The Barnet Eye Advent Calendar - Monday 1st December 2014

We all love an Advent Calendar, don't we? Well the Barnet Eye can't give all of our readers a chocolate, but we can give you a little gift. Every day for the period up to Christmas, we'll be sharing a little gift with you about the place we live in. We hope you find this interesting. We will also be featuring a local charity. Traditionally Christmas is a time of giving. In this day and age of commercialism, this usually means unhealthily large amounts of chocolate or expensive presents. Well locally there are a whole host of charities, where a small (or large) donation could make a whole host of difference. So here's our gift to you. Even if Advent means nothing to you, we hope you'll enter into the spirit of this series, because we believe there is no bad time to find out things aabout your locality or support great causes.

Todays gem. The University of London observatory in Mill Hill - http://www.ulo.ucl.ac.uk/ - tens of thousands of us drive past the observatory on the A41 just south of Mill Hill Circus roundabout. Many discoveries have been made at the observatory, and you can visit it during the public open evenings, perhaps one thing I've not done on my bucket list! What you may not have seen is this Pathe News video recording the opening of the Observatory. So here is todays gift - enjoy.

The first Charity we feature is Noah's Ark Childrens Hospice. As a father, I can think of nothing worse than a child having a terminal illness. Noah's Ark Hospice support children in this position and the people affected by their illness. Please take a few seconds to have a look at their website and if you have a few pennies spare make a donation

http://www.noahsarkhospice.org.uk/

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If you have a gem in the Borough you wish to share or a charity you want us to highlight in our advent calendar, please send us the details. A guest blog for the series would be even more appreciated. Lets share whats good and try and make a difference.