This summer when we were in the process of buying our house and long before I saw it, I began pestering my husband about the attic. The house was built in 1850 and I was excited to see what secrets the attic might contain. Unfortunately Roger had only poked his head up there and the real estate agent didn't take a photo. I had to wait to see the attic until I finally got to the house in mid August, and even then it was a few days of cleaning and organizing before I pulled down the hatch and climbed the ladder to look around.
The attic doesn't have floor boards and the space between the beams is filled with insulation. Since I didn't want to take the chance of falling through the plaster ceiling, I stood on the ladder while my eyes adjusted to the dimness, calculating how much storage we would have after laying a floor.
Then I saw them. There were half a dozen common brown bats hanging from the vent at the peak of the roof. How the house inspector missed them, I don't know, because they were quite visible. Rather than look around for more, I quietly descended and quickly raised the ladder. Ironically I had finished reading Dracula the day before, so I wasn't at all thrilled to see our freeloaders. I called my husband at his work and he arranged to have the bat man out to the house later that week.
Bat man found a total of nine bats. He attached a one way door to the attic vents to encourage the little guys to find a new home. I hope they will still be neighbors even though we haven't yet had time to buy and hang a bat house. They are beautiful to watch flying around at dusk and do a good job eating the bugs.
Just a few weeks before I met our bats, I was following a blog called The Tortoise Loft. Sue featured an adorable bat derived from a pattern book first published during the reign of Charles the 1st. Here is her finished piece, stitched on linen with pearl cotton in seed, feather and split stitches.
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| Photo courtesy Sue at The Tortoise Loft http://www.tortoiseloft.com/ |
Who would guess that the pattern is from 1632?! It is a treat to visit Sue's blog to see how she conceived this project and adapted an old pattern for a modern interpretation--no tricks involved!
Happy Halloween!
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I hope your bats find a good roost nearby, so that you can enjoy watching them swooping about at dusk. The building behind the kitchen of the Tortoise Loft has swifts, so I get to watch them zooming around like crazy on a summer evening.
ReplyDeleteThank you for using my work and mentioning my blog.
what a surprise to find the bats, I think here in the UK we are not allowed to remove them so you are lucky, what a good idea a one way door exit. No doubt the attic will soon be floored and filled with possessions, I do not use mine as I have a very low roof and cannot stand even in the highest part.
ReplyDeleteThe swifts visit every year and nest in mine, is is fascinating how they swoop in at a tremendous speed, usually it takes a few attempts before they find the opening for the first time, I never tire of watching them and then they are away after a few weeks until the following year.
Margaret, you can only remove bats at certain times of the year--when the babies have grown up and before it is too cold. They were ok, but I am glad the 2-foot pile of guano is gone!
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