last updated 24th August 05
By 4ecotips

Learn about the birds and bees in Herts

Some 200 professional clowns from around the world will be appearing in Weston-super-Mare during a festival taking pace from 20-25 September. Opening events at the festival, which is organised by Clowns International, include a free circus skills workshop and lunchtime al fresco entertainment in the High Street.

A highlight will be a Clowns Parade on 24 September, led by a marching band and culminating in a picnic with live music. Other events include a gala variety show on the Saturday and a family matinee on the Sunday at the Playhouse Theatre; free talks and hands-on sessions on clowning and circus skills; a film evening at the Blakehay Theatre; and a Somerset Supper and Cabaret evening at the Winter Gardens Pavilion.

Further info: www.clowns-international.co.uk

A new exhibition at the Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum in Tring, Hertfordshire, explores nature’s mating game through the various methods used in the animal kingdom to attract the opposite sex.

The Mating Game uses real animal specimens as well as interactives to explore the intricate and colourful courtship practices of the natural world. These include the calls and acrobatic dances of the male blue-backed Manakin; the male Pisaura spider, which presents his lady love with a silk-wrapped fly for her to munch on; the female red-backed salamander who can’t resist the smell of a potential mate’s waste products; singing whales; the striking blue and red markings of the male mandrill and much more.

Further info: www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/tring

Cinderbury Iron Age Experience in the Royal Forest of Dean is offering visitors the opportunity to spend a week or a weekend living the way our forebears did in authentic Iron Age surroundings. For those less daring and adventurous, day visitors are also welcome at Cinderbury, situated at Stock Wood, near the village of Clearwell.

The replica Iron Age farmstead comprises three areas: an enclosed settlement with vegetable and herb garden; an agricultural area with demonstration fields of Celtic crops and a small number of ancient breed animals; and a ‘Scowles Walk’ through and over some of the world’s few remaining prehistoric open cast iron mines.

Visitors who wish to enjoy the experience to the utmost and stay for a week or weekend can dress, eat, sleep, work and play as an Iron Age Villager, learning to make pots, cook traditional meals, tend the crops and animals, and even learn to make iron.

Further info: www.cinderbury.co.uk