Welcome to Your New Home

You really should see Blue Bear in action. Not only is he an ace mechanic, when it comes to car deals he is a skilled negotiator. I went with him to buy our new BM2 but there really wasn't anything for me to do. I just sat back, smiled sweetly at my favourite sales girl, Laura, and let Blue Bear secure the best deal he could.

And so, it wasn't long before we were the proud owners of a new bearmobile 2, a very smart Corsa in air blue. It went through the garage in record time and 3 days later we all went along to collect our new acquisition. As it was Laura's first sale, having only been at the dealership a week, we insisted she be in a photo with us.


As you can see, Blue bear had been in touch with the B.V.L.A. to transfer the plate from our sadly missed Golf so we could have a permanent reminder of her. Our new BM2 is honoured to be wearing the same plate, but a little nervous of following in such great wheels.


Once we got home Blue Bear put the new BM2 through her paces and gave her a thorough check. He pronounced himself well satisfied and enjoyed sitting in her and admiring the view round the cockpit. We had a job to prise him out from the driver's seat. If it hadn't been for the delicious lunch smells wafting from the house we think he'd have stayed there all day.


After lunch he was straight back to work, this time doing a bit of tuning to the Toyota Yaris we've been using as a hire car while we've been without our second vehicle.


For Blue Bear, looking after cars is a real labour of love.

Lots of love Chelmer and all at Bears Unlimited xxx

Being 'The Stig'

Chelmer and I were quite pleased that What Car supported our own thoughts, which were that we should be looking out for a Corsa or a Fiesta. We wasted no time in arranging test drives for both types of car, which we needed to do as we've never owned a Corsa, and there weren't many of us around the last time our minder bought a Fiesta (which was 17 years ago).

The Fiesta was good to drive and was a distinct possibilty for our new Bearmobile. However, it was pipped at the post by the new Corsa. Of course this was partly due to the fact that it was the new Corsa model that we test drove, and this model has not been out for long. It drove very well and looked really good, especially in air blue, as you can see.


I did half wonder whether Chelmer was biased towards the Corsa because, being a bit of a ladies bear, he took rather a shine to the attractive young sales lady who took us out. Mind you, this worked in my favour, as while Chelmer kept her talking, I was able to concentrate on the car and how she drove.

Our test drive took place in the dark, so Chelmer and I went back a couple of days later to take a closer look at the car in daylight, and to show her to the rest of the Norfolk Branch and see what they thought.


She certainly passed my intense scrutiny. I looked hard for any signs of wear and tear but I couldn't find any. Although just over 6 months old, she looked just like a new car. The other guys gave the thumbs up, so as soon as we could, we went back to secure the deal.

Keep reading to see how we got on.

Lots of love, Blue Bear, Chelmer and all at the Norfolk Branch xxx

Followed by bad News ...

Unfortunately, when the letter came, it was the worst possible news. BM2 was beyond economic repair. I put on my dark glasses as I didn't want the rest of the guys to see how upset I was. I didn't like to think of BM2 being scrapped purely for economic reasons, so I phoned up the engineer at the repair centre to see if we could get her repaired ourselves.

The engineer assured me he would have loved to have repaired BM2, and they did in fact put her on a machine to see what would happen when they tried to pull out the dent. Unfortunately it didn't come out cleanly and the engineer could see that BM2 quite simply couldn't be put back to her pre-accident condition. Reluctantly, I had to accept that her injuries were just too serious and she wasn't coming back. We are all pleased though, that she will be a fantastic organ donor and will live on through many other cars who will benefit from her quality parts.

I thought the best thing would be to get busy finding a worthy replacement for BM2.


I called in the help of Car Bear Chelmer, who spends a lot of time travelling in Bearmobiles, and together we pored over 'What Car' and surfed the Internet. Chelmer also looked through the cars for sale in the local paper.

We had already decided, that since Bearmobile 1 is now an estate car, and as fuel is now so expensive, the next Bearmobile 2 should be a smaller car. Of course, we were only planning hypothetically when we had had this thought initially. We hadn't expected to be shopping for a new BM2 for a very long time.

Keep reading to see what we decided to look for, and what we found when we started looking.

Lots of love, Blue Bear, Chelmer & the gang xxx

Disaster Strikes

There have been some long faces, and not as much laughter as usual, at the Norfolk Branch over the last couple of weeks. We are all upset at what happened to our much loved Bearmobile 2. While she was innocently and lawfully stationery in the road, waiting to make a right hand turn, someone (we will say no more about them as it wouldn't be printable) drove into BM2 at speed and did some serious damage.

BM2, being the trooper that she is, took all the impact and as a result our minder didn't suffer a single scratch. We were able to drive her home, and, as soon as I could, being the Bears Unlimited Chief Mechanic, I checked her over, to see what could be done.


Considering the force of the impact, at first inspection she didn't actually look too badly damaged. I examined her from every angle and unfortunately saw a few things that caused me some concern.


I realised that the experts needed to be called in. Our insurers sent a recovery vehicle to take her off to a big repair centre on the edge of Norwich. We were pleased that she was able to drive up the ramps under her own steam but we were very sad to see her go. We all desperately hoped we'd see her driving back into our drive before too long.


The initial prognosis did give us some hope. The engineer who inspected her, thought she could be repaired, but as she was a bit of a borderline case he said he would have to call in one of the Insurer's own engineers for a second opinion. We settled down nervously to wait for the verdict.

Lots of love from a rather subdued Blue Bear and friends xxx

Autumn Clean Up

Autumn has arrived with avengeance at our North Norfolk home. There are leaves everywhere and there were far too many for me, Tommy, to clear up on my own, so I had to enlist some help from my Bears Unlimited friends.

In return for their help I was able to offer them an enjoyable scrunch in the leaves before we started work. Scrunching our way through thick piles of brown leaves is, for all of us, one of life's simple pleasures.


It's certainly true that many paws make light work and my team of helpers were willing and able. It wasn't long before we could see grass again. The only problem we had was how to dispose of all the leaves we'd collected. I like to do as much composting as I can, but even so there are only so many leaves I can use. We've got two brown wheely bins for garden waste, but even these quickly filled up. Some of us did a lot of jumping up and down on the leaves to try and fit a few more in.


All in all, a good afternoon's work. It's a bit like the forth bridge though. We can still see leaves on the trees so we know we'll be doing it again in a week or two's time.

Lots of love, Tommy & the gardening gang xxx

Getting Pickled!

The other day we all got pickled, but in the most tasteful way and we remained completely sober. As you can tell from this last comment, it had nothing to do with the Woodforde's brewery delivery man making one of his regular trips to our home.

It did, however, have everything to do with those enormous marrows, grown by Tommy, that we showed you a little while back.


As you can see one of those marrow produced a fine batch of pickle. And it is not just any old pickle. I was following Aunt Jessie from Devon's special marrow chutney recipe with lots of chillies. Aunty Jessie tells me she misses out the chillies, but for all of us in bears Unlimited they are the essential ingredient. Chutney lover, T.B.B., who you see with me in the photo, couldn't wait to taste my delicious chutney, and he also hung around during it's making, I think to make sure I put all the chilli seeds in.

It almost makes winter more bearable, the thought of sitting round the fire enjoying the chutney with our lunches.

If anyone wants the recipe, I'll happily send it to you.

Lots of love, Chef Bear Oakley xxx

After the Storm

We were rather worried at the end of last week, as we watched and waited, to see what harm the predicted tidal surge would do to the lovely area of North Norfolk coastline, just a few miles from where we live.

Fortunately 'the worst' didn't happen and homes and villages were spared. There was, however, quite a lot of flooding of the land immediately behind the sea wall. We went for a coastal walk on Sunday afternoon to see the aftermath of the storm surge.


As we walked along the coast path beside the Blakeney channel, we came across several small boats which had slipped their moorings or escaped from the dinghy park. They had ended up much closer to the footpath than to the sea. We felt rather sorry for them as they looked rather forlorn, and we hope their owners will come and rescue them soon.

While the high water levels had retreated at Blakeney, just a couple of miles away at Salthouse, the flood water was still lying on the flat land, on which we usually see cattle grazing. It all looked a bit different on Sunday. As we viewed the scene from the road we found we were looking at an inland lake.


The birds certainly liked it, they were having a whale of a time swimming round on this newly created lake. Talk about unsettled weather though. In the few minutes we stood looking at the changed landscape, grey clouds rolled in and it went very dark.


Who would have believed that our last 2 pictures were taken only a couple of minutes apart. At least we didn't get wet though, as Bearmobile 1 was thankfully only a few steps away.

Lots of love, all at Bears Unlimited xxx

We Remember ....

"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them".


Today we remembered the Fallen at our village war memorial. Our Act of Remembrance was particularly poignant this year because of Remembrance Sunday falling on the 11th November.

We had joined in the village service but had stayed on, as a Bears Unlimited group, to remember the casualties who tend to get forgotten, namely the horses who died on active service. Being an eclectic collection of bears, dogs, sheep, monkeys and so on, we love animals of every kind and find the loss of all those courageous horses really tragic.

Our concern for these, largely forgotten, casualties of war, has led us to adopt the Brooke equine charity as one of our corporate charities. This charity was founded by a lady called Dorothy Brooke after she came across hundreds of emaciated horses being used as beasts of burden on the streets of Cairo in 1930. When she discovered they were ex-cavalry horses of the British, Australian and American forces and had all seen service in the First World War before being sold into a life of hard labour in Cairo when the conflict ended in 1918, she was so moved by their plight that she founded the Brooke Charity to buy these animals their freedom.

Today the Brooke helps horses and donkeys all over the world and is an international equine lifesaver. The charity works in Egypt, India, Pakistan, Jordan, Israel (Palestinian villages in Israel and the West Bank), Afghanistan, Kenya, Ethiopia and Guatemala, relieving suffering, and probably most importantly, educating the owners of these animals, who genuinely don't believe their animals feel pain or need water and shade. It breaks our hearts to think of donkeys collapsing under enormous loads in the heat, desperate for a drink and then being hit with a stick instead of being the care and the water they desperately need. And so, we raise money to support the work of the Brooke and we hope our readers will check out their website and consider doing the same.


So, back to where we started, we remember ... lest we forget.

Lots of love, all at Bears Unlimited xxx

Norwich Cathedral & Bris Welcome the A B of C

It's been quite a week for rubbing shoulders with the Church hierarchy. After meeting Bishop James, the Bishop of Lynn, last Sunday, today I was down at Norwich Cathedral with my minders, to hear a talk given by, none other than, Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The talk drew a huge crowd, hardly surprising, given the important figure Rowan Williams is. I don't think I'd ever seen quite so many people in dog collars at any one time and I began to feel a bit underdressed. By the time we arrived the centre of the cathedral was full, so we had to find seats at the side. We could hear perfectly and could watch the talk thanks to a video relay to a big screen. The man himself was hidden from sight behind some very old and very big pillars.

The talk was entitled 'Being Christian: Finding and Keeping Faith in Today's World'. It was a very interesting and helpful talk and I discussed what had been said with my minders during the coffee break.


I sat in my travelling rucksack as there were so many people around that I didn't want to risk people not seeing me and treading on my paws.

After coffee, the Archbishop spent 45 minutes answering questions that had been submitted during the coffee break. I thought his answers showed true wisdom and a great intellect. He didn't try to skirt round difficult questions but met them head on, and offered what insights he could. This earned him my respect.

The talk was well worth hearing and is available as a download on the Norwich Diocesan Website. I'm certainly very glad I went, even if it did mean I didn't get my Saturday morning lie in.

Lots of love, Bris xxx

Chilling Out Time

After all the excitement of the party we felt we needed to do something relaxing to finish off the day. And so we all piled into Bearmobile 2 and drove to a local beauty spot for a walk down to the sea.

The route we took was one of our favourites. We walk over some beautiful heathland and along sandy tracks the lovely views of the sea becoming ever closer.

We spent a bit of time on the beach and had a stone skimming competition which was won by Jimmy with a 6. However, now that the clocks have gone back, there wasn't time to linger as we would have liked, otherwise we would have been walking back in the dark.


As we turned our backs on the sea, we found we were looking at a setting sun and a lovely golden sky.

Could there be a better way to end a great day? - not for us anyway.

Lots of love, all at Bears Unlimited xxx

On With the Party

And what a party it was! I can tell you it was a huge success, without abandoning my natural modesty, as I, Bris, only played a small role. The success was all thanks to my lovely friend Yvonne and her willing band of helpers.

My role might have been small but the gateaux I cut up certainly weren't!


As you can see from my first picture, I really had to put my back into the task of cutting the gateaux as they were still well frozen (we weren't joking when we said we got there early).

Henry and Chelmer came in to admire the food table once we had loaded it up.


What you can't see, however, are the tonnes (or so it seemed) of steaming jacket potatoes and the vats of very spicy chilli to be served with them. It was hard to wait until the end of the service.

Although Henry and Chelmer hadn't helped with the food they had done a great job with helping decorate the hall and the decorations really helped create a party atmosphere.


We all thought the 75th birthday balloons were really cool. Even so they were surpassed by the fantastic entries in the children's painting competition (they had to paint the church). They were so good that it was really hard for the Bishop to choose a winner.

Talking of the Bishop again, he was kept very busy. Not only did he have to judge the paintings he had to cut the birthday cake which was in the shape of the letters 75.


We were going to help Bishop James with the cutting, but when we heard that two ladies were present, whose father had built the Church, it was of course only right that they should help with cutting the cake. We had a chat with the ladies and learnt lots about what the Church was like when they were girls. It was one of the best history lessons we've had for a while.

We will certainly remember this birthday party for a long time to come. True we had some lovely food and enjoyed the bubbles from the Bucks Fizz going up our nose, but the thing that really made it, was the great atmosphere and all the chat and laughter. We like spending time at Hindolveston as there is a great community spirit.

Lots of love, Bris, Henry, Chelmer and all at Bears Unlimited xxx

Celebration 75!

We were all up bright and early this morning in order to be over at Hindolveston in good time for the celebration service and to help with the last minute preparations. It's been a busy and exciting day, but it's all over now, and we've got time to relax and start telling you all about it.

A lot of work had gone into preparing the service of celebration and it came off really well. The church was comfortably full and there was a good buzz in the air. The Bishop of Lynn, Bishop James, gave an inspiring talk (with very few notes - Bris was impressed) on the communion of saints, focussing on legacy of the past and our potential for shaping the future.

The highlight, however, was the village's drumming group, Trix 'n Stix, who performed a piece written especially for the occasion, called celebration 75.


Before the service Henry and I (Chelmer) helped Ronnie, the group's leader set up the drums. As you may recall from previous posts, I am a drumming bear so I couldn't resist having a quick go. We tried out 2 set of drums, but there were far more types that we've got in our pictures.


Not only was the drumming foot-tappingly good, there was a chant for everyone to join in with. Half the congregation, led by our friend Paul (who you can in the picture below), rapped out a loud 'ceeeeeellll-e-brate' while the other half, which included us, ended each 'celebrate' with a loud shout of '75!' It worked really well (and proved the church is not a stuffy and dying institution) and even the Bishop joined in and seemed to enjoy it as you can see in our next picture.


We took a movie clip on our camera, so we could share Celebrate 75 with you, but we had forgotten that our movie clips don't include sound! so there's nothing to share.

While we were busy helping with the drums before the service, Bris was helping with the lunch preparations in the hall.


As you can see, he did a great job and we'll tell you how the party lunch went in our next post, so keep reading.

Lots of love Chelmer, Henry & Bris xxx

Preparing for a Party

We've been busy bears today helping to prepare for a party. Before we tell you what we've been up to, in true, Where's Bear? style, we want to ask if you can find us in our picture?


In case it's too hard we'll make it easier for you! Mind you, you might still want to enlarge the picture? Don't you think the colours are lovely and autumnal?


As you can see we've been helping to erect a gazebo in front of the Hindolveston village church. This is the clue to the reason for the party: it is to celebrate this Church's 75th birthday. It's actually surprisingly young for a Norfolk church and its nearest neighbour is over 900 years old. The reason why it is so young, is because it was only built when the old church fell down, on a Sunday when there should have been a service taking place. Thankfully the church was empty when the roof caved in, as the Vicar had forgotten to tell his parishioners about the service. Talk about a close shave!


Anyway old or not, 75 years is a good excuse for a party. The Bishop of Lynn and lots of other local people are coming to a special service tomorrow, followed by a lunch which can confidently predict (having seen the preparations) will be rather good.

We'll all be there armed with our camera, so will be able to give you a full report of this happy community occasion.

In the meantime we thought you'd like to see a clearer picture of some of us hard at work. Good job Henry and I have a head for heights.

Lots of love Chelmer and Henry xxx

Life Savers on the Move

A few days ago we had an interesting visitor who arrived in a very special vehicle which was of particular interest to our Chief Mechanic, Blue Bear. This fine vehicle, a Ford Focus, was a brand new First Responder vehicle which will whisk an amazing band of volunteers off to local medical emergencies. As the area where we live is so rural, it can take a long time for paramedics to arrive, and the nearest hospitals are an hour's drive away, so these First Responders, who quite literally do what the badge says, and turn up and save lives until the paramedics arrive, are absolutely vital.


We all think the First Responders are terrific people. We hope we don't need their services, but we're glad they're there in case we do need them.

We hope that the new vehicle, which will be with whoever is on duty at any time, will be very useful. We certainly hope that by providing visibility it will enable them to get to incidents more quickly. They're not allowed to have blue flashing lights, but the car does have orange flashing lights which were turned on especially for us when we went out to have a look round the car.

After we'd finished posing for this picture, Blue Bear was allowed to go on a test drive. He was very relieved that an emergency call didn't come in while he was out driving.

Lots of love, Eddie, Charlie, Henry, Blue Bear and all at Bears Unlimited xxx