Upside Down Me?

Can anyone tell me why I am suddenly upside down on my profile?? I am not when I go in to edit it - am I upside down to you guys? Maybe I have been spending too much time with bats!  As long as I don't start to become serenaded by a soprano pipstrelle bat and get whisked away to his harem only to then seek out a bat cave next month - I hate being cold!!

Wacky Forth Races

A brilliant weekend topped off with a very wacky race at Cobleland campsite in that all the rafts huddled together making it an extremely close finish!

Thanks to everyone who joined in with our activities :-)

From left: Aiden and Ben's Speedo came in 6th, Johnny and Kieran's Bertie was the sneaky winner!

Alix's Bruce came in 7th

Logan's River Raptor came 2nd and Brandon's Speedy Gonzalez came 3rd. 

 Mhiri's Mhiri 2013 was 5th and Georgette's 'Georgette' was 4th.

 The line up ready for racing!

 After getting myself soaked again - this time the water going over my willies, the race, or rather the huddle was on....

 

.....Only to later open out right before the finishing line with Johnny and Kieran's Speedo sneaking from around the back to take first place! Well done everyone, everyone gets a prize and a lolly from the treasure chest :-)

Bats, Owls & Spooky Tales at Cobleland

An amazing day was finished off with a bat walk to remember with this lovely gigantic crowd.  Special thanks to Scott who reluctantly stepped in to be our big scary bat Dad!

Getting ready to play 'bat and moth' to show how bats use their echo location to find their dinner, (despite not actually being as 'blind as a bat')!

Scott the bat at rest before the hunt!

"The outside ring are trees, you kids are moths and you have to echo back 'moth' everytime Scott shouts out 'bat', when he catches you for dinner your out"!

Scott effectively evolving and using his hands for wings. The Marilyn Monroe eye mask was to make sure Scott used his echo location rather then his eyes, although bats can see it's hard to find the midges and moths in the dark.

But Scott, is that horse poop you are about to step into!!??



Wooden Pendants at Cobleland

Amazing pendants this week, lots of colour, lots of symbols, lots of creativity :-)

Brandon wanted me to burn in "I love bike riding" with magic writing :-)

From Bottom: Hannah and Madeline's lovely pendants.

 Alix designed both sides of her pendant, peace & love <3 :-) 

 Georgette's extremely colourful and lovely flowery pendant. 

 Logan's wolfy, witchy pentagram pendant. I love your own wish symbol pendant :-)

Adam, who had washed off his foxy face by now after his swim was back to make this lovely one, complete with bells. 

 

Reegan had washed off her butterfly face too but injected lots of colour back into her day with this pendant.

Face Painting at Cobleland

It was like the summer holidays again this weekend what with a lot of the schools on a long weekend - great atmosphere on the campsite and met some lovely people and the sun even came out to play :-)

Here are some this weekend's painted faces, I'm especially liking it when the kids design their own!

Hannah's very own butterfly design

The adorable Adam opted for Mr Fox and agreed to me experimenting with some foxy eyes too!

 Ella designed a snowy blue wolf.

 Ella's big sister Niamh designed a magical pink wolf.

 

And the wolf master himself, Logan, opted for a wolfy tattoo.

Return to Strathyre Cabins

Well today was a blast from the past as we went back to Strathyre Forest Holidays Cabins.  Jamie, our replacement ranger was off enjoying a holiday so we were back to cover activities.  Here's a couple of pictures from the bat walk - excellent crowd up for a laugh, good questions too :-)

Wacky Forth Races

Two more Toops joined us for the race again today at Cobleland - although Sam decided to just watch and cheer on his sisters. Definitely the most gold we have seen in a race so far!!

Rosie and Gaby's raft name changed several times and they settled for Bingo (I think)? Bingo crossed the line in 3rd place, unfortunately that means last today.

Charlie's 'Charlie' was the winner today after charging down the river.

Is it a Christmas present, a woolly jumper, no it's Super Number 1 (although it came 2nd) by Anna and Elizabeth.

Magick Wands

Katie made a Holly wand today, although ended up making two :-) Holly wands are said to be good for assertion, divinity, luck and protection.

Katie added a power animal using the runic alphabet to draw extra magic into her wand.

Face Painting

Cobleland was quite nice and busy for September, a few long weekends for various schools this month :-)
It seemed a day for cupcakes, Lucy and Anna went for these on their cheeks, although Anna wanted to mix things up a bit and have a cheeky little fish as well. Then the Toop twins joined us again later on along with Katie.

Charlie went for another butterfly, a purple one again, the kids always have a knack the of matching the designs with their outfits quite nicely!

 Rosie wanted her blue tit again so she could fly around the campsite on her bike - again matching colours with her helmet!

 Katie went for a vampire, here she shows both her serious and cheeky sides.

Cobleland Activities

This week we squished all we could into Saturday in case the awful weather forecast hit us at Cobleland.  As quite often happens you only really hear about it on the telly if England are involved and I think we escaped quite lightly.  Lots of rain mind but not too bad for wind and I think we should be lucky with the river not coming up and over the site! Actually the sun is out now :-)

Had 8 cheeky monkeys for face painting, then the Elliot family were back again after their previous summer visit in July to make some magic wands. Cristina made a rowan wand ready for Halloween as that is the best wand for protection. Cameron and Gordon went for Holly - the best in battle and direction, of course!  It would be great if you could get a picture to us of your lovely wands if possible, the lads ran off before I  had a chance :-)

Thanks for sending in the picture Graham :-) From bottom; Gordon's Holly, Cristina's Rowan and Cameron's Holly - Happy spell making*

Wacky Forth Races

We had a lovely turn out for the Wacky Forth Races this week too, here's the line up and winners. Most went for team rafts this week..

From left: Finlay, Olly and Rhys named their raft ROF and came in 7th place. Lauren & Sophie's Pirate Narj came in 6th place.

Olivia's & Zara's Party Craft was this weeks winner! Adam & Marcus's Speedy Boat came 3rd.

 Finlay's Morven (named after his little sister :-) came 4th. Cameron's Splatter came 2nd.

 Gordon's The Flying Dutchman came 8th and Cristina's Golden Flag came 5th.

 



 

And they're off! Getting my trainers and trousers wet to ensure a fair starting line was worth the cold :-)

 

Bats, Owls & Spooky Tales

The bat walk was fun too, lots of good questions from the kids, including one from Jenny; "how long does it take for a wing to heal if it was ripped"?  We like such questions to keep us on our toes!  Depending on the extent of damage the wing membrane can heal itself.  Here's more information from Wikipedia.....

 

"The finger bones of bats are much more flexible than those of other mammals, owing to their flattened cross-section and to low levels of minerals such as calcium near their tips. The skin on their wing membranes has more elasticity, so can stretch much more than other mammals.

The wings of bats are much thinner than those of birds, allowing bats to manoeuvre more quickly and more accurately than birds. It is also delicate, ripping easily; however, the tissue of the bat's membrane is able to regrow, such that small tears can heal quickly. The surface of their wings is equipped with touch-sensitive receptors on small bumps called Merkel cells, also found on human fingertips. These sensitive areas are different in bats, as each bump has a tiny hair in the centre, making it even more sensitive and allowing the bat to detect and collect information about the air flowing over its wings, and to fly more efficiently by changing the shape of its wings in response. An additional kind of receptor cell is found in the wing membrane of species that use their wings to catch prey. This receptor cell is sensitive to the stretching of the membrane. The cells are concentrated in areas of the membrane where insects hit the wings when the bats capture them".

Tawny Owls

Jenny, following on from our owl conversation - a brown owl is another name for a tawny owl, strange then that in the Brownies you get a brown owl and a tawny owl?



Bat Walk - Forest Hills

Only one booked on the walk this week at Forest Hills, a lovely lady that had always wanted to do a bat walk and lots of bats came out to say hi.

Will's Dad joined us too (along with his partner Alex) and he helped us out by donning the bat suit.

Big scary 'Blind as a Bat' Dad