Lighting Up Time. Bideford New Year's Eve Celebrations

Bideford will once again help revellers welcome in the New Year in spectacular style. New Year's Eve Celebrations will start from 6pm on Bideford Quay with entertainment including a light show set to music, traditional fairground rides, street dancing displays, and a children's fancy dress parade with prizes for the best fancy dress. The evening will be hosted by presenters from North Devon independent radio station The Voice. This year, from 9pm, the station will be beaming the celebrations live to online listeners around the world. The temporary road closure comes into force at 6pm and the action on the former Radio 1 Roadshow stage will get underway soon after. - To listen to live online coverage of the Bideford celebrations, visit www.thevoicefm.co.uk/listen. See "Region gets Ready to Party" www.northdevongazette.co.uk 

 Bideford Highlights 2011 - Photo copyright BD Adams

A TOP 10 NEW YEAR CRACKER

North Devon Coast and Country Chronicle. "More than 10,000 revellers gather in fancy dress to join in one of the West Country's largest parties…As midnight approaches everyone gathers on Bideford's Long Bridge to wait for the parish bells to ring in the New Year" - As featured in the Daily Mail, Saturday December 17 2005 - TOP 10 NEW YEAR CRACKERS.

The BIG Sheep Winter Opening, Ice Skating & Toboganning

Winter Weekends & Winter School Holidays. During the winter The BIG Sheep is open at weekends & school holidays  10am until 5pm.

During January there are no animals onsite. Lambing will start in February.
(some attractions are weather dependable and this can affect their opening hours.) During the winter months the attractions open are: Ewetopia Indoor playground and cafe, Train Ride, Jumping Pillows, Battlefield Live, Ice Skating and Toboggan Slope.

Prices: £6 each for adults and children over 3ft tall.
£2.50 each for children under 3ft tall.
Tickets purchased online at www.thebigsheep.co.uk are discounted by £1 per ticket.
**

The Big Sheep are open every day during the winter school holidays.
February Half Term 2012 – Saturday 11th February 2012 until Sunday 19th February 2012.

Please call 01237 472366 for more information.

 Prices: £6 each for adults and children over 3ft tall.

£2.50 each for children under 3ft tall.
Tickets purchased online at www.thebigsheep.co.uk are discounted by £1 per ticket.  
NB: The first weekend of the winter season is 5th and 6th November 2011 - The last weekend of the winter season is 24th and 25th March 2012.   

Making Headlines. Military Wives Choir - Wherever You Are BBC

The Military Wives and Gareth Malone, are bidding for that coveted Christmas Number One spot with their new single Wherever You Are which will be released on December 19th 2011. Chris Evans has been promoting it on his radio 2 breakfast show. The RMB Chivenor Military Wives Choir starred with Gareth Malone in the recent BBC Two series of The choir: Military Wives, If you missed their stunning Festival of Remembrance performance at the Royal Albert Hall watch the video now.  Lets make it a Special Christmas and get it to No1 click here to Pre-order the single


"The choir’s charity song, Wherever You Are was written for the choir and Gareth by composer Paul Mealor, who wrote music for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Its lyrics were taken from letters written by choir members to their husbands and partners whilst they were serving in Afghanistan. Profits from the single will be going to the Royal British Legion plus military charity SSAFA." Visit the North Devon Gazette to read all about it

Adopt a species scheme proves popular at Christmas

Devon Wildlife Trust's (DWT) range of gifts have been proving very popular in the run up to Christmas again this year with its adopt a species scheme going from strength to strength. The adopt a species scheme, launched in 2009 through the DWT website,www.devonwildlifetrust.org allows people to support the Trust's conservation work in Devon, protecting habitats and species for future generations to enjoy. This year people can choose to 'adopt' from a list of five wonderful species: dormouse, otter, dolphin, bat and now hedgehog, which has been included as part of the charity's high profile 'Help the Hog' campaign. With each £20 donation, purchasers will receive a soft toy of their chosen species along with a welcome letter, fact sheet, certificate, a postcard  of the species, a fun activity book, a pack of six colouring pencils and a six month update letter. Phoebe Grubb, from DWT said: 'This is a great way for people to support our work - adopt a species makes the perfect gift for children and nature loving adults at this time of the year! The Help the Hog campaign has really taken off, and it is showing, as the most popular adopt a species has been the hedgehog so far this season. This year the scheme has already raised £1,500 for local wildlife, so thank you for those who have already adopted.' The money raised through the scheme goes towards the costs of carrying out conservation work throughout the county benefiting these species and the habitats that they need to thrive. To adopt a species today visit www.devonwildlifetrust.org, or call Devon Wildlife Trust on 01392 279244. Get your order to us by Wednesday 14 December to ensure delivery in time for Christmas.

Charity calendar marks 50th anniversary

Devon Wildlife Trust has this month launched its 2012 wildlife calendar. The beautifully produced calendar has been created to mark the charity's 50th anniversary. The calendar is being sold for £5 and is available by phone, online or by post. Each calendar sold will raise funds for the charity's vital conservation work around Devon. The calendar is illustrated with a stunning collection of Devon's most popular species including otter, brown hare, bluebell, kingfisher, dormouse and red deer, it also has a nuthatch on its front cover. Each month also contains a photo of one of the charity's nature reserve along with details of what to see there on a visit. Phoebe Grubb, DWT's Fundraising Officer enthused: 'This is our first ever calendar so we are hoping lots of people will choose to have it on their wall for next year which is our 50th. It's such a major milestone, we wanted to give something back to our supporters and mark this special occasion. Hopefully people that buy it will think about us through the year and continue to value the work we do to protect Devon's wonderful wildlife." Carrie Park who compiled the calendar said: "We have such a great resource of photographs available mainly thanks to the kind support from keen local wildlife photographers. Without their help we wouldn't have been able to produce such a beautiful product." People who wish to purchase a calendar should visit www.devonwildlifetrust.org or call Devon Wildlife Trust on 01392 279244. Photo: Copyright Dormouse 5 (Hugh Clark)