Saturday, October 28, 2006

Bat crazy

Today is a saturday, and as I mentioned on a previous post I had quite an unnusual morning planned. The buildings on The Green in Kings Norton that won the BBC Restoration have been found to be the home of a variety of 4 different bat varieties; the Common Pipistrelle, the Soprano Pipistrelle, the Brown Long Eared Bat and the Natterer’s Bat. More info at:
http://www.bats.org.uk/

Anyway, before the big building work begins on the buildings we have to re-home the bats because they are an endangered species. So this morning we invited the local community to build bat boxes! Bat boxes, from what I can see are rather like bird houses, and there are instructions on how to build them on that website above. As with all these things you never know how big a success to expect; I always prepare myself for worst case scenario (I wore heels so that under no circumstance could I be forced to climb a tree to knock one of these boxes up!!!). In fact about 60 people turned up, all different ages, sizes and I suspect very few were familliar with knocking nails into wood. Still we followed instructions and had a great time. Tea and biscuits were on tap fortunately and in under two hours we'd constructed 50 boxes!!! I made 2!!!! I used to hate woodworking at school, but I loved it this time. If aggression was required the knock the nail in I just remembered my old PE teacher...! Here are the photos of my efforts:
My first bat box!
















My TWO boxes!
















Me getting friendly with my hammer!
















Finally, a well-meaning and industrious volunteer has not only signed his box for posterity but he's put a contact number on! Maybe the bats can call him to say thank you!













Pues este manana fue estrano pero muy interesante. Construi 2 cajas para murcielagos. El murcielago es una especie bajo proteccion, y hasta hoy han vivido en los edificios que ahora queremos restaurar. En fin, Eramos unos 60 voluntarios esta manana, ninos, padres, abuelos, personas de cualquier tipo y origen, y constuimos 50 cajas para los vecinos murcielagos! Yo construi DOS, y en la escuela odiaba clases de construccion o madera... Fue un gran exito!

The dress

A couple of weeks ago, as you know, I went shopping with Uncle David and his fiancee Angela for the bridesmaid dress I'm going to wear for their wedding next summer. I'd love to put a picture of it on here but as you know my camera is broken. But as we trawled the shops of Birmingham we ended up in a few bridal shops in order to find a suitable dress for Angela's cousin, their younger bridesmaid Vanessa. And being surrounded by so many wedding dresses got me in the mood... Here's a picture of me taken on my phone of one wedding dress that I couldn't help but try on! Couldn't walk in it though.











Sabes que hace un par de semanas fui de compras para un vestido para la boda de mi tio - yo sera una de dos amas de boda. Pues estaba rodeada por vestidos de boda, claro, y esto es una foto de un vestido en particular que me atrayo. Bueno, me pareci dificil andar llevandolo pero bueno, te da una impresion...

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

some research

I like a project, as you all know, or rather I like to distract myself with random stuff... So my current project is family history. You see, although everyone knows that mum's spanish and dad's english, sorry Celt, ahem... well, few know that back in 1852 a certain Elizabeth Richards, daughter of William and Elizabeth (nee Higgins) was born. She went onto great things. From her home in Wales she grew up, went to school, went on to be a governess and moved to Madrid, where she had some pretty important neighbours - she lived right next to the royal palace!
I'd love to trace her movements, find out if she settled in Spain, and see if I have another spanish line in our family! If anyone knows of a useful website/forum etc then please let me know!



Thursday, October 12, 2006

New date for your diaries

Ta daaaa..!
Gemma and Alex are happy to announce the date of their forthcoming marriage: Saturday April 5th, 2008, at 12 o'clock midday, in the church of St Nicholas, Kings Norton, Birmingham.

Finalmente, Gemma y Alex se celebran poder dar noticia de la fecha de su matrimonio: el 5 de Abril, un sabado, de 2008, a las 12 de mediodia, en la iglesia de St Nicholas, Kings Norton, Birmingham.

Woo hoo!