Looking after our Feathered Friends

We've had some very cold weather this week with temperatures falling below zero overnight. When it's as cold as this, it is essential to remember to put plenty of food and water out for the birds. Some of them, such as the wren that lives in our garden, are so small that they don't carry a lot of spare body fat and rely on us for vital sustenance.

Our preparations for winter bird feeding started a few weeks ago. We had two important jobs to do. The first was to give all the bird feeders a thorough clean especially it was some months since they were last used.


In our picture you can see some of us using the Aga in our kitchen to dry off the bird feeders - it's also great for warming our bottoms when we've been out in the cold. Prior to the drying process we had given everything a good scrub with disinfectant.

This year the disinfecting process is particularly important, following the prevalence of a form of canker, spread by bird droppings, that causes birds to die after their thoats swell up. We read about it in the paper and thought it sounded so horrible that we would be especially careful to keep all our bird feeders nice and clean.

We hope all our readers are doing the same.

If you think about what happened in our garden in the summer (yes we did do a blog about it) you might be able to work out what our next job for our local birds was. Can anyone work out what it was?

Lots of love, all at Bears Unlimited xxx

Rainy Weather is Shopping Weather

The next day we treated ourselves to a lie in. This meant that by the time we got up we had quite an appetite for breakfast. We could tell that Gilbert really relished his authentic French breakfast, complete with hot chocolate and croissants.


Being bears we really appreciated the small jar of French honey. As it was raining outside we had every reason to linger over breakfast and get refills of coffee and chocolate from our charming hostess, while telling her how much we'd enjoyed her restaurant recommendation of the previous night.

After a short stroll along the beach, we decided to treat the wet day as a shopping day. We decided to make City Europe our shopping venue as there is so much choice. Before lunch, we concentrated on wine buying which we took very seriously. We had hoped to have a photo of us loading our rather substantial supplies, onto the conveyor belt, but unfortunately the camera batteries died at the critical moment. This was probably for the best, as you might have been shocked at the sight.

After the morning's shop it was time for a real treat, lunch at the marvellous Flunch. This is a fantastic restaurant and simply excellent value as you can pile your plate as high as you like with vegetables and carbohydrates.


It's the perfect lunch for a piranha, such as Yorkie (sorry Yorkie, we shouldn't tease and we all admire your healthy appetite).

It was Gilbert who proposed pudding, as he simply couldn't resist the opportunity to tuck into a genuine French crepe. We watched them made in front of us. Gilbert, of course, had to have the first one and he chose to have his with chocolate sauce.


It tasted a lot better than it looked!

After lunch, it was back to Carrefour for more (non alcoholic) shopping. Once the Bearmobile was full, we decided it was time to stop and started the journey back to Norfolk. We were all feeling very satisfied.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie, Gilbert, Moose, Chelmer & Rocco xxx

Dining With a Piranha

By the time we arrived in Le Touquet, it was dark and we hadn't booked anywhere to stay. Gilbert was an absolute star though. His French nose sniffed out a really good value hotel for us. He led us unerringly to the Nouveau Caddy hotel which was well situated, opposite the characterful fish market and only a stones throw from the beach, in one direction, and shops and restaurants, in another.

It wasn't a posh hotel, but it's real selling point was the charming and very helpful lady owner. She looked after us really well and made us extremely welcome. She provided us with a local map and talked us through where to find all the best restaurants and which ones to avoid. It was a real personal service.

We chose 'Le Coq Hardy' for our evening meal. This was a small, traditional restaurant offering a 3 course 'plat du jour' for just $14. At this price we weren't really expecting too much but boy, were we in for a treat.


You'll know from previous posts, how much Yorkie loves his food and we are always amazed, given his size, how much he manages to put away. Well, he shot into the premier league of food demolishers on this occasion. We wish we'd had our video camera with us so you could see the way he attacked, with great gusto, a huge plate of 'crevettes roses'. One minute they were there, the next they were gone, and Yorkie was standing back with a huge smile on his face. We've now given him a new nickname, 'The Piranha'. We're sure you'll realise why!

The rest of the meal was equally good but enjoyed at a more sedate pace, accompanied by a delicious carafe of wine.

We'll certainly be eating there again.

Lots of love, George, Gilbert, Yorkie, Chelmer, Rocco & Moose xxx

More Opal Coast Capers

The argument continued - we definitely needed an unbiased party to step in and arbitrate. And then the next thing that happened, was that there were bears making use of an old machine gun emplacement. Had the argument really got so far out of hand that war had broken out???!!!


Of course not, we're only pulling your leg! We bears like a hearty debate but it would never end in fighting. If you look closely at the picture, you'll actually see me (Gilbert) with my 2 opposers in the debate - George & Yorkie - all sitting happily together and enjoying the view. In fact we had got so distracted by all these wonderful bits of history to explore, that we had completely forgotten the beautiful beaches debate.

As we contined to explore, we found a memorial celebrating the co-operation between the English and the French in the war. We all thought that was a sign that me, a French bear, would be very happy living in England with British bears (best not offend Jock & Hamish by saying English!). So far it's certainly turning out to be true.

After leaving Cap Blanc Nez we had a shorter exploration of Cap Gris Nez, then took the coast road round to Le Touquet, where we were planning to stay. We drove slowly so I could point out lots of things of interest, that might be missed if you didn't have a local guide.

All the guys particularly liked the fact that, when their working life is over, local fishing boats are retained and displayed, surrounded by flowers, by the sides of the local roads. They bring a lot of colour and character to the roadside and tell everyone how proud the locals are of their heritage.


We liked this one so much that we stopped the Bearmobile to get out for a photo.

Beacoup d'amour, Gilbert et mes amis Anglais xxx

I See Some Ships!

We were in luck, the sun continued to shine into the afternoon. And so, after a trip to Majestic's Wine World, to pick up more than a few bottles of 'Domaine de Richard', our favourite quaffing wine, I took the guys over to the 2 Caps area of the Opal coast. The Caps Blanc Nez and Gris Nez are some of my favourite local beauty spots and I was eager to show them to my new English friends.


We went first to the Cap Blanc Nez and here, when we looked over the cliff edge, we got to see all those ferries that we didn't see when we were on the beach at Calais. There are some very tall chalk cliffs at the Cap Blanc Nez and we set out to explore them on foot. As we walked down from the tallest point towards a huge expanse of sandy beach, we got into a good natured argument about whether French beaches, such as this one, were superior to Norfolk beaches. I was arguing in favour of French beaches, while George & Yorkie were trying to convince me that Holkham Beach, in Norfolk, would always win hands down.


Our argument got so heated that we ended up failing to concentrate on our balance and fell off our viewpoint from which we were taking in the vista. Chelmer managed to capture the moment of our topple rather well.

Perhaps we should leave it to you our readers to settle the argument. As sandy beaches are common to both locations, it probably boils down to whether sand dunes and pine woods win over chalky cliffs. Anyone care to cast a vote?

Lots of love, Gilbert & the French travellers xxx

Vive La France!

While Blue Bear was engrossed in the serious business of car buying, some of us got itchy feet and decided it was time for further travels. The recent arrival of Gilbert who joined us from France, gave us the perfect excuse for a trip to, where else, but France. Gilbert's been with us for about 2 months now, and while he's settled in well and nevers complains about England, we could tell he was secretly hankering to see the land of his birth again. Additionally, our wine cellar was getting rather empty, so there was nothing for it, but to get travelling.


Although Yorkie and I are the main travelling bears, we put Gilbert in charge of this expedition. He arranged us a crossing via the Tunnel and we sat on the roof of Bearmobile 1 for the short journey. We look a bit unhealthy in the yellow light but, we felt fine and the colour was only due to us obeying the rules about no flash photography.

On arrival one of our first stops was City Europe to pick up a picnic lunch in Carrefour.


Gilbert said he didn't mind us being patriotic and entering via the English gate. Once we had picked up French lunch supplies of baguette, Brie and taboule, we thought we would take advantage of the winter sunshine and blow away the cobwebs with a stroll along the coast. We thought we would go and watch the ferries entering and leaving the port of Calais.


It was typical though, we settled down on the beach at the very time that there was a lull in the arrival and departure of the ferries. It was nice to have the beach to ourselves though.

Keep reading to find out how we spent the afternoon.

Lots of love George, Yorkie, Gilbert & fellow travellers xxx

He's Behind You ...

The pantomime season starts early in North Norfolk. Last night we all went along to our village pantomime, the first one performed by the newly formed drama group.

We had to get there early as we had work to do. As you know Bears Unlimited is a versatile company and we consider any form of contract. On this occasion we had been asked to serve interval refreshments.


We didn't want to miss any of the show so we got there early to put out cups and saucers. The fun bit though was slicing up cakes and plating up biscuits. We thought it only right that we did a bit of quality control testing as we put the food out.


Our fun was rather ruined though by a rather bear unfriendly lady who queried whether we were clean enough to be around food. What an insult! Not only are bears scrupulously clean, we had cling filmed the plates of food to keep them safe from dirty humans!

It's a good job we are true professionals are can rise above these slights on our character. We recognised the voice of ignorance for what it is and settled down to enjoy the show, which was Jack and the Beanstalk. We enjoyed the performance and joined in loudly when audience participation was required.


Our favourite character was Buttercup the cow. We think it would be great fun to play a pantomime cow and we volunteered to step in if either end of the cow couldn't make all the performances.

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