Bastille Day with Carole Mann at Edenmore Nursing Home

While everyone was caught up in the excitement of the football final on Sunday 14th July, Carole Placet Mann had her mind on a more special occasion: Bastille Day, the French celebration of independence and freedom. 

 

Bastille Day, on 14th July, marks the storming of the Bastille prison in 1789, a big event in the French Revolution. The day is celebrated with parades, fireworks, parties, and public gatherings, symbolising French unity and the values of liberty and equality.

Carole, originally from France, was born in the 1960s near Versailles, in the suburbs of Paris. For her, Bastille Day has always meant holidays, fireworks, marching bands, and the best French food you can imagine. She fondly recalls street banquets with neighbors, all celebrating the Republic.

This year, Carole spent Bastille Day at Edenmore Nursing Home, where she works. She joked with her colleagues, hinting at bringing out the guillotine if they made a mess in her kitchen. Carole's life up till now has been quite a journey. She studied languages in the 1980s and moved to England at twenty. After ten years as a personal assistant in Hammersmith, she switched gears to special needs education, working in places like California and Vietnam. Carole has been married to her husband, Mike, for thirty years. They have traveled a lot due to his job, raising two children, Eliza and Philip, along the way.

Joining the Edenmore team

Carole joined Edenmore in Ilfracombe over four years ago. She started as a carer and became a home-maker after a year. She considers everyone at Edenmore Nursing Home her second family. Known for her hospitality, Carole makes sure visitors always get a drink or something to eat. She also ensures her teammates never skip lunch, playfully warning to put their names on the food and fluid charts if they do.

Aprons
True to her home-maker past, Carole is easily recognisable in the hallway by her unique kitchen aprons with big pockets, a collection that is now at 27. Her daughter recently mentioned that another one is on the way. Carole’s apron collection started in her childhood in Normandy, where her parents were farmers. Her mum always wore an apron, and she bought Carole her first one, with polka dots, when Carol was just nine years old. Carole didn’t like getting her clothes dirty, and the habit of wearing an apron stuck with her.

Carole’s love for aprons is just one of the many ways she brings a piece of her heritage to Edenmore. Through her food, stories, and warm presence, Carole continues to share her culture with the residents, fondly referred to as family members, making Edenmore Nursing Home a place where diversity and tradition are celebrated.

We like to celebrate the lives of the people who live and work with us. One of the ways in which we do this is to write about and share their inspiring stories. 

 Edenmore Nursing Home Media Release

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To find out more about Edenmore Nursing Home please visit www.edenmorenursinghome.com-

 

Cow collars point conservation grazing in the right direction

An innovative project which uses digital collars and virtual fencing to direct the movements of cows is now being used in North Devon.

The approach is being piloted in the region by Devon Wildlife Trust’s Northern Devon Natural Solutions project, which works with the agricultural community in the region to improve river quality and local nature diversity. It has been supported by the Naturesave Trust, which is funded by ethical insurance broker Naturesave Insurance.

The ‘Nofence’ system uses GPS technology and a phone-controlled app to set a digital land boundary to control cattle movements.

Cows wear a collar which, when they approach the digital boundary triggers, a low-pitched sound. This sound rises as they proceed and if the cow continues to try and move through the invisible boundary the collar emits an electrical pulse warning it to move back.

The pulse is similar to that used in the electric fencing commonly seen in the countryside. Before deployment the cattle are ‘trained’ in recognising the sound and learn to turn around before the electrical trigger. There is a maximum of three electric pulses after which the pulses cease and a text is sent to the farmer letting them know that the cow has moved through the invisible ‘barrier’.

The collars have been deployed in North Devon and ultimately the goal is to bring a more wildlife-rich Culm grassland – that has been unusable for grazing until the collars became an option – back into positive management. Culm grasslands support populations of rare marsh fritillary butterflies and the use of these collars will allow for targeted grazing that should increase their habitat size, building in a resilience in their population to external factors relating to the climate change and the biodiversity crises.

Wildlife sites such as these with good ranges of wildflowers, insects, birds and small mammals are easily lost because of a lack of suitable grazing livestock. Sites can quickly be overtaken by the growth of grasses, brambles and other scrub plants if cattle aren’t on hand to keep them in check.

Now the Northern Devon Natural Solutions team is looking to expand the Nofence approach to other suitable spots in North Devon. The system requires none of the traditional infrastructure of fences, fence posts and gates. This makes it ideally suited to places such as moorlands or woodlands where traditional fencing methods are either not allowed, not effective or cannot be economically justified.

Ewan Wallis is Northern Devon Natural Solutions project team manager. Ewan said:

“The collars have proven to be a very effective tool for bringing marginal land back into positive management for wildlife – whilst also providing the farmer with peace of mind as they can see where there are animals are. Lessons have been learned on the best way to train the cattle – an essential process for them to be used effectively – and I am very interested to see if we kind find other sites where fenceless grazing collars can be deployed. The purchase of these collars was only possible thanks to funding from both the Naturesave Trust and the Environment Agency.”

People with sites in northern Devon within the project area who want to discuss using the collars with their cattle are being encouraged to get in touch with Devon Wildlife Trust’s Ewan Wallis on ewallis@devonwildlifetrust.org to explore options.

Cattle in North Devon using the Nofence collars Photo credit Devon Wildlife Trust

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Media Release from Devon Wildlife Trust

Devon Wildlife Trust is a leading environmental charity, with more than 36,000 members. The charity manages 60 nature reserves across Devon, including a range of beautiful landscapes such as woodlands, meadows, wetlands and heaths. Devon Wildlife Trust relies on charitable donations, grants and the generous support of its members and the general public to raise more than £5million every year. Money raised is spent maintaining our work for wildlife conservation and education in Devon, for present and future generations. More at www.devonwildlifetrust.org

Westward Ho! Strandline on a Blue Flag Beach

Quiet evening walk at low tide, love looking for standout shapes from sea to shore and sky. 

Westward Ho! celebrates its 21st year as a Blue Flag beach, two miles of golden sand popular all year round with surfers, kyakers, supboarders, kitesurfers, windsurfers. I have been photographing this beach for well over twenty years, I love the changing light, reflections, cloud formations and of course any water sports activity, beachwalking silhouettes or beachcombing finds. The shots are from the naturally formed Pebbleridge to the Atlantic Ocean Saturday 13 July.  (See video below)

The Pebbleridge is formed when debris from rock falls further up the North Devon Coast is washed ashore at Westward Ho! Boulders, cobbles and pebbles are pounded by the awesome power of the waves and flung back on the beach. You can see the different colours and textures of the rock which form the ridge. The huge rocks by the slipway have to be returned or replaced when huge Spring tides and Winter storms reek havoc on this part of the coast.  

• Looking down graphic design - sand patterns, pebbles, seaweed, crab, shells, seapotato

• Looking up sun, moon, blues ky and cloud formations

• Looking out across the ocean, surfers and paddleboarders, Lundy Island on the horizon, next stop America -

In March 2022 *North Devon was formally announced as the 12th World Surfing Reserve alongside iconic surfing locations around the world. North Devon main surfing locations include Croyde Bay,Woolacombe.

 

 

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 Westward Ho! and The Pebbleridge are featured pages on the main 

North Devon Focus Website - or see links in Right Hand Column n this Blog

 

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North Devon beaches receive national recognition 

**Croyde Beach won the prestigious Blue Flag Beach Award in 2023
**Woolacombe Beach Voted Number 1 in the UK on Tripadvisor (February 2016)

**Woolacombe was selected as The Sunday Times Best Beach of 2021
**Westward Ho! is an award winning Blue Flag Beach. The Blue Flag is the international standard for the best beaches in the world.