Are you staying for the Summer Bank Holiday weekend? Or, are you making a week of it? We have one of the Best Beaches in Britain and the weather is set to be hot and sunny too!

Every summer in Woolacombe is special. Summer Bank Holidays are simply amazing. Come and join us!

Woolacombe Beach

All year long, £Parking charges or take our bus

Whether you favor coastal walks, extreme sports or just breathtaking views, we have it all. 3 miles of golden sands, rolling waves and salty spray. Not a bad way to spend your Bank Holiday. Try out the many water-sports that are available. Watch the sunset on our glorious beach, your Summer Bank Holiday is waiting.

Circus Wonderland, Barnstaple

21-27 Aug, Afternoon & Evening shows, From £7

The circus is in town for the Summer Bank Holiday!Fun for all the family, live entertainment that includes the best comedy and daredevil thrills.

Spellbinding excitement, laughter and colour. Thrills and spills and glitter and glamour; all under one tent, appealing to audiences of all ages.

Gin, Beer & Music Festival, Ilfracombe

24—26Aug, £Free—some ticketed

The Landmark theatre presents a Summer Bank Holiday weekend of local music, lively entertainment, good food and refreshing drinks.

Children's show, great alternative acts and fancy dress（optional!）, as well as ticketed 70's show!

Ilfracombe Carnival

25Aug, 6pm, £Free

The annual carnival procession in Ilfracombe, every Summer Bank Holiday. Fancy costume displays and floats（花车）, maybe the odd clown or comedian. Showing off everything from local businesses and North Devon talent.

Bring your pennies as they'll be raising money for local charities!

Early one morning in 1948, a phone call woke up the police chief in the small town of Clearwater, Florida. The caller said he'd seen something strange at the beach. Residents woke up that morning to find an odd set of footprints in the sand, and a rumor (谣言) began circulating that Clearwater Beach had a sea monster.

It turned out to be a local prankster (恶作剧者) who wore 30-pound, three-toed iron shoes and walked around the beach at night. Soon the mysterious tracks appeared on other beaches, from Honeymoon Island to St. Pete Beach. The local papers ran photos of police bending over a big footprint, looking puzzled. The footprints led people to believe there was a giant, 15-foot penguin wandering around their lands.

The tracks of the giant penguin continued for 10 years. 1958 marked the last time when anyone saw them. It wasn't until April 11, 1988, that a St. Petersburg Times reporter revealed that the giant penguin was actually Tony Signorini, a locally known prankster. Signorini kept the prank a secret for 40 years.

Signorini stated he had been inspired by a photograph of fossilized dinosaur tracks, and showed the reporter the huge penguin feet made of iron used in creating the tracks. "To create the false impression of a long step, Signorini would stand on one leg, swing the other one back and forth to take a leap." the Tampa Bay Times reported.

When Signorini died at age 91 in 2013, his family made sure to mention in his obituary(讣告) hat, along with being a World War II flight engineer, "Tony was famous for being ‘The Clearwater Monster,’ a hoax that made national news.”

Spices (香料) are global now. But once they were restricted to certain regions, were highly costly and even more valuable than gold! Spices have come a long way since then. They are now used for varieties of purposes.

Spices are mainly found in tropical (热带的) areas. Spices were more commonly used in warmer climates as a way to treat infectious diseases in ancient times. They are commonly found in countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and east Africa.

The written record of spices dates back to the ancient India, China, and Egypt 3,500 years ago. In the 6th century BC, spices were introduced to Europe from Southeast Asia.

In Europe, the most common spices in the middle age were cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, and black pepper. These were among the most expensive products at that time. No wonder they were popular among noble people in Europe. King of Aragon wanted to put them in wine.

During these times, the spices were fundamentally imported from plantations (种植园) in Africa and Asia. This was the main reason why they were expensive. The Republic of Venice established a monopoly (垄断) on the trade of spices from the 8th to 15th century with the Middle East. This made the region very rich. About 1,000 tons of spices were imported every year into Western Europe.

Considering the high prices of spices, Portugal and Spain were increasingly getting interested in finding new trade routes for spices from Asia. This was the main reason that drove Portuguese navigator (航海家) Vasco da Gama to sail to India. He found that pepper was at much lower prices than those of Venice. During this time only, Columbus came back from the New World. He told about the new spices available there to the investors.

Portuguese were able to control the sea routes to India with the help of their military force. This enabled Portuguese to trade directly with the Maluku Islands, China, and Siam.

Modern humans have only been around for some 300,000 years. That's just a flash in earth history. Still, we've left our mark on the planet, We've changed Earth's terrain（地形）and its chemistry. We've also affected the diversity, abundance and biomass（生物量）of many other species.

For example, between 15,000 and 10,000 years ago, half of Earth's large mammal（哺乳动物）species died out. Human activities, such as hunting or destroying habitats, seem to have largely driven that extinction. That's what a 2014 study concluded, at least. It is estimated that over humanity's history, 90 percent of animal biomass has disappeared.

The plant kingdom has taken a similar hit. Its mass has declined by half since humans began wandering the planet. Today, 43 percent of Earth's trees grow in the tropics. But human-caused climate change has been warming the high latitudes faster than the rest of the planet. As a result, more plants can move in and grow there. However, climate change and the cutting down of greenery at tropical sites have made some of those sites drier. So even if more land is warm enough to support trees, the total biomass of trees will fall.

By 2050,earth may host 9.7 billion people. Our human biomass by then still won't outweigh bacteria. But the balance of animals and plants may continue to shift so that we'll have even more livestock and crops and even less wildlife. This means the variety of life on Earth will decline. And that can be bad for the health of habitats.

Biomass studies such as these are one way to project what the future may look like, and how quickly major changes in species or ecosystems may occur. They also help us understand the role people are playing in these changes. That could help us learn what organisms（big or small）most need protecting.