Hey Oop Chuck

We decided our readers needed a break from India, and thought we go bang-up-to-date with a report of today's avian activities.

We haven't travelled up north (just incase you were confused by our post title) but we have been looking after a friend's 5 chickens - what fun!

Chicken feeding and egg collecting is the perfect job for me ('nature notes' Chelmer) and my gardening bear friend, Tommy. We wandered over to the home of the girls late morning, and found them eagerly awaiting our arrival. It gave us a warm feeling to have our appearance so enthusiastically greeted.

We got straight down to business topping up the corn bowl and scattering some around, so that those lower down the pecking order got a look in on the grub. (We were sad to see 2 of the 5 girls looked looked very hen pecked round their tail feathers and we just don't understand why all creatures can't live as companionably as all of us Bears Unlimited bears). 

Next came the exciting bit of looking inside for eggs. We were in luck, there were 4 beautiful big eggs today. We gathered them up ready to hand over to chef Oakley.  Thank you girls.

We could get used to looking after the chooks, but sadly, we've only got 1 day of it, as our friends have a rota for chicken feeding, to give several people a chance of some free eggs.

Maybe, one day, we'll get some chooks of our own.

It's dark now, as we write, so we'll say goodnight and sleep tight girls.

Love Tommy and Chelmer xxx

On With the Show

It's happened at last. Talking about Greece, and it's lovely hot climate, has inspired the British weather to come up the goods, and we have enjoyed some really hot weather this weekend. Hoorah! - even if I (gardening Bear, Tommy) have had to be busy watering the garden tonight.

It was a great week to have our County Show, The Royal Norfolk Show. We're proud to say that our fine county of Norfolk does it show rather well and the Norfolk, is one of the biggest, if not the biggest in the country.

We like to have a Bears Unlimited Company holiday on one of the 2 show days. This year we chose to go on the first day, Wednesday.

It is too big to see everything and we tend to find that we all have our own particular interests. For example, action bear, Chelmer, tends to zoom off to the quad bikes and see the show at high speed, never stopping long enough to take a photo.

Being the Gardening Bear, I like to take things at a more leisurely pace. I simply love the wonderful floral displays and they give me great ideas for the Bear Cave garden.

I'm never too sure about artificial grass though. There's nothing like the real thing, even though it does take quite some time and effort to keep it lush and green.

I did, however, really like this fabulous rhino, cleverly coated with artificial grass. Patch climbed aboard  for my photo and reported that it was quite comfortable, but not as soft as real grass (probably softer than a hairy and wrinkled rhino hide though!)

One thing I completely approve of is the animal displays. They all fascinate me, especially the fine show cattle, but none were as cute as  ...

... this brood of tiny chicks. They were adorable and fitted perfectly into my rather small paw.

If Oakley's roasts weren't so delectable, it was almost enough to make me contemplate going vegetarian - but not for long though!

Lots of love Tommy and all at Bears Unlimited xxx

Tommy's Tremendous Tatties

This post bears news from our garden, not Morocco. I, Yorkie, am writing it as gardening bear Tommy is rather dazed and has had to go for lie down.

So, I'm sure you are all wondering what has been happening at our Norfolk Bear Cave.

The afternoon started like any other. Tommy was out in the garden starting his autumn tidy up. As our pea crop is long finished, Tommy decided to dig over the raised bed that held the peas as it was becoming rather overgrown with nettles and buttercup plants. There were also a number of potato plants which had self seeded from potatoes accidentally left in the ground after last year's harvest.

As he dug below the potato plants he unearthed the biggest potato crop he has ever seen in all his years of gardening.

Not only were there vast numbers of potatoes, the size of them was simply unbelievable. Spuds of 1 - 2 lbs in weight (perhaps more) were coming up time and time again. I helped Tommy weigh them, after we'd put the green ones in the composting bin and there was a staggering 28 lbs, all from approximately 5 squatter plants.


I stood by a couple of big ones to give you an idea of scale. It was like standing beside a block of flats and we had to give the big bears a shout to get them lifted.

I'm sure the planned potato crop will be disappointing after this incredible windfall, but I don't suppose it will matter as we won't need to buy any potatoes for a while.

Anyone know any good potato recipes?

Lots of love, Yorkie and Tommy xxx

Autumn Garden News

Tommy here readers, to leap ahead of bears eagerly waiting to tell you about their latest adventure, and bring you news from our garden. I'm told I can only have one post, so I'll be brief.

We've had some highlights and some lowlights in the vegetable patch this year. My potatoes have been a bit small and we had no! strawberries, but the broad and french bean crops were good.

This year, however, has seen a bit of a pumpkin fest.

I took Chef bear Oakley out the other day, to show him the pumpkins and start harvesting.

They are beautiful specimens and especially pleasing, as they were grown from plants given to me for free. The cultivator had grown them from seeds from her previous year's pumpkin harvest.

I love the traditional bright orange colour - it fits autumn so well. However, I'm also very fond of this much paler specimen that had grown to a good size. It was too much for a bear of my size to carry when cut, so I had to call in Blue Bear to provide some much needed muscle.

Oakley has some great plans for pumpkin curries and soups. We had a great pumpkin and chick pea curry at the weekend and will be cooking it again for visitors from our various branches, who will be with us at the weekend.

The courgettes also did very well and quite a few grew into marrows as we failed to keep up with supply. That's o.k. though as we all love stuffed marrow, and that legendary marrow chutney kindly introduced to me by Aunt Jessie from Devon.  

Somehow I think we'll be very well fed this winter. I hope it isn't as cold as last year though.

Lots of love

Gardening Bear Tommy xxx

Chelmer's Floral Nature Notes

I'll take a break shortly, but at the moment I feel I'm on a bit of a roll, so here's another nature note which I'm sharing with Tommy, the Bears Unlimited gardening bear. Sorry you've had to wait for this post; some of the chaps joined me on a mini adventure last week, which put things on hold for a few days, news of this adventure coming soon.

As I write this post, it's pouring with rain outside and it hasn't stopped raining all weekend. It feels decidedly unspring-like, but a couple of weeks ago it looked a little more promising, and, on a dry and snow free day, Tommy and I wandered outside to look at the first flowers of the year.


First stop was at one of my all time favourites, the cheery yellow aconites. They are so apecial to me and Tommy, as they appear just about first of all, and we are always amazed that the rain, snow and cold don't put them off appearing to lift our spirits. We also love their choirboy ruff collars and never fail to delight at nature's use of complementary colours.

After admiring the aconites, we moved on to admire another winter garden classic: the snowdrops. These have spread well around the garden and there are now clumps thriving in lots of places, including the lawn.


We don't mind them growing in the lawn though as they're such lovely flowers. In fact, given the current state of the lawn, which is more mud than grass after all the terrible weather, they're the best bit of our current back lawn.

We're sure Tommy will work wonders with it once a dry spell comes, along with some sunshine.

Lots of love Chelmer & Tommy xxx

Meanwhile Back at the Ranch ...

The wheels of commerce need to keep turning, so while our small bear colleagues and their instructors were having fun in the snow, the rest of us were hard at work and keeping the home fires burning.

There was much less snow in Norfolk so Tommy was able to spend time in his beloved garden and made Chef Bear Oakley's day, by digging up some lovely home grown parsnips.


Mouths began to water as Oakley announced he would be making some curried parsnip soup and we would be having a roast dinner that night with all the trimmings and most definitely roast parsnips.

Both bears were slightly bemused by one of the parsnips which looked as if has arrived by UFO from outer space. See what we mean ...


There were roots/tentacles emerging everywhere. Tommy thought that maybe he needed to keep warm in the garden by doing a bit of energetic digging to remove a few of the stones that the growing parsnips must have hit. Thankfully this one tasted every bit as delicious as the others and proved home grown does beat shop bought almost every time.

Talking about keeping the home fires burning, while they waited for their tea, Eddie and Pooh of the Midlands Branch, who was visiting, got a good fire burning and settled down in front of it with a beer.


If you look carefully, you'll see it's not any old beer they're drinking, but one of the best named beers ever - Piddle in a Hole from the Wyre Piddle Brewery. Readers with good memories will recall Eddie was introduced to this brewery last year when he passed through Wyre Piddle with his crew, when canal boating on the Avon Ring. Not only did the beer taste good, it provided a good opportunity for reminiscing and reliving that exciting trip.

Back soon

Love all at Bears Unlimited xxx

News from the Garden

Every week Chef Oakley and I take a walk round the garden to see how our vegetable plants are doing. I let Oakley know what I'm growing for him and what will soon be ready for harvesting, so he can plan the week's recipes and shopping.

Yesterday was at least dry for our garden tour even though it was rather overcast and very windy.


Although it looks dark, I can assure you we were out in daylight - our camera obviously thought we needed some illumination though. First stop was the cucumber plants. If you can remember back to mid August, you may remember me telling you how I was growing cucumbers and squashes from seed. My cucumbers have not been in a greenhouse, but are producing quite a few fruits. This plant, despite its scabby leaves, is the most prolific fruiter of the bunch. I have already harvested a shop size cucumber and as you can see there are 3 more growing.


Next stop was the squashes whose seeds were sown at the same time as the cucumbers. Two big squashes have been harvested and are resting on the window sill in our dining room. As you can see there are others coming along well which will soon be ready for cutting.

There are also others which still have some growing to do ...


It's quite a jungle when you get amongst those squash plants. Their tendrils snake over the ground very quickly and they take up a lot of my vegetable plot. Fortunately a visitor who was staying with us last weekend, gave me a masterclass in squash care and pruning. The bed looks a lot better now, although it was sad having to decide which of the squashes to keep and which to cull (in the interests of the retained plant).


Our corn on the cob plants, also grown from seed, were a bit of an experiment this year. They have grown and we do have some cobs as you can see, but they are more suited to a small bear's (like me) appetite rather than a big bear's, such as Ungi or Blue Bear. They'd have to eat quite a a few to satisfy their hunger.

Last weekend we met up with members of the Midlands branch at T.B.B.'s (Teddy Bear Bill) minder's party and we were very pleased to be given lots of lovely mint and stawberry plants. I planted the strawberries yesterday, all together, so it will be easier to net them next year, when - paws crossed - some lovely fruits develop.


Here you see me proudly showing my planting to Oakley and giving him advance notice that we hope to have stawberries on the menu next year.

My mouth is watering already!

Lots of love Tommy (gardening bear) and Oakley xxx

Super Ted to the Rescue

It was very hot in the greenhouse, so when we emerged, we were ready for a bit of refreshment. En route to the excellent refreshment area and a delicious cream tea, we stopped to admire the bear sized apple tree ...


... it was an easy bear climb (my climbing skills aren't quite up to George & Yorkie's) and it was great to be able to reach the apples without any human assistance. The garden owner had suggested I give her apples a try and boy were they refreshing!

It's amazing how a spot of refreshment brings the senses back alive. We both suddenly realised we could hear muffled cries for help. We hurried off to investigate and were only just in time.


The owner of this hand was slowly slipping out of sight. Clearly there was a problem and there wasn't time to think about whether an ancient mine shaft had been discovered or global warming had turned Norfolk into a giant bog - we had to act quick.

For a small bear Henry had great strength, and his mighty haul recovered a rather dusty and begrimed body to the surface. We knew exactly what was required to effect a quick recovery, one of those marvellous cream teas. One mouthful and no-one could help but feel better.

Having heard the recommendation, our new friend insisted on buying us another cream tea as a reward. Who were we to refuse?!

Lots of love, Tommy & Henry xxx

I'm Back!

It's a well known fact that gardeners need patience: after all a seed doesn't turn into a fruiting plant overnight. My naturally patient nature is probably why I (Tommy) am the Bears Unlimited gardening bear. It also means that I was happy to break off from my postings about the Open Gardens scheme, to allow Gio and the Greenbelt team to post about their Greenbelt experiences which they were all so enthusiastic about.

They've now handed back to me so I'll continue with my Sunny Sunday tale.

After our spell of gate duty Henry, and I hurried into the cool of the 2 gardens which were open for us to explore. Here there was definite evidence that that these gardens enjoyed a lot of sunshine.


I was so surprised to see these lemons. It was the first time I had seen lemons growing in an English garden, although Eddie had told me about seeing them growing in Greece when he was on his last sailing holiday.

I was also impressed by the size of the bell peppers growing in the greenhouse ...


... real beauties they were, and I couldn't help but think of all the wonderful dishes chef Oakley could create, if I could grow him some peppers as fine as these.

The greenhouse was beside the owner's bee-hives which I found quite fascinating. I think bee-keeping could be a very relaxing hobby so I asked lots of questions about what is involved. I was rather alarmed to hear that the greenhouse in which I was standing had caught fire earlier in the year when the owner had been smoking the bees.

As I thought about all the potential dangers, I started to have second thoughts about taking up bee-keeping. More research is definitely needed.

Lots of love, Tommy & Henry xxx

Sunny Sunday

Being a gardening bear, I live and breathe gardens. When I'm not busy in my own garden, I like to spend my spare time visiting other people's gardens. The Open Gardens scheme is therefore perfect for me. I can indulge in my hobby of poking round gardens while at the same time helping raise money for charity.


The other days some friends of mine had their garden open to raise money for one of our local churches. Henry and I agreed to do a spell of gate duty, welcoming visitors and taking some money off them. It was a boiling hot day and we broiled in the sun, but we were kept well supplied with cups of tea which did, as is often claimed for tea, help to cool us down.

Very close to our ticket booth was a white elephant stall, which had some fascinating items for sale, ranging from a circular saw (which we kept well clear of) to a tank containing stuffed mink and best of all a venerable Austrian goat, sporting finest lederhosen and a wonderful goatee beard.


Our new friend was for sale on the stall. We assured him this was not an indignity, and that a decent price tag was necessary to ensure he went to the right new home i.e. one who really wanted him and would treat him as a valuable addition to their household. We promised him that we would vet all potential new owners and ensure they were worthy of such a fine goat.

Fortunately a fine family soon came along, and with our responsibilities to goatee discharged, and our spell of gate duty at an end, it was time to go into the 2 open gardens to explore.

We'll share our experiences with you next time.

Lots of love Tommy & Henry xxx

Tommy's Garden Spot

While my Bears Unlimited friends have been gallivanting round the country having adventures in the Lake District and on the waterways, I've been hard at work in the garden. I wouldn't want you to think I'm complaining though, as nothing makes me happier than being out in my garden, and I am the gardening bear after all. I do admit though, I do like sitting in the garden with a cup of tea, admiring the results of my work, as well as doing the actual gardening work.


This year I grew a whole load of butternut squashes and cucumbers from seed, as well as my usual beans, tomatoes and courgettes. Here I am, a few months ago, planting my seeds and talking to them to encourage them to grow. The cucumbers claim to be burpless so there will be no excuses for uncouth behaviour from any of my B.U. friends. The squash plants are growing rampantly and spreading everywhere, but no signs of any squashes yet - paws crossed though.

Two veggies which I can reply on to do well in our garden, are potatoes and broad beans. Both have been extra prolific this year and we have so many potatoes, Chef Oakley is burning the midnight oil, studying his recipe books and surfing the net to find new and exciting things to do with potatoes.


I've had so many broad beans for shelling that I've had to rope in all of the Norfolk branch to help, and visitors. Fortunately we had a lovely sunny evening when we picked a big crop and we all sat outside drinking tea while we podded.


We were handling such industrial quantities of beans that we had to have a wheelbarrow to take away all the empty pods - for composting of course.

I'm having quite an easy time of it now as all this rain means that I don't have to do any watering. It does result in lots of weeds though, some bigger than me!

Lots of love, Tommy xxx

Back to Blighty with a Piece of Ireland

With that last post, our wonderful Irish holiday came to an end. We hope you've enjoyed sharing our adventures, as much as we've enjoyed the reminiscing. The Northern Ireland chapter of the Friendly Planet Guide will certainly be packed with lots of ideas of places to visit and loads of local information.

But, as you know, we brought a little bit of Ireland back with us, in the form of the very lovable and charming Patrick. Following the Bears Unlimited tradition he was welcomed into our ranks, in the presence of the company flag, by the previous newest member of B.U., on this occasion, Gilbert.


As we've been blogging about Ireland for so long, this photograph is now quite old. Please rest assured that as a mark of his permanent position with us, Patrick has now had his Emerald Buddy manufacturers tag removed. As he is rightly, very proud of his Irish heritage, he has kept the tag safely as his Irish passport.

Patrick has settled in very well and says he is very happy living in Norfolk, although he does hope to return to Ireland for visits and holidays whenever he can.


Gardening bear Tommy, did his bit to make Patrick feel welcome by showing him round the garden to see all the spring flowers which were flourishing as a result of his green paws.


Lots of love, all at Bears Unlimited 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

An English Country Garden

The other day Bris talked to you about the mini marrows he found at the Hindolveston harvest. Today I bring you the other extreme and want to show you the real stonkers of marrows which I (gardening bear Tommy) grew in the Bears Unlimited garden this summer.


One of them was so big that I needed a big strong bear to carry it into the house. Blue Bear was exactly the bear for the job. Even he thought it was heavy, and when he stood on the scales with it, we found the reason why: it weighed a whopping 15 pounds. Head chef bear Oakley came into the kitchen to find out what was happening and got very excited about all the exciting things he could cook for us with these marrows.

Our marrows might be whoppers now but earlier in the summer the same plants were producing much smaller fruits, in other words they were producing courgettes.


Mind you, even as courgettes, they were bigger than average. They clearly liked the music I played to them and my daily conversations with them.

Chef Oakley got very creative when I presented him the fruits of my labours. Can you see what culinary delights he conjured up. We had delicious ratatouille and courgette cake. Oakley thought he had made so much that there would be spare for freezing but he had underestimated the size of bears' appetites when good food is put before them.

Lots of love, Tommy and all at Bears Unlimited xxx

Norfolk Branch Report Back In

George & Yorkie are safely back from their latest adventure with a lot of new material for the Friendly Planet guide that they are eager to share with you. However, we, the less frequent travellers of the Norfolk Branch, have persuaded them to hang fire for a couple of days so we can update you on some of the things that we have been up to on home turf. As the end of George & Yorkie's posts about one holiday seems to coincide with the start of the next one, we thought that if we didn't make a concerted effort to get a few words in, there was a danger that you'd be reading about our summer activities in the middle of winter.

As we've enjoyed reading the Suffolk branch's tales of their French adventure so much, we also thought we'd like to give them the opportunity to tell us more, if there is more to tell.

Anyway, back to Norfolk, it has been a busy summer so far and we'd like to share some highlights.


Not long ago the garden was buzzing, literally, with activity. This was because the chain saw gang of Blue Bear and myself (Ungi) were in action. Now, we love trees and we wouldn't want any of our readers to think for a minute that we would cut down a tree without good reason. However, sometimes there comes a time when a tree (or three) have grown too big and sad though it is, they have to go.

In the photo above you see the before 'now you see it' shot. Monkey being a very agile tree climber was giving us a hand to get ropes tied on. Below, you have the 'now you don't' shot.


In total three trees had to come down and it was a whole day's work for a gang of us to chop up the trees into logs. We ended up with quite a large stack of wood as you can see in our next picture. Sadly, being fir, the wood wouldn't have been suitable for our wood burner for several years and as we couldn't store it that long, we had it taken away.


More news on the gardening front from Tommy, the chief gardening bear, is that the vegetable beds are doing well and we have had a particularly bumper crop of broad beans. This is good news as they are one of our favourite vegetables. Below you see Tommy handing over one of his pickings to Chef Bear Oakley. They decided they would pod the beans and freeze them so we could enjoy them over a long period.


As well as producing great vegetables Tommy also fills the garden with lovely flowers. We thought the following was a great example of what his green paws can achieve.


We'll be back soon with more news of our Norfolk summer.

Lots of love Ungi, Blue Bear, Tommy & the rest of the gang xxx

Green Paws

Did you remember to put your clocks forward last night? After a late night Wherry drinking session, we found it hard to get up this morning but were pleased, when we did, to discover it was a really lovely spring day.

While some of the gang headed for the beach (their adventures to follow), gardening bear Tommy headed for the garden. Tommy works magic in the garden and really does have green paws.

After a good tidy up which resulted in the filling of both of our two brown garden waste wheelie bins, Tommy paid a visit to a local garden centre. On his return he couldn't wait to get planting his new purchases.


Doesn't Tommy look in his element? We're really looking forward to seeing this aubretia spread across our new border which Tommy has cleverly edged with roof tiles. Keep up the good work Tommy.

Lots of love all at Bears Unlimited xxx

Time Off

It's absolutely great saving the world - or in our case the coast - but it's also a delight to take some time off, just to sit and think and admire the view. This is something bears like to do a lot, as you will know from earlier blogs.

Here we are taking advantage of a sunny afternoon, a bit of a rarity at the moment, and enjoying the peace and quiet and empty space before the tourists arrive.


We also like to consider some fairly weighty matters and on this occasion we were thinking about the effects of global warming and how long it would be before our view disappeared under water. We at Bears Unlimited are trying our best to reduce our carbon footprint and we hope you, our readers are also doing your bit.

Lots of love Tommy, Henry and the gang xxx

Binham Beer Festival

As you will know by now, we Bears Unlimited bears are beer connoisseurs. We were, therefore, pleased and proud to win our latest contract, the task of providing some updates to the Good Beer Guide. In the name of research then we made our way over to a beer festival at the Norfolk village of Binham yesterday to sample a few brews. It was a lovely sunny day so we cycled over (about 10 miles) working up quite a thirst on the way.

The beer festival was held in a marquee in the grounds of the Chequers pub, which has it’s own very fine brewery producing Front Street beers. Woolly and Tommy were very taken with the amazing name of one of the brews (Captain Grumpy’s busted flush) so much so that they decided that they’d have to have their photo taken with the barrel otherwise no one would believe that this is what they had been drinking. This beer not only sounded good, it also tasted good: their second photo shows their pint being consumed at a pretty fast rate.


Love Tommy & Woolly (Hope you‘ve worked out which is which!)
xxx