Ribs Takes in the Midlands

Well how can we follow that one? Well done Suffolk Branch!

We'll follow it with something calm and relaxing; a report of a caravanning holiday. As we're just back from a very successful trip, we'll start with our most recent trip first and work backwards.

Our latest adventure started with our annual trip to the Greenbelt Arts Festival - not at Cheltenham race course this year, but at a new venue of Boughton House, just outside Kettering. We enjoyed the varied programme, although missed a decent headline act on MainStage, and we were surrounded by beautiful grounds and countryside. When it rained all day and night on Monday, we did discover the downside of the new venue; a lack of indoor facilities and permanent infrastructure.

When we left Kettering, we headed for Stratford on Avon to indulge our passion for horse racing. We'd discovered that there was jump racing at Worcester on the Wednesday and jump racing at Stratford on the Thursday. This was just perfect for us. We decided to base ourselves for a couple of days at Stratford, as rather conveniently there is a caravan site at the race course.

We got a great pitch right beside the course and we were right beside the first jump and hurdle which gave us some great spectator sport when the groundsmen came to get the jumps ready for racing. As you can see the sun was shining and the site was nice and quiet, so we were happy as Larry.

We hadn't been there long when a man came and roped us in, although we were left a car sized exit hole. This was because the disabled car park was being marked out and we were located right in the middle of it.

As Stratford is famous for it's waterways, we spent some of our time between race meetings, walking both the River Avon and the Stratford Canal. We'd been on both previously in a canal boat and recommend both as they are very attractive stretches of water.

When it came to Stratford race day itself, we had to move the Bearmobile and Ribs to the centre of the racecourse, so the disabled car park could be used.

We were the only caravan that moved, so we had the centre of the course to ourselves ....

... that was until a helicopter flew in and landed just the other side of the fence to us. We don't often get such a close up look at these amazing machines, so it was quite fascinating, if rather noisy.

We're used to Ribs turning quite a few heads and getting some admiring looks, as she's quite a characterful caravan, but this was a first ...

... as the horses went round the parade ring, they quickly spotted her with her roof sticking up like a periscope and there were quite few ears pricked up in interest. You can hardly blame them.

We think Ribs enjoyed her day at the races as much as us.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie, Patrick, Curly, Gio, Bris and Olaf xxxxxxx

What to Buy Greenbelt Fans

We hope you've enjoyed finding out about our Christmas presents and got lots of inspiration for present buying. As so much time has now passed since Christmas, we're going to make this the last of the 'What to Buy A Bear' series, even though there were plenty more presents we could tell you about!

The rest of the chaps say they never have any problems working out what to buy me (Gio) and my best friend Bris. This is because we are such ardent fans of the Greenbelt Arts Festival, and going there, over the August Bank Holiday is normally the highlight of our year (last year was a bit of an exception, since, as you all know, I had the amazing opportunity to lead George and Yorkie on pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago, straight after Greenbelt). Anyway, back to Greenbelt, there are so many wonderful speakers and performers that we have a list of their books and music that we'd like, longer than our arm. And the Greenbelt shop also provides great present ideas.


This Christmas's presents were spot on. Firstly we got one of Amy Wadge's CDs, called 'No Sudden Moves'. Amy is a very talented singer/songwriter and we love everything she writes and sings. It's just a pity she lives in Wales so doesn't get over to the East of England to perform too often. It's worth going to Wales to hear her though!

On the book front, we received 'Eternal Echoes' written by a Greenbelt favourite, the poet and philosoher, John O'Donohue. Very sadly he died suddenly 2 years ago, so we won't have the experience of hearing him speak at Greenbelt again. However, he lives on through his amazing writing. He was an incredible wordsmith and we know exactly what a writer in the Guardian meant, when he referred to his 'dazzling vocabularly'. You would have to read some of it to see what we mean, perhaps that's not such a bad idea!

We shall treasure both these gifts for years to come, but we're also already looking forward to Greenbelt 2010 with the promise of lots of new experiences.

Lots of love, Gio & Bris xxx

Final Reflections

We've blogged a good few words about this year's Greenbelt and we're sure you've read enough to know what you missed if you weren't there with us.

We'd like to finish with 2 of our favourite photos, which we think sum up, more than words, the spirit of this year's festival.


The first is of me (Gio) with a rather lovely sunflower. As this year's theme was 'Rising Sun' this picture had special significance for me and it will remind me of all my happy memories of my first ever Greenbelt, every time I look at it.

My second picture shows our tent lit up at night with Bris looking out for me as I came back from a final visit to one of the indispensible Andy Loos ...


With so many tents in the camping ground, having a lighted window and a friendly face looking out, was so welcome and stopped me getting lost.

This picture also reminds me, that there is so much going on at Greenbelt, that late night returns to your tent are very much the norm. Once back at our tent we would would sit up for another hour or so, relaxing over a glass of wine and talking over the events of the day with friends Travelling Moose and T5 Wilbur. We didn't get a lot of sleep but we got enough to fully enjoy the next day.

I can't wait for next year and Greenbelt 2009.

Lots of love Gio, Bris and the Greenbelt crew xxx

A Monk's Tale

Once the communion was over, Wilbur went back to work at the Performance Cafe, and the other guys went off to visit the festival village and listen to some of the speakers.

I had a very special meeting to go to, but first, I had time to squeeze in a listen to a great artist called Beth Rowley who was performing on main stage. I managed to listen to her last three numbers and would have loved to hear more - perhaps that's a good reason to buy one of her CDs. Here you see me enjoying listening to her at main stage.


At the end of her set, I bumped into someone who was able to give me some advice about an exciting project that I am hoping to undertake with George and Yorkie next year (you'll find out more nearer the time). I couldn't talk to them for long as I had my special meeting to go to, but we agreed to meet up in Norfolk to talk further over one of Oakley's special meals.

My special meeting related to my interesting past. As many of our readers will know, I came from Hilfield Friary earlier this year, and as well as being a member of Bears Unlimited, I am also a member of the Society of St Francis. While I love living with all the guys at Bears Unlimited, I have missed some of the Brothers from Hilfield, and especially my favourite Brother, Brother Bart. And so it was particularly wonderful to bump into him at Greenbelt and arrange a time to catch up.



I took Brother Bart back to the Bear Tent and over a Beer (sadly not Wherry) we were able to have a long old chat about all the latest news from Hilfield and all that was happening in our lives.

Before we knew it, it was time for Brother Bart to go to Compline but I agreed join him and the other Brothers and Sister for their mid day communion the next day.

Its always good to meet up wth old friends and Greenbelt is fantastic for unexpected encounters like this.

After saying goodbye to Brother Bart I decided to go back to the festival village where I met up with the others guys in the "Jesus Arms" Beer Tent, where Bris, Randolph and Traveling Moose were leading singing at the Beer and Hymns.

Love Geo and all the Greenbelt Crew xxxxxxx

You Are My Sunshine

The theme for this year's Greenbelt was Rising Sun so it was a bit ironic that early on Sunday Morning (1:30 to be precise) the heavens opened and it begun to rain, which drove us late night Wherry drinkers to bed.

Fortunately we woke to find the rain had stopped and the sun was out, but the ground was soaked and very muddy. As you can imagine mud and fur do not really mix and we were all a bit worried about what we were going to do at the Sunday Communion. Luckily Wilbur was at hand with a large tarpaulin he had thought to bring along so we were able to keep ourselves mud free as we sat down for the service.


Bris went and organised our Communion pack which contained Bread, Wine, coloured ribbons, orders of service and other goodies. As we waited, more and more people arrived for the service: there were so many that we had to meet in two places at Main Stage where we were, and also in the Arena.

Then, with much fanfare, groups came in from the North, South, East and West, representing the four corners of the globe, and then the Service began. We were all very impressed by the preacher who came from Brazil and told us that she enjoys soaking up the sun, wearing her bikini on Copacabana beach. Guess what happened next ... the heavens opened and we all got wet.

However, our lusty singing of the Beatles number 'Here Comes the Sun' did the trick and drove the rain away.


Love the Greenbelt crew xxx

Bongo Bonanza

Hope you haven't missed us too much while we've been off air, but there's been a good reason for our blog silence. Some of us have been off on yet another adventure - this time an overseas one. We look forward to sharing it with you soon, but first we need to finish what we've already started (in true Mastermind fashion).

So, back to Greenbelt and the wonderful experiences we enjoyed there. Most of the music you here there, is created by very talented and famous musicians. Occasionally, the less famous get a chance to perform ...


... see anyone you recognise?

Chelmer reckons he is a bit of pro and, as you know, he's drumming mad. This fine collection of drums at the Chai Chapel therefore drew him like a magnet.


This impromptu performance drew quite a crowd and, as there were more drums than Chelmer could bang himself, he invited people to join in and led them in a lively drumming workshop.

At one point we were making so much noise we were in danger of drowning out the main stage performance. One of the mainstage crew had to ask us if we'd mind drumming a little more gently.

Lots of love Geo and the Greenbelt crew xxx

The Furred Emergency Service!!!

The Greenbelt fire crew volunteers are another rather special group of volunteers. They are on duty 24/7 keeping watch on the camping areas and events venues, checking barbecues and gas cookers are safely handled and no tents (or worse) catch fire. They also patrol the site doing safety demos and we felt very sorry for the tent which was sacrificed for their demo.

This year CCTV cameras were in operation to allow them to view the camping areas from a distance. In the past they have had to keep watch from the top of scaffolding towers in the camping area and they must have got very cold in the middle of the night.

Although the scaffolding towers had gone this year, the round the clock Land Rover patrols had not. This is another reason to take ear plugs to Greenbelt. Land Rovers can be quite noisy driving past your tent at 4.00 a.m. - we're not complaining though, it's a vital job.


When we spotted one of the fire Land Rovers (appropriately red!) outside the fire crew's base we popped over to have a look and also to express our thanks and appreciation for the vital work these volunteers do.

Some of you may remember our post early last year with us doing some topless modelling on the bonnet of a Land Rover in the Peak District, thinking how much we'd like to do a Top Gear challenge in a Landie. We were able to recreate this pose on the bonnet of an even bigger and finer Land Rover. This one had his name, Oscar, in the window.

On this occasion the emergency lights weren't on. We were quite pleased as it allowed us to linger and the fire crews to get a well-earned break.

Lots of love George, Chelmer and the Grrenbelt crew xxx

Wilbur Lends a Paw

A great festival like Greenbelt wouldn't happen without a lot of help. As it says on the Greenbelt website Volunteers make Greenbelt a living Festival. Without them Greenbelt could not exist. Apparently there are over 1500 of them working across the festival weekend and throughout the year giving their help for free.

This year their number was increased by one by our good friend T5 Wilbur (which is why you haven't seen him on the blog so far) who was in seventh heaven in his Hi-Vis jacket working all over the site stewarding at various venues.


He told us that his favourite duty was working in the Performance Cafe tent where you could hear a variety of excellent live music. Here we are with Wilbur during one of his breaks at the Performance Cafe, when we joined him for a cup of tea and slice of carrot cake while listing to one of our Greenbelt favorites Esther Alexander.

Not only was the carrot cake fantastic, but as the icing on the cake, Esther sung a great set, which included our favourite song "Last of the hopeless romantics".

Tea and music over, we left Wilbur to his stewarding, and agreed to meet him for a well earned pint at the Organic Beer tent later in the day.

Love Gio and the Greenbelt Crew xxxxxx

Lost!

When you are in a big crowd, if you are not careful, its easy to get lost and then it can be quite scary. As I was surveying the world from the vantage point of my Cactus, I heard the sound of sobbing and, looking around, I saw a very sad looking creature. At first I though it might be a woolly mammoth, but they don't usually frequent Gloucestershire. Regardless of what he was, I decided to go over to him and see if I could help and dry his tears.


His name was Ollie and that he was part of a herd of very rare Gloucestershire Oxen (obviously with some woolly mammoth genes), who lived at the Cheltenham Racecourse, in a place called the Winged Ox. He had gone out to on to the Racecourse to graze on some nice juicy grass, but with all the people milling around the Racecourse he had got himself lost and couldn't find his way home. Ollie explained that this was not the first time he had got lost when there was a big crowd at the Racecourse. After we had wiped his tears he then went on to tell me that it wasn't only him that got lost, but that his whole family regularly had the same problem. This was the reason that he had a label attached to his neck asking passers by to help him and his family to find their way home.

Fortunately I had a festival guide with me that had a map of the festival and was able to guide him back towards the Winged Ox. We walked together towards his home, but before we got there Ollie suddenly recognised where he was and we bade each other farewell.

Just to make sure that he got safely home I followed from a distance, I then discovered that the Winged Ox contained a bar selling a fine selection of Ales and hosted some very good folk music. So later when I was feeling a thirsty I called at our tent and found Bris, Randolph and Benji who I took to the Winged Ox to have a pint and to listen to the music.

In the Winged Ox we bumped into Ollie and some of his family who bought us a fine pint of one of the local Gloucestershire ales.

Love Gio xxxx

More Art Works Discovered

Since returning home, I have discovered that the Podule I climbed on was not just any old sculpture but was a work of art that had been lovingly created by an artist called Jan Niedojadlo and was called Shipley Wreck, It had been commissioned by the Shipley Art Gallery in 2005 for the exhibition 'Under and Over the Sea' in celebration of the 200th year of the 'Battle of Trafalgar'

If you liked it and would like to see more of Jan Niedojadlo's podules they can be found at http://www.podules.org. Inspired by his creations I went searching for other artistic works.

It suddenly seemed that everywhere I went there were all sorts of other exciting art works to look at. Gold Humps covered in CDs; Super size sand castles; various picture exhibitions and many other things.

The next piece of art I discovered to climb upon was a bit more or a spiky problem as it was a Cacti in a field of Cactus but fortunately I found a bit which was not too sharp.


From my vantage point on the Cacti I was able to watch the world go by and scan the crowd for anyone interesting to talk to, but more of that later.

Love Gio xxxxx

Podules

I had read in my programme guide that there would be podules about the site. I wondered what these were and then I found out on my travels that these are pieces of art work that not only can you look at but you can climb inside as well. Here is the first one I discovered


Unfortunately it was already full of humans so I decided as I am just a small bear that it would probably be safer for me to have a climb outside instead.

It was so good for climbing (even for a novice like me) that I had to rush back to the tent to tell George and Yorkie to have a go as regular readers will know that they have done a lot of climbing this year.

Love Gio xxx

Its Not All Talks and Music

It's not all just talks and music here at Greenbelt, it's art in all its shapes sizes and forms, and as you wander the site you don't know what you are going to discover next. There are a number of installations about the place. This one is called Kiss the Sun.



I don't think my legs would be strong enough to get the bicycle to fly and think I would have to enlist the strong legs of Blue Bear to pedal fast enough to achieve take-off. Do you think he would be able to do it?

Love Gio xxxx

We Didn't Get Speared!!

Our first evening went in a bit of a whirlwind, we started of listening to Brian McLaren talking about the Church unfortunately there was a problem with the electricity and so Brian had to talk using a megaphone.


After that we watched a great mime act and then went into a Yurt for some world music and then to main stage where Bris and I (Gio), danced enthusiastically to Michael Franti and Spearhead (but we didn't get speared - except by the music).




Love Gio, Bris and the Greenbelt Crew xxxx

The Programme is Vast!!!

As soon as the kettle was on, we sat down to study the Greenbelt programme. There is just so much in it that we didn't know where to start. We decided that it was definitely something that would take at least two cups to work out what we wanted to see.


For the first night we decided we wanted to sample a bit of everything, a talk, some drama, and some music. The first in a Yurt and then at the main stage. On the way Yorkie said he was hungry so we had to stop at Johnny Baghdad's to sample some of his finest felafels.

More later

Love the Greenbelt Crew xxxxx

We Have Arrived

Gio and Bris are very excited, as along with Randolph, Benji, George, Yorkie, Chelmer, Rocco, and Rosa they have safely arrived at Cheltenham for Greenbelt.  For Gio its his very first time.  We drove here in pouring rain, but our prayers have been answered and we were able to put up our tent in the dry.

 

After the tent was erected the next job was to put up the Bear flag, so our friends Travelling Moose and T5 Wilber would be able to find us (p.s. which they did!)

 

We then stopped for a well earned cuppa and a pasty for lunch.  It was a good job we had this late though, as there is so much happening this evening, we reckon it's going to be very late before we get a chance to eat again.

 

We'll tell you more soon.

 

Love from Gio, Bris and the Greenbelt Crew xxxxx

Final Greenbelt Highlights

The success of Greenbelt is largely down to two very important groups of people. The first is the huge band of over 1500 volunteers who work cheerfully over the weekend, and indeed the whole year, looking after every aspect of the festival from fire watching to serving in the beer tent. We admire them greatly and they truly deserve the biggest of bear hugs.

The second group are the angels who safeguard the festival by regular financial giving. Their giving now provides 15% of the festival's income which means, above all, that it's a certainty that Greenbelt 2008 will be able to go ahead (yippee!) In fact we've already bought our tickets and are counting down the days already!

As this was our third year of attending we thought it was about time we signed up as Greenbelt angels. One of the immediate rewards was the 3 free bars of Divine (fair trade) chocolate we were given. It was scrummy and easily in the same league as Nutella!

Bris marked the occasion of becoming angels with an angel photo - we always reckon he's the most angelic out of all of us. Hope you like it.


Another Greenbelt marvel was the fantastic animal kites which were flown by professionals on the last day of the festival.

These were simply huge kites and the air was full of them. They were really colourful and realistic and above all extremely characterful.


We were quite simply entranced and would have stayed there all day watching them if there hadn't been so many other interesting things going on. They were so big that we didn't have the strength in our arms to have a go at flying them ourselves but we enjoyed chatting to the men who did.


Our favourites were the giant lizard and the turtle. Unfortunately the turtle had just crash landed as we took our photo, but don't worry, he was soon back up in the air.

We were sad when it was time to go home, but we're sure the year will fly by and we will be packing for Greenbelt 2008 before we know it.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie, Bris, Chelmer, Rocco, Randolph & Benji xxx

More Greenbelt Highlights

Greenbelt 2007 easily lived up to expectations and the whole weekend was full of lovely experiences. The weather was great, not a drop of rain fell and our suntan lotion got a lot of use.

We made several visits to main stage to bop along to some great music. Here we are on Friday night listening to Billy Bragg who was on good form.


In our next photo at mainstage you won't be able to make out much but we like the colour and atmosphere we captured in our picture.


We became fans of two bands that we'd not heard of before: Over the Rhine and Dukes Special. We really recommend their music if you come across them. We also thought the 3 ladies who performed as Hummingbird were lovely and their music was exquisite.

We can't remember seeing so many people in one place as there were at the Sunday morning Communion service. Fortunately there was still room for us although sadly George did get his paw trodden on. Here we are waiting for the service to start.


Our balloons were all released at a particular point in the service and it was an amazing sight as hundreds of red balloons were all released together. As it was a windy day they had travelled a long way in the time it took us to grab our camera. You might need to enlarge our picture to see them all flying away. Our green readers may like to know they were biodegradable.


More pictures and highlights tomorrow, so keep reading.

Lots of love, the Greenbelt campers xxx

When 2 Blogs Meet (it could only happen at Greenbelt!)

We haven't quite finished our Poland adventures, but we've had such great excitement this weekend we simply can't wait to tell you about it.

We've had a fantastic long weekend at Greenbelt, a mega arts festival held at Cheltenham racecourse. We arrived on Friday morning and have only just got back, which just goes to show how much there is to see and do there! We camped under the bear flag which flew proudly for the whole weekend.


Greenbelt is always a special place and one of the highlights of our year, but this year it was even more special than the last 2 years we've been, as we met someone we've been waiting a whole year to meet. Can you guess who? Yes, it was our friend Naughty Bear whose blog we discovered at Greenbelt last year and which was the inspiration for our own blog.

Our regular readers with good memories will recall that we'd seen Bear last year having his picture taken but we'd been too shy to say hello. After reading his blog all year and exchanging emails and comments, he's become a real virtual friend, so when we found out he was coming to Greenbelt 2007 we hoped we'd get a chance to meet.

There are thousands and thousands of people at Greenbelt and we bears are too short to see very far ahead, so keeping an eye out for Bear seemed a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack. However, some things are just meant to be, don't you think, and on Saturday evening we literally passed each other.

We were far from shy this year and rushed up to say hello and introduce ourselves.


And here we all are chatting happily and exchanging bear hugs. It was simply great to meet bear and his nutella gatherer and we had loads to talk about. Having virtual friends is great but meeting them in the fur is even better!

Bear has been doing some great postings about Greenbelt and has lots of photos which capture the spirit of this great festival so well, so have a read of his blog which you can easily reach by using the link to Where's Bear in our friends blog spots section.

We'll report on the rest of the weekend soon.

Lots of love George, Yorkie, Chelmer, Rocco and Bris xxx

What no racing?

We have had quite an interesting day today. We had a Bears Unlimited staff conference at Fakenham Racecourse. Now we know that Bear www.wheresbear.co.uk has sent a number of pictures in from Cheltenham Racecourse recently, and we were also there ourselves last month for the Greenbelt Arts festival, so we thought it would be interesting to take a picture or two to compare the difference.

Well, what can we say? Fakenham racecourse is tiny compared with Cheltenham; it’s basically bear-sized rather than human sized. They do quite a pleasant buffet lunch though and we especially enjoyed the bear-sized mini donuts, éclairs and strawberry and cream scones. Our only disappointment was that when we got to our afternoon tea break we found that all the leftovers from lunch had been cleared away so we couldn’t finish them off. I’m afraid Bear that there weren’t any nutella sandwiches though.

We were also a bit disappointed that there wasn’t any racing today as we were looking forward to saying hi to the horses and possibly winning a pound or two. The only activity that was happening was humans playing golf in the centre of the racecourse, which we thought was quite a novel concept.

Anyway, since there wasn’t any racing Yorkie, our friend Chelmer and I were

able to wander onto the course and test out one or two of the jumps. It made us realise how much longer horses’ legs are than ours!

Love George xxx