A Batty Tigh Mor

Thanks to those that joined us on our first 'Bats, Owls and Spooky Tales' at the picturesque Tigh Mor last night.  That sneaky bat came out eventually!  'The' soprano pipestrelle seemed to like flapping around a big spruce tree, but it was obviously too cold for his friends to come and join him just yet.

Looking forward to discovering more little nature gems in such a lovely area.....

'May' the rain stop?

Thank you to all those that braved the rain and joined us on the ranger activities this May bank holiday at Cobleland Campsite :-)  Unfortunately it was still a bit cold and wet to find lots of bats, just a couple in the distance. Thank you to Donald, our reluctant but successful bat volunteer who gobbled up 12 of the 13 moths. Congratulations Emily for taking such excellent evasive action!

Matthew and Ellie are now able to survive out in the woods after completing a bushcraft and woodland survival skills activity on Sunday.  Wood sorrel was a favourite as ever - we forgot to say that if you get athletes foot you can rub on the leaves as a natural remedy! Here's a link to my personal blog for a picture reminder.

Well done to all the excellent mini raft builders, most imaginative, but so sorry that Matthew and Emily's rafts, 'Griffin' and 'Jade' decided to go all the way to Edinburgh - clearly excellent builds and the rafts didn't want their sailing to end!
Ellie was our first winner of the season pictured here with her raft 'Daisy Jack'. Rafts 'Danyy' (inspired by a plane), 'Ryan's Raft' and 'Sophie' were all successful sailings and Tommy's 'The Boat' floated successfully - but Tommy didn't want to risk losing his boat to the wind :-)

Ellie's Winning Raft 'Daisy Jack'



Will at the finish line

Abigail's 'Sophie'

Daniel's 'Danyy' and 'Ryan's Boat'

Tommy's 'The Boat'

Save the Bees at Cobleland

Cobleland Campsite's this year's 'save the....' is the lovely bee. After the success of the 'save the red squirrel' campaign last year, Lesley and Graham have chosen to help raise awareness of another endangered species.  Look out for fun facts around the site soon, various activities and please let us know if you see one on site as we will add it to our bee count.  I painted a huge bee on the window today, so look out for him the next time you come :-) Buzzzzzzzzzzzz x

Want to know why bees have smelly feet?  Of course you do so check out the Bee Conservation factsheet and find out how you can help them (not their smelly feet)!!

Another Tent!

OK, so we loved the bell tent so much.... we kept it for ourselves and bought another one for the ranger activities!  We are just settling in to our tent but those who have seen it say that it's like the one in Harry Potter, or Doctor Who's tardis as it looks bigger on the inside.

Will finished putting the tent up today by the playpark and we aim to have most things ready for the May Bank holiday.  This one was used on the set of Sky TV's 'Starlings', episode 6 I think?  I haven't actually seen an episode though?  Here is an example of how the sides can roll up - looks like it's going to take off :-)

Pan's Elder Pipes

Here are Heidi and Allison's most excellent pipes!  Following a walk, we talked about how pipes/flutes were made from alder to 'whistle up the wind'.  Elder can be used in a similar way, not sure about the magic behind those if you play them though!!?? Mmm, Dumbledore's wand was made from elder and there's tons of faerie folklore attached to this tree so could be very magical then, if only they could manage to play a note through them :-) To be investigated further.....

The Bats Wake Up!

At last, we actually heard (not saw) a bat on our bat detector!! Thank you to Will, Heidi, Milly and Mum's and Dad's for helping us do our first walks of the season this week.  Also to the Taggart group on Friday where we actually saw 'a' daubenton's bat :-) That's it now, more and more to be seen now, hurrah!
Also, thank you to Milly for the lovely hair moss necklace and bracelet - modelled here by 'Elephant Man'! This moss can be braided together for forest jewellery or as a natural rope or string alternative.

Nix in Nature Ranger Tent

Our new bell tent arrived in record time thanks to Soulpad - excellent quality and easy to erect with entertaining information and instructions along the way :-) Check them out for their brilliant offers at the moment!
Thank you also to Will's Auntie's, Jacqui and Les and Nan who kindly gave us most of the money as a gift when we left Portsmouth for our new adventure <3 xxx Miss you xxxx

We went for five metre width which will be perfect for siting on the cement square by the playpark at Cobleland Campsite for future nature activities.  The sides can be raised too for the rare occasion when the site floods!!

We will be using the tent ourselves for a shortwhile though until we find larger accomodation than our transit conversion, hopefully an old caravan that we can convert and be comfy in.