I slept in my teeshirt in order to dress quickly as the alarm was set at 4am!
It was very peaceful walking to central Bristol just before sunrise with the only sounds being birds tweeting.
Bristol Harbourside was deserted, not many humans get up to celebrate the dawn of May Day in Bristol.
Nearly there…
The lights on the top of Cabot Tower were still flashing.
Kittiwake Morris were just starting to perform and the sun was rising behind them. The purpose of the Brandon Hill gathering is to dance in the sun on May Day.
A video clip of me dancing with Kittiwake Morris behind me.
The horse ftom Rag Morris came to say ‘Hello’.
This is Pigsty Morris, whoose baldricks are a bit like mine but they wear black trousers. I am dressed in the style of Oxford University Morris as I occasionally do mascot duties with them.
The sun appeared as Heaps Morris were dancing, an all women side with ‘H’ on their backs.
This chappy is a wild boar who belongs to Pigsty Morris.
By 6am I was feeling rather hungry. The cinnamon bun packed by my human went down very well indeed.
Then I just went to sleep…
It was a lovely experience watching the Morris dancers on the beautiful Brandon Hill during sunrise. Well worth a visit if you like early mornings.
Some previous blogs about my Morris dancing with Oxford Morris:
The air raid shelters in Stockport are open to the public so as we were staying overnight in Stockport we decided to have a look around.
The Chestergate shelter opened in 1939 after just over a year of digging out the sandstone rock.
After opening there were ‘open’ days for the public to have a look round and see the tunnels in order for them to know where they would have to shelter should Stockport become a bombing target.
The tunnels are 7 feet high and 7 feet wide, and about 40 feet underground. ARP (Air Raid Protection) Wardens had their own space.
Humans sheltering would sit on the benchs either side of the tunnel with two people standing in the middle between them, so it was quite crowded.
There were flushing toilets with compartments separated by curtains.
These toilets were for the air raid shelter staff, which included the wardens, nurses and canteen staff.
People would travel from miles around to use the shelters as they felt they were stronger and better equipped than other shelters, some spending all night in them, giving the tunnels the nickname ‘The Chestergate Hotel’. Originally the shelters housed about 4000 people, due to the demand was later extended with more tunnels to accommodate 6500 people.
The tunnels are nearly a mile in length, but not all open to the public. They had electric lighting but that was taken out when the war ended and re-used elsewhere.
The ARP had an area to store their tools, which would have been behind a door like this!
There are five underground shelter systems in Stockport but they do not link together. Each shelter was intended to serve people in the immediate area, but as stated above, people from further afield such as Manchester used to travel to spend the nights in the shelters. Stockport did get bombed in 1940 and later in 1944 but wasn’t a main target like Manchester.
There are narrow tunnels accessing the bigger tunnels.
A canteen serving basic food was situated in one area.
There were many bunk beds, 1575 in total.
Basic medical care was available in the first aid post.
I felt a little that I could have ended up going round and round and never emerging as there are so many tunnels!
This is a replica of the sort of air raid shelter people may have had in their gardens. They were called ‘Andersen’ shelters and were made of corrugated iron and were usually partially below ground. My human remembers her mother talking about a ‘Morrison’ shelter, which was used indoors and the shelter could be used as a table when not in use; she remembers her mum mentioning having to hide under the table when the air raid siren sounded.
There are lots of old signs displayed around the shelters, including this one urging people to not waste the rubber by wearing wellies unnecessarily.
After an hour or so exploring we emerged back out into the sunshine.
I do recommend visiting these shelters if you are in the Stockport area, they could be combined with the hat museum for a day out and both are very interesting.
The weather damp and a bit gloomy when we arrived in Bibury, a picturesque village in the Cotswolds where the humans had booked a cottage for a couple of nights.
We arrived too early to check into our accommodation, so the humans parked the car and we walked into Bibury.
Many humans visit Bibury to see Arlington Row, a row of 17th century weaver’s cottages situated next to a water meadow. Bibury gets very busy with tourists at weekends and during the main holiday season, but fortunately there weren’t too many there on a damp April morning.
We set off to do a 5 mile circular walk from the village and saw some lovely scenery. I did travel in the bear carrier for a few miles as my short legs get tired quite quickly trying to keep up with the humans with their long legs.
The walk ended at Arlington Row. These cottages were first built in the 14th Century as a monastic wool store before being converted into weaver’s cottages in 17th Century.
I walked on past the lovely old cottages towards the river Coln.
Here I am posing on the bridge with a shop and cafe behind me known as ‘Number Eleven’
Inside ‘Number Eleven’ I had a very delicious meal, sweet potato and paprika salad.
A craft fair was in progress in Bibury Village Hall. I enjoy a mooch around a craft fair especially if the creators of the products for sale are hosting their own stalls.
There were many beautifully crafted items inside. I bought a dried flower arrangement for my human and a rather lovely crocheted teddy bear caught my eye, so we bought, or should I say, ‘adopted’, the bear.
The crocheted bear didn’t have a name, just a label stating ‘Hand Made £15’. We decided to name him Bibury Bear, then he will always remind us of our trip to Bibury
Our holiday accommodation was up a hill and about a 15 minute walk from Bibury Village Hall. We stayed in a cottage situated at the end of a building that had once been a stable block.
I hung up my hat and coat and did my usual holiday home exploration, including trying out the bed.
Bibury Bear seemed very happy with the accomodation too…
The owner of the cottage had left us some chocolate croissants which didn’t take long to eat.
Prior to going to sleep we enjoyed looking through a book about Cotswold houses.
Our plans changed slightly the next day as my human had a migraine and needed to rest for a few hours. I went out for a wander around on my own.
The stable cottage is in the grounds of a large house with lovely gardens all around.
Sometimes we take ready meals with us on holiday breaks especially short breaks as we don’t like to spend all our time cooking! I tucked in to a rather tasty vegetable lasagne made by Charlie Bigham.
My human was feeling a bit better, which was as well as we had tickets booked for ‘An evening with Prue Leith’ in Cirencester. I was hoping to get a photo of me with Prue so I brushed my fur and put on my special batik shirt,
When we arrived at the venue there were lots of other people also waiting to see Prue, though without wishing to sound vain, I do think I was the best dressed individual in the auditorium.
There was a book stall at the event selling Prue’s books. I opted for ‘Bliss on Toast’. After queuing for a little while to see Prue she dedicated my book to me and we had a cuddle.
My human also bought ‘Being Old and Learning to Love’ it. I am looking forward to trying out the recipes in my book.
The following day before driving home (Bristol isn’t far from the Cotswolds) we visited Bourton on the Water, another place which gets very busy in the main holiday season.
The highlight of the trip was the visit to the model village, which was built in 1937 and is a 1/9 scale replica of the town as it was in 1937.
I felt very big inside the model village! The interesting thing is that there is a model village of the model village in the model village, and inside that even smaller model village of the model village….
Here I am leaving the model village inside the model village and outside of it!
Cotswold Motor museum was just up the road so we called in there too.
Lots of very old cars are crammed into the motor museum. There were lots of ‘do not touch’ signs but bears were allowed to sit in the tractor.
In an outside area I was delighted to find some bear sized bicycles. There were also helmets to borrow, so after putting one on my head I had a little pootle about.
Back inside the museum again I was pleased to find some bear sized cars, but with more warnings not to touch!
These little cars are all pedal cars made for children except the grey one, which was one of the first UK attempts at an electric vehicle (made in 1985). The Sinclair C5 didn’t go down very well with humans, it was very low on the ground, didn’t have a roof and could only travel 20 miles before needing to have the battery charged
Cotswold Motor Museum is very proud to be the home of a little car called Brum. Brum was the star of a children’s television show that was on tv from 1991 – 2002.
My human can remember watching Brum with her children, his headlights acted as his eyes!
No one is allowed to sit in the real Brum, but there is a replica model for bears and small humans to ‘drive’, which I very much enjoyed!
We had a lovely couple of days in the Cotswolds, with the highlight for me being finally meeting Prue Leith (followers of my Facebook page may recall that we tried to see her in Bath a few weeks earlier, but got the wrong day!)
The first thing we did on arriving in Bournemouth was to find the street that shares my name.
After returning to the car, our humans loaded the luggage onto our festival trolley, including us, and transported us down the zigzag path to Boscombe Beach where the Beach Lodges are situated.
We were in lodge number 10; it took a little while for us to get up the steps.
The Lodges are situated up behind the traditional beach huts that run all along the beaches in Bournemouth.
There was a wonderful view of the sea from the terrace.
It is always very exciting going into holiday accomodation for the first time, especially as my human often selects ‘quirky’ places to stay!
At the rear of the lodge we found a very well equipped little kitchen.
The upstairs bedroom is situated on a mezzanine level accessed by some space saving stairs.
Although quite small, the lodges have quite a few cupboards built in to be useful storage areas.
We tried out the double bed, which had ample room for three small bears. There was also a single bed upstairs, plus downstairs the seating area could be converted into another 3 beds. We think the lodge may have been a bit crowded with 6 humans in!
Once unpacked it was time to relax in the early spring sunshine.
The humans cooked some pasta with salad for our supper.
The low bed was actually very comfortable and we didn’t take long to get to sleep.
The following morning we got up early to see the sunrise, but Growler was a bit slow so the sun was already up when we got down to the beach!
Boscombe Beach is a good place just to relax and look out to sea.
We wanted to build some sandcastles but didn’t bring any buckets. Fortunately the lovely staff at the Bournemouth Beach Lodges reception had some for us to borrow.
We had to work quickly as the tide was coming in.
Once finished we sat back in our chairs to watch the tide, and were hoping it would fill the moat (though we forgot to dig a channel going towards the sea). Unfortunately high tide passed and we were too far away, but at least our sandcastles didn’t get washed away.
Growler gets very tired legs sometimes and is an ‘ambulatory wheelchair user’. After our busy morning Growler’s legs were very tired so we took him for a ride along the sea front in his special little chair.
We were very pleased to see Llewellyn, one of the famous Bournemouth goats. LLewellyn has served with the Royal Welsh Regiment, part of the long tradition of regimental goats. He even met the Queen during his time in service. Llewellyn retired from his military career when one of his horns cracked and he now lives in Bournemouth along with some other goats.
After such a busy day we were very tired but happy and ready for an early night.
The alarm was set at 5.50am to make sure that we would all be up in time to see the sunrise.
On a clear day I like the way the sky goes all orange just before the sun appears, and you are never quite sure exactly where it will pop up.
There is something very special about witnessing the start of a fresh new day.
Three bears watching the sun rise at Boscombe Beach, Bournemouth
On returning to our gorgeous little beach lodge we found that the humans had prepared marmalade on toast for our breakfasts. Yum yum yum….
When it was time to go home we had a ride in one of the carts that belong to Bournemouth Beach Lodges. Many humans use these to bring their luggage down to the lodges from their cars.
We had a splendid time away, and recommend to humans to stay here if you like beach huts and being by the sea. The atmosphere was very calm and happy, a good place for a bear like me whoose mission is to make humans smile!
As we drove south towards Cornwall from Bristol the rain clouds got less and the sky became a bit brighter. On arrival at the hotel, a rainbow appeared in the distance, so I rushed into the hotel garden to photograph it before it dissappeared. I didn’t know then that there would be more!
St Ives Harbour Hotel is at the top of a hill and car parking is awkward, so we left our car parked on the roadside and a concierge from the hotel parked it for us.
On arrival in our room I was very keen to look at the view from the balcony.
I wasn’t disappointed, then rather amazingly, as I turned around to go back indoors a full rainbow appeared across Porthminster Beach. Both ends were visible but we couldn’t see any pots of gold!
I tried out the bed, which has become a bit of a habit in holiday accommodation.
The humans asked if I wanted a scone. Bears never refuse scones, so I went downstairs with them to the restaurant for a cream tea. This is the point when humans start fussing about whether to put the jam or cream on first…
The climate of sunshine with showers made it absolutely necessary for me to wear my yellow raincoat out and about. I was very keen to get to the beach while it was dry and still light (a disadvantage of UK winter holidays is the short days).
Here I am with the beautiful Porthminster Beach behind me. If it was July the beach would be covered with humans enjoying themselves.
I had the beach to myself, so sat for a little while and looked over at St Ives Harbour. My yellow coat was very useful in stopping my bottom from getting damp.
It was delightful walking through the alleys past all the little cottages.
My human wanted to take a photo of me with the harbour in the background, but the camera focused on me so it is a bit blurred.
Tidal harbours are interesting places as the boats get stranded when the tide is out, but the low tide gives bears an opportunity to have a good look at the various boats.
I rather liked this small nameless fishing boat.
Back at the hotel I enjoyed a mug of tea with a banana on the balcony.
The following morning I was very excited going downstairs for breakfast. At home a bowl of porridge or perhaps a marmalade sandwich is the usual breakfast fare, but hotels are different!
The lift goes up and down inside a cage in the middle of the stairwell. The hotel was built in 1893.
The breakfast buffet all looked very yummy….
I opted for three courses. A bowl of fresh fruit, a croissant and pancakes with bacon and maple syrup. All was delicious and kept my tummy full for a few hours.
After breakfast we went out to explore St Ives. I decided to go down in the lift…
The weather kept changing from being sunny one minute then raining the next, which my humans said is quite often the case in Cornwall. As long as you wear the right clothes it doesn’t really matter. We had a walk around the town and went in a few galleries. I particularly like the glass art in Jo Downs Gallery in the Market Place.
On the approach to Porthmeor Beach I came across an ancient well. The Well was apparently named after a 5th Century saint called St La. ‘Venton La’ means ‘La’s Well’ in the Cornish language.
I walked past the famous St Ives Tate Gallery; we didn’t have time to go in and look at all the interesting modern art exhibits inside.
There were quite a few surfers in the water at Porthmeor Beach. I watched for a while and some of them were very good. Unfortunately my human is unable to photograph surfers with her phone camera, she says they are even harder to photograph than seals!
It would be good oneday to keep on walking and follow the South West Coastpath on to Zennor, but not on a showery February day, so after reaching the rocks we turned and walked back towards the Island.
The Island isn’t really an island as it is attached to the rest of the land, but it does look like an island…
I followed the path on the Island which I hoped would lead me up to the little chapel that sits on the top.
More rain, and another rainbow, just as I approached the tiny St Nicholas Chapel.
There are no records of when the chapel was built, but it is thought to date back to 1434. St Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors, so the chapel was named appropriately for the location next to the sea.
We were happy to head back to the hotel as it was raining again, and I was booked in to do an art workshop with my humans. Fortunately I had remembered to bring my painting smock to protect my fur.
The watercolours workshop was run by Barnoon Arts, who have a gallery/workshop in St Ives. Participants painted the view from the hotel in watercolours after having a cream tea (cream teas are very important in Cornwall).
It was my first time painting using watercolours and I struggled with some of the techniques (such as puddling, puddles are best for jumping in while wearing wellington boots).
I did manage to create my own masterpiece featuring Godrevy Island….
After a busy day it was good to snuggle down in a comfy bed with a camomile tea.
The following morning was another beautiful day and another wonderful view from the balcony.
On Sunday morning went to Godrevy in the car, as from there it is possible to walk to Mutton Cove where seals can be seen. Unfortunately when we got there the carpark was full, so instead we drove over to the other side of Cornwall to visit Mousehole, where we parked about half a mile away and walked along the coast to the village.
The streets of Mousehole can get very busy in the main holiday season, but it was refreshingly quiet. I enjoyed wandering around the harbour & cottages and had a delicious crab sandwich in the Mousehole Deli for lunch. I didn’t see any mice there at all.
After Mousehole we called at Marazion, where the tide was low enough to walk across the causeway to St Michael’s Mount. The castle and gardens aren’t open in winter, though I have visited them previously. See https://horacethealresfordbear.com/2017/04/03/st-michaels-mount/
On the beach at Marazion I met an amazing human. Clair Sharp is planning to row single handed across the atlantic ocean in this boat in December this year. She is going to take a teddy bear with her on the journey, and will be raising money for a charity that supports humans who have motor neuron disease. I felt very privilaged to meet her. You can read more about her here: https://coarnishmaid.com/
After the busy day exploring my humans went to relax in the hotel spa, where there is a lovely swimming pool. Unfortunately getting wet isn’t good for my fur or stuffing, so I just sat and watched humans having a pleasant time which was fine.
After brushing my fur and putting on my smart waistcoat and bow tie I was ready to go to dinner with the humans and help them celebrate Karen’s birthday. Karen’s partner who is quite good at art gave her a greeting card with me on the front!
I had salmon to start, then nut loaf (with a yorkshire pudding on top), followed by sticky toffee pudding. Bears are very fond of sticky toffee pudding; it was an excellent birthday meal enjoyed by all.
The next morning it was time to go home, had the sun come out we may have stayed another day, but it was pouring with rain again.
My last meal at the hotel before leaving for home had to be a full English breakfast….
It didn’t take long to pack up my little rucksack ready for the journey back to Bristol.
Despite the rather changeable weather we had a wonderful time in St Ives and I hope to visit again when the days are longer and walk the coastal paths and maybe visit the Tate Gallery.
My humans have adopted a rather wonderful tradition of going on mini holidays for their birthdays. Their birthdays are in January and February, when seaside resorts in the UK are quiet and hotels offer good deals to those wanting to experience the coast in winter. Our January break was at Harbour Beach Club in South Sands, Salcombe.
I brought little Nye along with me, and he smiled for the whole time we were away.
The sea view room had an enormous bed, but we didn’t sit on it for long as wanted to go out and explore before dark (which happens early in winter).
Before going out exploring we let our human photograph us on the balcony.
On the beach we had to be very careful as wellington boots are a bit of a liability for teddy bears when paddling. We are not heavy enough to hold the boots down so they can float up in water and make us fall over, so we only walked on the wet sand.
My human borrowed some rather splendid wellies from the hotel.
Humans weighs quite a lot more than teddy bears so their wellies don’t float up in water. We were able to have a little paddling trip with Karen, safely tucked inside the new bear carrier.
The tide was coming in so we headed back to the hotel.
The following morning the view from the balcony was rather gloomy, with mist visible further up the estuary.
The weather can change quite quickly at the seaside, and after breakfast the sun came out. We thought it would be fun to make some sandcastles, but had forgotten to bring buckets and spades away with us. We were able to borrow a bucket and spade from the hotel, so we soon set to work.
Nye collected up some cockle shells to decorate the top while I dug out a little moat. The humans were very impressed with our masterpiece.
While we were making sandcastles Karen and her partner were busy modelling my new range of teeshirts. There is a link at the end of my blog to show where to buy them (if you want one!)
After a quick snack we set off on a walk along the coast to Bolt Head.
The coastline is really beautiful, and we were so luckly that the sun was shining for us in January.
We had dinner in the hotel every evening and found the food to be very yummy. We both especially liked the pavlova, and Nye somehow managed to eat all of his!
We experienced a wide range of weather at South Sands, but watching the weather change is part of the joy of a winter holiday. On our last day it was very windy.
It was so windy we had a some problems staying upright while on the balcony. See the video clip below:
Harbour Beach Club balcony on a windy January day
I visited the spa on a previous visit and told Nye that it wasn’t really a good place for bears as it involved lots of water and steam. However it was tipping with rain outside and blowing a gale, so we went to the spa. The pool looked very pleasant but we can’t go in water as it makes our stuffing heavy, which would make us sink, so we just looked….
I warned Nye that the steam room would mean soggy fur, and that we would sizzle in the sauna.
We stayed in the sauna for about 30 seconds; it was too hot for bears.
The steam room looked very pretty with lights on the ceiling. We managed about 15 seconds in the steam room, it was far too humid and hot for bears.
We settled for relaxing on a lounger while watching humans enjoying themselves in the pool.
Sometimes a bear needs an early night with a tasty biscuit supper.
Every day we had something different for breakfast, for our last breakfast we opted for three courses, with fruit and croissants to start.
Followed by a full English breakfast for me, and pancakes with yoghurt and berries for Nye.
I think our smiles got bigger while we were away as we had a lovely few days away. The staff at the hotel were all very helpful and friendly and it is in a very beautiful area of Devon.
I enjoy going to traditional events that celebrate the changing of the seasons that often have Pagan origins, so I was delighted when my humans got tickets to attend the Barley Wood Wassail. As the event involves consuming cider we booked a room for the night at Barley Wood House, which is just across the road from Barley Wood Cider, so very convenient.
The route to the wassail from the house was illuminated with lanterns and it all felt very atmospheric.
We arrived quite early; the first 100 humans were given free cans of Barley Wood cider. The moon up above contributed to the ambience.
The wassail was being held in the Barley Wood Cider Orchard. A wassail is a traditional folk ceremony to encourage the apple trees to produce a good harvest
There were a few food stalls at the wassail event, and as I was feeling a wee bit peckish I decided to have a hot dog from ‘Fat snags’. It was very yummy and there was enough for my human to have some too!
Before and after the wassail ceremony we were entertained by a live band and fire dancers. I kept well away from the fire dancers, and was quite worried when the male dancer started to actually eat fire! He looked a bit sooty in places but seemed to be fine.
Here is a short video of me jigging about to the band….
It was a cold breezy evening so the fire pits that were placed all around were very welcome.
When it was time for the wassail a well known poet, Martin Maudsley, led everyone down to the orchards to the apple trees. My human thought she had recorded me with Martin, but unfortunately the camera was not set up right, but she managed to salvage the image of us below:
A Wassail King and Queen were selected by throwing apples into the crowd, and the people catching them became the King & Queen.
The Wassail Queen had to get up into the tree to hang up toast soaked in cider.
We sang various wassaling songs to encourage the tree to have a good harvest in the coming year. I got rather excited about everything and my hat fell off – see the video clip below.
Cider was poured around the roots of the tree, then the bowl was passed around for everyone to drink from.
We moved away from the tree to a fire circle for more rituals. Humans jumped into the ring, made a wish for the coming year, then jumped out again. Various wishes were made, including quite a few wanting peace for the world.
My human waited for the flames to die down before jumping into the middle with me. Like many others, we wished for world peace in 2026.
It was a wonderful event and is quite a famous wassail. A few years ago Barley Wood Wassial was written about in National Geographic magazine. See the link below to read the article
It was a cold January day when I walked into the ruins of Farleigh Hungerford Castle in Somerset. The castle was built by Thomas Hungerford at the end of the 14th Century, and almost doubled in size by the end of the 15th Century after his son, Walter, added the outer walls which brought the village church into the castle grounds.
The original castle had a tower in each corner as shown in the illustration below.
When Walter Hungerford increased the boundary and took the church into the castle grounds the village church was converted into the family chapel and mausoleum.
The church was very cold with several ornate chest tombs where important deceased Hungerford family members were entombed.
After leaving the church I found some steps leading to the crypt underneath which was created after 1600 to hold coffins of Hungerford family members.
The lead coffins were body shaped, and some had faces on. I thought they were a bit creepy.
The Priest’s house below, was built in 1430 to house priests but was used as a farmhouse from the 1600’s until 1959.
Reflections of windows on the glass has made the photo below a bit odd, they shouldn’t be there!
The figure on the left is wearing ‘part armour’ over a thick buffalo hide jacket, which pikemen would have worn in preparation for battle. They had to wear the armour to the battle site and it was very heavy so preferred to rely on the leather to protect them rather than full armour.The figure on the right is wearing the armour of a mounted trooper from about 1620. It all looks very uncomfortable.
I went back outside to have a good look at the ruins.
The River Frome can be seen from the castle windows.
The castle had chambers that were for ‘withdrawing’, the name which went on to be shortened to ‘drawing room’ in stately homes.
Although it was very cold I needed my sunglasses as the low winter sun was very bright.
I read all about The Lady Tower before having a good look at it.
It was thought that the 3rd wife of Lord Walter Hungerford was locked in this tower for several years and fed through a window at night by villagers, and she wrote to Thomas Cromwell to complain about it.
There wasn’t much left of the garderobe (toilet).
It was a very interesting visit and my humans wondered why they had not visited before as it is only 20 miles from our home.
600 years ago the castle inhabitants would have made and drunk mead, so before leaving I sampled some in the shop. It was very sweet and warming.
Farleigh Hungerford Castle belongs to English Heritage and is open on Saturdays and Sundays. There is an entrance fee, but as we are members of CADW (Welsh Heritage) we visited for free. Well worth a visit if you are in the area.
My humans decided to go and visit the Fairytale Christmas trail at Tyntesfield on a quiet Monday morning in early December 2025. Along the winding path heading towards the gardens were lots of scenes from Red Riding Hood. all of the installations were created by various community groups in North Somerset.
In the rose garden we discovered a pumpkin
I found Cinderella’s shoe, but she must be a giant!
After passing two lions wearing glitzy party hats, I headed towards the house…
As I walked along the path towards the house I wondered what delights there would be inside.
Before reaching the house I found the workshop of Rumpelstiltskin who had been busy turning straw into gold.
Rapunzel had let down her hair from one of the turrets.
A beautiful wild swan was at the entrance to the house.
More swans were surrounding the Christmas Tree. The giant baubles on the tree had all been knitted or crocheted.
After going into the house I came across a bag of magic beans.
Jack had planted a bean and it was growing up through the stairs. I was glad the giant wasn’t around.
The Library was decorated with an Alice in Wonderland theme with many interesting items to see, but a tad dark to photograph.
Sometimes a bear’s legs can get a bit tired so a chair that I was allowed to sit on was very welcome.
My favourite installation was in the drawing room. I squeezed between some old coats and entered a winter wonderland (which I think may have been inspired by Narnia).
The Christmas trees looked really lovely altogether with lights twinkling. Because I am so small it really seemed to me like I was outside in a wood somewhere.
A street light added to the atmosphere.
Of course I wasn’t outside, a splendid ceiling was above me and paintings hung on the walls.
The way out was back through the coats!
I came across Puss in Boots, a very strange character.
Cinderella’s dress was ready for her to wear to the ball. It was made from dried flowers and looked amazing.
Three Bears were somewhere around, not just any bear, but ‘The Three Bears’!
The table was set up for them with bowls of porridge but they must have been out exploring the woods!
Back outside in the courtyard a little village had been set up with mulled wine being sold.
I went on down to the Orangery to see the Hansel & Gretal installation and found Christmas trees decorated with doughnuts…
…and a gingerbread house with two giant gingerbread people.
Finally I discovered Father’s Christmas’s grotto, but he had gone out!
All in all visiting the Tyntesfield ‘Once upon a Christmas Time’ was a lovely experience. It is running from 1 December 2025 until 4th January 2026.
My human occasionally adopts antique bears. This dear little Alpha Farnell bear recently arrived.
After sharing her arrival on my Facebook page lots of names were suggested. We chose ‘Nellie’, as it sort of derives from the end bit of ‘Farnell’ and as my human forgets our names sometimes, she should be able to remember Nellie.
Nellie wasn’t particularly dirty but we always like to freshen up new arrivals. Nellie is a 1960s bear and would have been stuffed with kapok, so we couldn’t put her in the bear jacuzzi (the word we bears call the washing machine. Nellie required surface washing to avoid wetting the kapok stuffing.
My human added a little clarifying human shampoo to some water and whipped it up into lots of bubbles. We then proceeded to gently dab Nellies fur with the bubbles. It can also be a good idea to give an old bear a brush with a gentle toothbrush before the washing process to remove and dust and grime, but Nellie was already quite clean so we didn’t brush her first.
Once Nellie had been dabbed all over with the bubbles it was time to soak the detergent off her fur.
We did this using high quality ‘blue roll’ which my human uses in the kitchen instead of kitchen towel as it works better. We knew that the blue roll dye wouldn’t come out as we have used it on spills on a light coloured wool carpet, but it is probably best to use white kitchen towel if you aren’t sure, or a towel.
After drying Nellie off we dabbed her again with clear water, rinsing the cloth to remove any shampoo.
She was ‘rinsed’ and dried off a couple of times, any shampoo left behind would make her sticky. Nellie didn’t mind as she didn’t want to be a ‘sticky’ bear!
The 3rd and final rinse had a dash of gentle fabric softener added to condition her fur. We aren’t sure what Nellie’s fur is made of but don’t think it is mohair.
The end result was Nellie wrapped up in a pink spotty towel, she looked like she had just been swimming (something us bears must not do!)
I took Nellie upstairs to dry her fur using a hairdryer.
In between blowing her with warm air I brushed her fur.
Nellie’s nose was unravelling so with a bit of help from my human I performed some nose surgery. It was quite hard getting the needle through her snout which is stuffed quite firmly.
Nellie now all fluffly with her lovely little blue ears.
I had a little surprise for her, a little dress that was handmade for a doll that my human bought from an Etsy shop seller ‘dollytot’.
Nellie was absolutely delighted; the dress fitted her perfectly and will protect her 70 year old fur.
Nellie went on to spend the evening sat on the radiator to make sure that she really is dry.
My human was very pleased with how little Nellie turned out. Apparently she was made as a ‘pram toy’ and bears like her were fastened to prams with ribbon in the 1950s/1960s.
