The grey clouds parted and Southdown was treated to a lovely bit of sunshine for the fete organised by Southdown Infant and Junior Schools on Friday. The warm weather ensured a turnout of around 300 people I would say. There were lots of happy and excited children, and some of the kids and their parents did a good job of managing the stalls.

The children were running a hoopla challenge where you had to get the rings over some upright poles. A high score would win you a flashing hat set. There was also face painting, a thing a bit like a giant inflatable slide and a lovely stall selling all kinds of board games.

The top left-hand photo is of Seran making craftwork masks with the children. The top right-hand photo is of Teaching Assistant Jenny Jacobs running the Splat the Rat game. You had to whack the rat as it came out the tube, before it landed on the floor. The bottom left-hand photo is of the hot dog stall and bottom right is the bean bag challenge. It was harder than it looked to throw those bean bags through the holes.

A couple of Police Community Support Officers came along to see how the event was going and make contact with local families. Money raised from the fete will go to the two schools.

Joe, 11/06/10

Here are some photos of the demolition of houses at the end of Newton Road that was happening on Monday. Plans to take down these buildings together with Pennyquick View and Hinton Close had been announced at several Twerton PACT meetings.

Photo by Mr John Rawlings. More photos by John here: 2  3  4

This type of prefabricated concrete house was considered a short term answer to housing shortages after the war. The parts could be manufactured and put together easily. Later they became vulnerable to faults such as concrete cancer where the material starts to deteriorate.

Photos by John Rawlings, 09/06/10

Holiday at Home is held once a year in Southdown Methodist Centre at The Hollow. The idea behind the name is that you don't have to travel to take a break - you can meet up with other people and do some special activities at the centre.

Below left is the flower arranging lesson that was going on when I visited. Some people had also been making model flowers out of wire and a substance that forms the brightly coloured leaves and petals. Below right is a photo of that group and some of their work.

This year Holiday at Home was held over two days and timed to be included in the Healthy Living Week programme. It's a nice event and it is good to see a growing number of people attending, as well as people of all different ages taking part. Some people are local and some come from further afield, like the elderly gentleman from Corston who called in.

Joe, 03/06/10

Healthy Living Week finished for this year with a big celebration at Bath City Farm. All morning hundreds of people came to the event which had lots of things to do. There was a children's obstacle course, nature trails and a gardening demo with seedlings to take away.

Below left is a photo of Bart the ram being led around to meet the children. He is one of the friendliest animals on the farm. Below right is Viv from the Time Bank running the free raffle which had prizes including a bike and a football signed by all the Bath City players.

Healthy Living Week is an annual programme of health related activities held in South West Bath that is now in its fifth year. This year the organisers feel that it has been very successful with a good turnout of people for most of the events.

As well as encouraging people to live healthily, Healthy Living Week is good for local agencies like First Steps Nursery, Bath City Farm and the Time Bank because it gets them meeting up and working together to produce the programme.

Joe, 03/06/10

Twerton now has its very own Lion of Bath. The sculpture, called the Handson Lion, was created by deaf adults with additional needs who do woodwork, ceramics, art and crafts at their workshop on Wellsway near Great Western Wines and at the RNID Poolemead Centre in Twerton. The Lion was sponsored by RNID Community Services which is based on site at Poolemead.

The same people also make items for sale (see here) and run a cafe and music session at the Poolemead Centre. They have an exhibition of their work in the Bath Fringe Festival. The Handson Lion is situated outside Pennard Court and can be seen quite easily from Watery Lane.

Joe, 02/06/10