Where would you go to have bespoke miniature fishbowls made? Aardman Animations, creators of the wonderful Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep characters used Cotswolds based LoCo Glass. Nearly a year ago LoCo Glass announced that they had just finished making cute miniature goldfish bowls and that the next time we’d see them would be in the Shaun the Sheep movie with a plasticine fish inside. That time has come! Head to cinemas now to be enthralled by another amazing movie by Aardman. As one reviewer wrote, ” Smart, funny, big-hearted, endlessly inventive and quintessentially British, this timeless, stop-motion adventure is a shear delight from start to finish.” Sounds like great half term viewing.
LoCo glass work from the New Brewery Arts Centre in Cirencester – you can visit their workshop to see them in action. For more information about them visit http://www.locoglass.co.uk/
Cotswold Farm Park are reopening following their Winter shutdown in time for Valentines Day and Half Term. The arrival of new lambs is always a great sign that Spring really is on the way!
The ewes at Cotswold Farm Park have been scanned and sprayed with coloured dots to indicate how many lambs they are carrying. This allows the ewes to be fed the right quantities of pellet food to ensure that multiple births aren’t too small and the single births aren’t too big.
Cotswold Farm Park opens on Saturday 14th February with their special 'Lambing Week'. As well as the fun of seeing the new arrivals, their will be craft activities and games for everyone to enjoy including a special lambing hunt.
Over the next few weeks there are some 5* Bores coming up….ok – so that could be read more than one way. Let me explain! The Severn Bore is far from boring – in fact it is quite amazing! The bore is a large surge wave that can be seen in the estuary of the River Severn, where the tidal range is the second highest in the world – as much as 15 metres. For a bore to occur you need the river estuary and the tidal conditions to be just right. The Severn Estuary is shaped in such a way that the water is funnelled into an increasingly narrow channel as the tide rises, which leads to the formation of a large wave. The river follows a course past Avonmouth where it is approximately 5 miles wide, then past Beachley and Aust, then Lydney and Sharpness where it is approximately 1 mile wide. Ever narrowing, by the time the river reaches Minsterworth it is less than a hundred yards across. As well as the width decreasing rapidly, the depth of the river also changes rapidly and so a funnel shape is formed. The incoming tide travels up the estuary, being funnelled up an ever decreasing channel, so forming a surge wave – a bore.
Surfing the bore has become quite a sport with dozens of surfers competing to record the longest ride. Distance records have been broken on numerous occasions with the Guinness World Record holder, Steve King, recording a ride of 9.25 miles! With the bore reaching speeds of approx 10mph that’s quite a long ride! Canoeists and windsurfers also love to take a ride on the bore. The huge difference between surfing the bore and surfing at sea is that if you miss the bore you’ve got a long time to wait until the next one…ohhh…and don’t forget to have someone ready to meet you at the other end. It’s a walk back to the car with a board!
For great information about where and when to see the bore visit http://buff.ly/15Qhc1O The weekend of 20th February at the end of half term is due for two top rated 5* bores.
A trip to Gloucester Cathedral would make a great half term trip – a reminder of this popular idea from earlier in the year! The vaulted cloisters at Gloucester Cathedral became the corridors leading to Gryffindor House, part of Hogwarts School, during filming of the first two Harry Potter Movies. The Cathedral, one of the finest medieval buildings in the country, has been a place of worship for over 1300 years. It is renowned for its stunning stained glass windows, architecture and choir.
During your visit look out for the Lavatorium on the North Walk where Harry Potter and Ron Weasley hid from the giant troll!
For more information about how the cathedral was transformed for its role in the films http://bit.ly/gloscat
