Thursday 10th September, 2015
On a wonderfully warm evening in the middle of a short "Indian summer" about 26 children and their parents gathered in the Dell with Vicky Dunne from the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust. First they had to find out facts about bats from bat-shaped information sheets hanging around the Dell, and be "tested" on what they had learnt. There followed the "bat and moth" game where two blindfolded children become a bat chasing a moth as they call out "bat" or "moth". The bat must catch the moth by hearing only.
Suddenly the real bats were out and about. All the family groups were issued with bat detectors that bleeped like Geiger counters as they transformed the bats' echo-location radar into sounds that humans can hear. The detectors can reveal which species of bat we could hear, as they "broadcast" on different wavelengths. Ours were pipistrelles.
The evening ended with two more games: the "true or false" game, where the children must remember what they learnt earlier, and the "hibernation" game.
True of false? Which way to run? |
An excellent evening, enjoyed by all. We must do it again next year.
Doin' it in the Dell has become a habit. This year we held our fourth Music Festival for young people with a full programme of local bands, solo acoustic artists and even poets. Word had got around and in spite of some indifferent weather lots of people turned up. Bands included Crail, Chasing Deer, Rushmore, the Wapwaps, the Sixty Fours, Grass Routes and Trinity School. Acoustic slots were filled by Jack Emsden, Adele, Levi Washington and Martin Martell. Two poets added variety and lustre to the proceedings: angry young man Clint Bruder and rapper Flowlosopha.
Food was laid on by the Star & Garter and the Fat Pug, while Coffee Architects provided excellent coffee, with their partners Fanny's Fancies offering scrumptious cakes. Ample donations towards next year's festival were gratefully received, as were a generous percentage of the takings by June, our Face Painter. Brink were there too, once again creating a Banksy style masterpiece in the course of the afternoon. Budding toddlers practised their own graffiti styles on the chalk board. A new feature was (were?) Escape Arts who persuaded youngsters to make little figures out of string, buttons and anything else in their magic box, all stuck together with a glue gun.
With many thanks to organisers James Knight, Chris Meeke, Adam Biddlecombe and Stephan Steinhaus and to Matt Waddell for his PA and meticulous control of sound levels. Friends of the Dell Chris, Rosie and Sean supplied power feeds from their houses, others delivered flyers, Kangs Costcutters sponsored our banner. We are especially grateful to North Leamington Community Forum for the grant which enabled us to stage the event.
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