Batty about bats!- Sunday 30th September

Good Morning my crafty Friends!

I hope you all had a super Saturday and the sun shone on you! It was gorgeous here - we did so much yesterday, in fact everything except crafting!

We live right on the edge of the beautiful Cotswolds and between two towns: one of them is Yate, to anyone who visits, a 'new town' which sprung to life in the 60's, so a mix of that architecture (including the shopping centre) and newer houses built in the 90's (like ours), plus of course in this day and age ever expanding. I like where we live, we have a large garden, lovely woodland walk on our doorstep and farm land a five minute walk away, but sadly it seems, houses will soon be built there too. However, Yate does have a plethora of history dating back to the Iron Age, a lovely little heritage museum and a tudor house on the outskirts, where Henry VIII once made a stop over!

The other town (which I confess I prefer and spend most of our local shopping time) is Chipping Sodbury. Younger than Yate, but looking much older - very medieval, your typical Cotswold town. All this  history lesson, just to tell you about yesterday! 

Chipping Sodbury Food Festival and Jazz Festival(including local Somerset Jazz legend Acker Blk), plus a Vintage Fair, were all being held - so our little town was packed from very early. We got into the car park just after 9am and had virtually the last space! Having bought the papers, we went to our favourite deli/cafe..full with visitors having breakfast! No worries as, with most Cotswold towns, with just one high street, there are several cafes! A leisurely cappuchino and then we dropped off at the Sodbury in Bloom stand to say hello to one of my office volunteers, who also volunteers with the 'in Bloom' group, which this year won a Gold Award! Then it was to my friend Amy's shop,Out of the Blue, and I'm not saying this because she's a friend, but she and her mum do have the very best shop in town. The gifts for sale are such lovely quality, trendy and tasteful and she picks all the best craft items, so needless to say I called into say hello and spent money! After that, we fought our way through the packed Vintage Fair,  walked over to the farmers market and then back home. The missing bits for the coop had  finally arrived, so we put them in place and finally got round to dismantling the old nursery coop as the new girls and the old girls are all happy now!

Last night was the bat walk with the RSPB: I love birds and wildlife and have been a member for several years, their events are always friendly and informative. We are also members of Westonbirt Arboretum, just a short drive from our house and very beautiful, and that is where the walk was being held. About 15 of us turned up, we had a very interesting introduction to bats from Mark of the RSPB, got issued with bat detectors and then set out into the woods..stopping off at the wild bird hide. Honestly, we always spend time here when visiting and it is always so 'busy' with anything from woodpeckers to blue tits...yesterday afternoon...zilch..unless you count a family of about 6 squirrels! Next up Mark told us a bit about some funghi along the way and we stopped off at the pond, where he and Amy (also from the RSPB), tried to catch a newt (sadly they weren't playing either). By now the moon was bright and beautiful as dusk drew in, the owls were twit-twooing to one another and and how the bat detectors hissed with static! It sounded like we were radioactive. Suddenly they also started to pick up the sound made by Pippistrelles, we all stopped but they weren't going to be seen!

Mark and Amy had spotted lots of bats behind the Education Centre, in some woodland close to the buildings that picked up a security light, so we headed there: certainly there was a feast of moths for them, we did pick up sounds from a few species, but none came on show...of course this all goes to show that you just can't predict wildlife!It doesn't matter...we all still had a great time. It was a lovely, clear night, stars in abundance, but may have been a tad too cold for the bats. After an hour or so, we all headed inside for a well needed coffee and natter. 

All Summer we get a few Pippistrelles flying around our garden in their figures of eight most dry evenings, so I had more chance of seeing them at home, but it was a super evening, very eerie in the forest, we learned quite a bit and the company of total strangers was lovely..even though two little boys, from two separate families, aged 4 and about 12, did at times make me think we were extras on the set of Outnumbered! Tom actually thought that combined with the creepiness of the forest and sounds of the wildlife, it could have been "Outnumbered does Jurassic Park", now there's a thought Mr Spielberg. I'm not being mean, those boys actually lovely, obviously highly intelligent, not a bit shy and just like those kids on TV!

So here is my card for today, the simplest of all Halloween cards, featuring a bat and made almost entirely using my Cricut....Sorry it's been such a long post..hope I didn't bore you all too much!

Thanks for stopping by, hope you have a great Sunday all, I'm hoping to get crafting at some point!
Carole X

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