AN EXCLUSIVE GROUP ..

It was all of eight years ago that I became aware of and fascinated by the plant known as Dodder.   We were on a long walk along the south Devon coast path between Mill Bay, opposite Salcombe, and Prawle Point when I came across this spectacular looking plant and took the photo you see above.  I got home and checked it out and discovered that dodder (Cuscuta epythymum) aka hellweed or strangle-tare, is a parasitic plant that attaches itself to a host and eventually takes over.

Not only is the appearance of common dodder unusual, though, but so is its lifestyle.  An annual, parasitic plant, in late-spring a slender stem emerges from germinating over-wintered seeds, and entwines itself, always anti-clockwise, around the nearest host plant, providing, of course, that one is within reaching distance.

Common dodder growth at this stage depends entirely on food reserves contained in the seed, for the plant has no green chlorophyll, and therefore cannot photosynthesise. But once the plant is established, the lower part of the stem withers and falls away, leaving the dodder to depend solely on its unfortunate host, from which it takes sugar and other nutrients through suckers that penetrate stem and branches.

Growth is rapid, and it quickly engulfs host and adjacent plants in a tangled cloak of incredibly fine threads, colouring the landscape with a wine-red mantle.

So, armed with this new found discovery I thought it would be a good idea to set up a Facebook group with the intention of seeking out and recording sightings of dodder, which is quite rare in the UK and is seen in a very few places.  I invited a couple of like minded people to join the group when I first set it up and for quite a few years the `membership` remained at three - those two friends and myself as `admin.`

And then about a year ago I had a request from Collin Hadzik in Pennsylvania to join the group, which then made it four.   And a couple of weeks ago I had yet another request, this time from a gentleman named Alex Perez, details about whom are awaited but if he does join then after eight years and counting the worldwide membership of the dodder group will reach an impressive five people!

What might be impressive about that is the probability that it is the least popular group in the entire history of Facebook;  that in itself is something of which to be justly smug. Almost as obscure as Cuscuta epythymum itself.   

A confession.   Yes, I am one of the billions now who use Facebook and in my case I do so in order to keep in touch with people and places which are dear to me.  People such as good friends, old comrades from my old regiment - the 10th Royal Hussars; Southampton Football Club and the fans forum, my old schools, people here in the village where I live; and places such as Cornwall, Gerrans and Portscatho, Fawley and Blackfield and Hythe and The Waterside.   Blackfield was where I spent most of the war years, sleeping under the stairs as the bombs rained down on Southampton every night and Fawley was where I first went to school.  

Hythe on the shore of Southampton Water is where we first lived as a family after my father came home after five years as a prisoner of war in Stalag V111B in Lamsdorf and it was at Hythe that I spent a wonderful boyhood with the sea on one side and the New Forest just up the road.  And in the last day or two, someone has posted some photos of Hythe on the Hythe and Waterside Facebook site and they brought back some very happy memories of those times.  With the consent of the photographer - and maybe in a fit of self-indulgence - here are those photos and the memories they recalled.   

The first is taken from what is now a little park that leads down to the water`s edge from The Grove - an imposing building which houses the offices of the Hythe and Dibden Parish Council.......

(Please click on photos for larger images)

When my father resumed civilian life after his trials in that unrelenting Stalag, he worked for the then BOAC, who had their flying boat maintenance operation at Hythe and we lived in a cottage next to The Grove, which was then a large private house and grounds.  I don`t know how or why but we were allowed to walk down to the end of what was the kitchen garden, which ended at the sea wall you can see in the picture.  

This next picture shows some of the new development that has taken place on the site of the former BOAC depot.........

All those years ago - late 40s/early 50s - there used to be a very large black hangar, where the flying boats were maintained and I still remember being enthralled as my mother and I used to sit on the sea wall and watch, spellbound, as firstly the bow of those great liners, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, would appear from behind the hangar and slowly the whole of those majestic ships would come into view. An awesome sight for me as a young boy  and one that lives with me still.

Lastly, another view of the shoreline of Hythe.......

As well as the Cunard liners, of course, there were passenger ships from all over the world coming in and out of Southampton, so Hythe was a good place to go beach combing. One of my school friends from Hythe Primary School and later Hardley, Billy Scammell and I used to spend many hours scouring the shore and we became fascinated by the empty matchboxes which had been thrown over board and washed up from the passing ships.  And so began our collection of match box tops and I still have mine to this day, 70 years on from those happy childhood days.   

Some years ago I discovered that Billy Scammell had passed away - in 2000 at the age of just 60 - when he left Hythe, as I did,  he went on to become a much admired and respected poet, author, critic and biographer.  He is remembered by a blue plaque on his old house in Alexandra Road but as we lost contact, having gone our separate ways, I have no idea whether he kept his collection. What I do know is that he retained a deep affection for Hythe, which features in some of his poems as `the village by the sea.`

So my thanks to the photographer, Julie Yeates, for taking these iconic photographs and for allowing me to reproduce them here.   Thanks for the memories, Julie, of a happy childhood in a happy place.  I hope it won`t be long before I can make another return visit.

ONE GOOD TURN...

Following on from my last post about the Facebook thing, it seems they wanted me to send an `official ID` because the photo I had used in my Facebook account turned out to be one of a certain Mr. George Clooney.  Apparently it`s not just me and there have been thousands of accounts suspended or removed in cases where people had not used their real names and so, as a security measure, Facebook have been asking for `official IDs.`

Now my initial reaction was to resist, as I wasn`t sure about the validity of their request, but a lot of digging around seemed to suggest that it might be OK after all.   In addition to which I have been conscious that my absence from `social media` might cause at least a degree of disquiet among my Facebook friends and those pages to which I have been contributing.

Now the reason my photo turned out to be Mr. Clooney was that I really didn`t have a reasonable likeness of myself and Mr. Clooney`s image was the most accurate lookalike I could find at the time.  So, I submitted a photo of my driving licence to Facebook, which showed my name, date of birth and `photo`but with other personal details blanked out, which they have accepted and reactivated my account.   So I`m back being `social` again.

The curious thing, though, is that my reactivated account still shows Mr. Clooney`s image and so it really would not surprise me at all if Mr. Clooney has had the same issue with Facebook and has been using a photo of me on his Facebook page.  One good turn surely deserves another.......

NURSE !!!!

WELL, AT LEAST I`VE TRIED IT

Thanks to the promptings of one or two friends, I have had the dubious privilege of having not one, but two accounts on Facebook.

Have a look at what it says above - "a social utility that connects you with the people around you." So, these friends of mine signed me up and off I went, delving into the `must have` world that everyone has been raving about.

And what did I find? I found it was inhabited by the same friends I knew anyway and an awful lot of people I had never heard of or met in my life. It got me thinking that if I wanted to connect `with the people around me,` I could use any of the following:-

Telephone

e-mail

Private message on internet forum

snail mail

mobile phone

semaphore

alldis lamp

morse code...and so on....

.....and, who knows, I might even be able to actually meet them and have a real face-to-face conversation. The beauty of each of the above alternatives was that I was able to limit the communication between selected friends and acquaintances without a whole load of complete strangers getting in on the act. I value my privacy. And I really, really don`t need perfect strangers taking it upon themselves to send me `virtual` gifts. Honestly!

 

So thanks, but no thanks. Quite apart from the fact that there may be cases where Facebook can be a useful form of communication (although I can`t think of any) and despite the fact that it might just be a bit of fun (and I have no quarrel with that either) my experience has left me with the notion that Facebook might just be the last refuge for the terminally desperate. I`m not quite ready to join them just yet......but at least I`ve tried it.