Happy Easter!

And hot on the heels of St George's day comes Easter Sunday, so a very happy Easter to all our readers.

The sun is out and we've had a lovely stroll down to an Easter service in a church full of beautiful flowers. This was just one of many arrangements that made St Mary's at Burgh Parva a very bright and cheerful place.

And we've been very lucky to receive lots of Easter cards and chocolate eggs; all made with Fair Trade chocolate of course!

Yes, we like Easter and hope you are having a good one too.

Lots of love, all at Bears Unlimited xxx

Happy Easter from all at Bears Unlimited

A very happy Easter to all our readers. What a great day it has been so far. Bris and I were up very early, while it was still dark, to join a group of 10 for a dawn service, followed by a scrumptious cooked breakfast.


It was a special moment when the Paschal candle was lit and it brought home to us the miracle of the Easter Sunday events.

It was lovely to see lots of daffodils brightening the church and they were an excellent tonic to lift the spirits.


While our breakfast was cooking, as well as admiring the spring flowers, we also took a good look at the Easter garden. A lot of hard work had gone into creating it and a great job had been done ...


We came home to discover a huge mountain of Easter eggs and lots of excited bears. How lucky we all are to have such generous friends who understand how much bears love chocolate.


We're not quite as bad as one of our minders' friends who had given up chocolate for Lent, but had a chocolate feast at just gone midnight this morning, when she could eat it again. We're pacing ourselves this afternoon though, as we have lovely leg of lamb slow cooking in the oven as we write, and we don't want to ruin our appetites.

This lamb will be relished even more than usual as we all gave up meat for Lent. We had some lovely creative vegetarian dishes cooked by Chef Oakley, but, after our abstinence, the roasting meat doesn't half smell good.

Lots of love, Gio, Bris and all at Bears Unlimited xxx

We're Dreaming of a White Easter

We're breaking off from our Irish adventure once again, but this time to wish all our readers a very happy Easter.

We were up early this morning - in fact, at 4.30 a.m., we were up so early that we beat the snow which has been falling for several hours now! The reason for our early start was to take part in the dawn service at one of our local churches.

I (Bris) took my new friend Giovanni along. Giovanni will be introduced properly in due course, but he has just moved from the Hillfield Franciscan friary in Dorset to be with us and he was keen to find out how we celebrate Easter in Norfolk.

We wish our camera time stamped our pictures so you could see that we really were waiting outside the church for people to arrive at 5.00 a.m. It was very cold and very dark, although our flash makes it look lighter than it was.

Before long though we had an Easter fire burning to dispel the darkness and provide light and warmth - powerful metaphors that sum up why we were there.


We lit the special Paschal candle from this fire and then, from the Paschal candle lit candles for ourselves and moved into the church taking the light with us. Giovanni thought the service was great and we both especially liked the bit when we had to make a loud joyful noise: we both clanged the gong which George & Yorkie had brought back from an adventure in Thailand.

After the service, when it had become light, I showed Giovanni round the church and pointed out the design on the altar front which depicts the rising sun.


We both agreed it was a fantastic Easter symbol, and incidentally, a fitting theme for this year's Greenbelt festival.

By this time we were rather hungry and how lucky were we, that some very nice people made us all a lovely breakfast of bacon and egg sandwiches. They were simply delicious. Giovanni got so enthusiastic about his that he fell onto the buttered bread and got a very buttery nose. Can you see it?


Then it was home to another wonderful Easter treat. We shared round some scrummy Easter eggs (Fairtrade Dubble eggs no less). We'll be cracking these open very shortly before going out to make a snow bear.


If it keeps snowing as it is, there should be enough for a snow bear. The only question is, will it be Yorkie or Blue Bear sized?

We agree with our friend Naughty Bear that Easter is an amazing time of year and better than Christmas when you get to the heart of it.

Lots of love Bris, Giovanni & all at Bears Unlimited xxx

Happy Easter (Part 1)

We like Easter a lot, so much so that we're going to break new ground and have 2 blogs today.

We've spent quite a bit of time in church this week remembering the events of Holy Week. After the sombre events of the Last Supper and Good Friday we were full of the joys of spring this morning as we came to join in the celebrations of Easter Sunday - the fact that the sun was shining when we got up, got the day off on just the right footing.


I (George) was honoured to have the job of lighting the Paschal candle. This represents the risen Christ, as a symbol of light dispelling darkness (death). It burns throughout the Easter period (up until the Ascension) and is a powerful and important symbol.

As it was Easter Sunday we had lots of good hymns to sing and we all belted out our favourite 'Thine be the Glory' at the tops of our voices. If you haven't heard a bear choir in action before, you should come and hear us as we fair raise the roof.


The smaller bears and Billy the Puffin were able to take a close up look at the Easter garden. They peered into the tomb to confirm it was indeed empty and Yorkie said he didn't really need the angel there to confirm it as he could see for himself. Yorkie also said that as he was a bear, he was definitely 'bearing' witness to the resurrection, wasn't he?

Part 2 to follow shortly.

Lots of love , George, Yorkie & Co xxx