Back home in the UK we have a tree in our garden which, depending on who you believe, is either an ornamental cherry tree or a plum tree. It looks like a cherry tree but the fruit tastes like plum. Anyway, this cherry/plum tree attracts loads of insects in the summer and these insects attract bats.

Lisa's Dad first noticed a bat circling the tree one night a couple of years ago and we see them quite regularly just after sunset, which is usually just after the kids have gone to bed. Jacob was desperate to see a bat and so we promised to wake him up next time we saw one. Luckily this happened just before we left the UK and we sat out for about 30 minutes watching one circling around the tree.

So last night in Bangkok Garden I decided to take the kids down to the climbing frames here. After about five minutes Jacob spotted not just one but four bats circling around our heads - at least twice the size of their English cousins! "They're probably eating all the mosquitoes," I said in a 'know-it-all' fatherly fashion before realising that we all had shorts on. We beat a hasty retreat, which was probably a good thing as Lisa came back from a night out bitten to death!

Posted on 24 August 2003.

Back