised flowers such as petunias and begonias as these produce little or no nectar for insects." Devon Wildlife Trust provides information for the budding wildlife gardener via its website www.devonwildlifetrust.org

Photo: 'Heavitree Pleasure Ground is one of the city venues to have seen an injection of wildflower colour' -  copyright DWT All Rights Reserved