Asha and co visit St Athan library too!

On Thursday 17th November St Athan library was also visited by the owls from Owls 4 U.

There were three: A grey Tawny Owl, a beautiful female Barn Owl and a very impressive Bengal Eagle Owl called Asha. All had been rescued or suffered some sort of trauma and they and five other rescued owls live in a modest terraced street in Barry, looked after by this charity.

The two smaller owls loved to be touched and the visitors to the library were fascinated by them, asking questions like "Do they fly?", "What do they eat?", "Do they catch their own food?" the answers to which are "Some of them can, but they don't - they're too lazy!", "Small rodents and birds, specially bred and bought from the pet shop" and "No, they can't because it might be harbouring disease which would kill them."



Owls4U will happily make educational visits to a variety of establishment and events and can be contacted at:
16 Milward Road, Barry, South Glamorgan CF63 3QD Tel: 01446 745306

Indian dancers in the library!

What a fabulous way to top off a wonderful fortnight of events, when a capacity audience watched enthralled as three dancers from India Dance Wales told stories of Hindu gods and goddesses, fearsome monsters and virtuous princesses! The costumes were exquisite, the dancing captivating and the storytelling enchanting. A multicultural audience of over 75 people enjoyed this event and gave excellent feedback.

Oh, and the Indian snacks provided by the Rahil restaurant in Holton Road weren't bad either!

Here's the video that's been put up on YouTube - apologies for the choice of music, I had no control over that and would have preferred to hear the music the girls were dancing to!

Historical walk

Members of the Llantwit Major Historical Society took 12 members of the public on a fascinating walk around this historic town, looking at the Roman and Medieval history on the way. Back at the library they enjoyed tea and cakes which were MUCH appreciated!

Several of the group joined the Historical Society at the event and the library gained at least one new member.

Author visit to Dinas Powys Library

Popular children's author visited Dinas Powys library last week to talk to a group of children from the local Primary School. Here's the video made on the day:

What a hoot!

Last Saturday Sully Library had a visit from a local owl rescue charity,

Owls 4 U. Children and adults alike were fascinated by these beautiful birds, and there was a good turnout for the event.

Pat, the librarian, hopes this won't be the last time the owls visit!

First to Find!

This is the badge all geocachers in the Vale will be after! The first person to find each of the boxes hidden in the libraries will be able to keep this specially produced FTF badge.

I was chuffed to hear that the first three caches I hid were found very quickly - unfortunately they were a little bit small to hold this badge, which is 44mm diameter.

Essential kit for geocaching:

• a GPS receiver or mobile phone with suitable app
• Swaps to put in the box
• Pen or pencil
• Fine-point tweezers (some logs have to be carefully extracted from tiny magnetic containers called nanos)
• Stout footwear and clothes suitable for the conditions
• Gloves - gardening ones are good, or vinyl ones at the very least - you may have to rummage about in wet undergrowth! (What do you mean that doesn't sound like fun?!)

Toddler gymnastics at Cowbridge

What a fun session! Ryan and Fay from the YMCA's GymTots service came to Cowbridge library with a huge bag of games and some great action songs. Six children started but by the end the number had grown to ten, with parents and library staff all joining in the fun. There were bean bags, wiggly snakes (well, coloured ropes), ribbons, jumping games, throwing games, balancing games and even cheerleaders pompoms! But the best of all was the parachute game with the balls - "popping corn" - which ended up with us hunting for coloured balls all over the library.

Geocaching!



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This is a fast-growing pastime for people who love gadgets and computers, but also want to get out and about discovering new places and challenges. It's a bit like a treasure hunt, using GPS, but when you find the cache you just sign the logbook, take something from the box and leave something in its place, then replace the box for the next person to find it.

Two members of the South Wales geocaching community, Gordon and Liz, known to local geocachers as Write and Mane, came to Penarth Library on Wednesday evening to talk to a small group of people wanting to find out more. They brought some examples of different types of cache, the sort of things that can be found in them and much good advice for those setting out.

You are never very far away from a geocache and they can take all sorts of forms, from large ammunition boxes to small clip lock boxes, to hollowed-out logs or artificial stones, even small magnets. I wonder if these folk realised that there was cache only few feet away from where they were standing?

A pony joins the library!

Last Saturday at Llantwit Major there was quite a commotion when Hannah, a lovely gentle pony from the Dimlands Riding School turned up to join the library! About thirty children came and made friends with her and fed her carrots.

Dimlands had kindly offered a riding lesson in a prize draw and the winner was the appropriately named Anna Groom, seen here feeding her carrots - a favourite treat!

Here's a picture of the newest library member proudly showing off her card.