Boys with Big Toys

Oh dear, no-one's had a guess of what was in our lunchbox! We were only joking when we said it was hard. Either we scared you off saying that, or, perish the thought, no-one is reading our blog! Hope it's not the latter!

Anyway, what we had in our lunchbox were delicious turkey sandwiches. Just like sprouts, we can't get enough turkey, so turkey leftovers are a definite treat. We varied our turkey sandwiches by the addition of cranberry sauce in some, and Aunt Jessie's famous marrow chutney (remember Oakley making it recently with Tommy's marrows?) in others. Both sorts were wolfed down happily by hungry bears.

The Midland branch had saved up a real treat for the after lunch stretch of the walk. One minute we were walking down a muddy lane keeping a wary eye on the bull that we had to walk past, the next we were looking at something rather special.


Chelmer took off like a bolt of lightning when he saw this marvellous armoured vehicle, as he couldn't wait to see if he could start it up. Unfortunately, Chief Mechanic Blue Bear wasn't with us at this point, as he was still at the canal in Braunston talking diesel engines with a canal boat owner. Without his expertise, this tank was going no-where and was stuck fast in the mud. Still, we had a great time pretend driving with lots of war-like sound effects.


Chelmer was a little disappointed at the lack of guns until our minder pointed out that it was an armoured personnel carrier rather than a tank. That didn't stop Chelmer telling every he'd been tank driving when he got home, as he thought it sounded more adventurous than driving an APC.

Thanks Midlands Branch for arranging a walk with some much variety and a great surprise.

Lot of love, all at Bears Unlimited xxx

Out and About on Boxing Day

We hope we're not about to confuse you but, after reporting on our New Year activities, we're now going back in time to Boxing Day.

We're never too bothered about the weather on Christmas Day as it's essentially an indoor day. However, we always hope for fine weather on Boxing Day, so we can get out for a traditional Boxing Day walk.

On this occasion when we stuck our noses outside after getting up, we sniffed some mild and dry air and knew we were in for a good walk. As we were in the Midlands, the Midlands branch were our guides. They know our likes very well and included a walk along the canal, taking in the Braunston Locks, that we'd boated through last Easter, at the start of the walk.


We rather liked this diddy, working boat and thought it's name 'mouse' rather appropriate. We wondered whether we should take it with us on future canal holidays so we could dig ourselves out if we ended up 'on the putty'.

After leaving the canal we headed across some fields, and when we came across some sprout plants we realised the Midlands branch's motive for taking us this route. Being sprout lovers, we'd eaten so many on Christmas Day that supplies had run out and we needed to pick some to replenish stocks for our Boxing Day meal.


As you can see from our picture we were blessed by blue skies and mild weather. There were a couple of moments when we even needed our sunglasses.

Thanks to this fine weather we were even able to enjoy a picnic in the open air. We've got a really challenging 'What's in My Lunchbox' picture for you to guess what we were about to tuck in to!


In fact we're going to be really cruel and leave you in suspense and not tell you the answer until we next post.

We bet you'll never guess.

Lots of love, all at Bears Unlimited xxx