Growler is very old but not as old as Stonehenge. It was built by humans about 5000 years ago. They moved huge lumps of stone without any modern inventions. We read about Stonehenge on various signs at the Visitor Centre.

There was a big lump of stone near the entrance showing how they may have moved the stones. Some children tried to pull if along while we sat on it. It didn’t move!

There were also some small thatched houses showing the sort of homes the people who built Stonehenge would have lived in.

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There was quite a long walk to see the Stone Circle.

Growler was feeling tired bit kept up as he was so looking forward to seeing Stonehenge.

Finally we arrived and saw the wonderful sight of Stonehenge

We posed for a photograph with the Stones.

Further on we stopped for a rest as Growler’s legs were getting tired.

The Stones were part of a temple and are positioned to face the rising sun on the longest day on one side.

On the other side they face the direction of the setting sun in the shortest day. Modern day humans put the arrow on the ground to show the directions.

Growler was very impressed.

In the fields surrounding the Stone Circle there are many ancient barrows. When prehistoric humans from the area died they were buried in the barrows as they thought it important to be buried near Stonehenge. We stopped for a rest next to some of the barrows.

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In order to get to the gate back to the Visitor Centre we had to walk through a cow field.

Once through the gate and in the wood Growler was too tired to walk any further so climbed into the bear carrier for the walk back to the carpark.

We all really enjoyed seeing the ancient Stone Circle, including the humans.

For more information see: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/stonehenge-landscape & https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge

Horace the Alresford Bear 12/7/2021

We visited Somerset Lavender Farm on a wet Sunday afternoon. The humans thought there wouldn’t be many other humans there due to the weather.

It is free to go into the lavender field but the owners request donations, so we posted a few coins in the box.

We clambered up onto a dry stone wall for a photo.

Then we sat a while and admired the beautiful lavender field with a huge umbrella sheltering us from the rain.

When the rain stopped we were able to explore in the field.

We are both quite small bears; the lavender plants are much bigger than us.

I stopped to take in the lovely lavender perfume

At home there are a few lavender plants in our garden, Nye thought it would be nice to add a deep purple variety to our collection so we chose one to buy..

We went to the shop to pay for our new plant.

Inside the shop we found lots of lavender goodies. We bought a Somerset lavender diffuser for our humans, and a piece of lavender shortbread to try. Lavender isn’t a usual part of a bear’s diet but we rather enjoyed the flavour of it in the shortbread.

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Before leaving for home we stopped for one last photograph.

A lovely afternoon despite the rain.

For more information about Somerset Lavender see https://www.somersetlavender.com/

Horace the Alresford Bear 11/7/2021

There are fields in Pershore where a company grows flowers to make real confetti. Today we were delighted to have an opportunity to visit. Here we are with white deliphiniums behind us.

The deep pink deliphiniums were a sea of colour.

We stopped to take a closer look at the pale pink deliphiniums.

The flowers make a great background for photographs of small bears. Here we are with the blue delphiniums.

Nye spotted a rather splendid tractor so we went to try it out. The engine didn’t start which might be just as well.

Tractors have very big wheels.

We had a rest on some hay bales.

The wildflower field was also in full bloom. Bees were busy visiting many of the flowers collecting the nectar to make into honey. Bears like honey.

As you can see the flowers were quite a lot taller than us.

Little Nye nearly disappeared at one point.

Next we spotted the mini replica of an old bus. It was bear sized so I clambered into the drivers seat and tried to start the engine, but I think it didn’t have any fuel in.

We both went upstairs to see the view from the open top.

There were bear sized seats upstairs too.

It was time to go home so we had one last look at the flowers.

We bought a bag of confetti for the humans to throw at their niece when she gets married in August, and a pot of local honey. Yum yum yum.

The confetti field are only open for a couple of weeks each year, and lovely to visit if you are in the area.

For more information see: https://www.confettidirect.co.uk/flowerfields/

Horace the Alresford Bear 28/6/2021

We entered Blickling through the large walled garden.

Very large artichokes were growing there; we stopped to admire one.

When we arrived at the splendid house we posed for a photograph. Nye needs to grow a bit taller.

We had a peer through one of the windows and decided it would be interesting to explore indoors.

The queue wasn’t too long so we joined the end.

Inside we found the giant colander that we had seen through the window.

The old 1930’s radio looked rather special.

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The library was lined with ancient books.

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It must have taken someone a very long time to read them all.

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Before continuing our exploration with had a rest.

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We followed the orange narrowed walk, first going past the house.

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Nye thought the gate closing thingies were good very small bear swings.

The lake had lots of fishing platforms; we sat and watched for a while but didn’t see any fish.

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It was fun trying to hide from the humans in the field.

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The walk was very long but we kept going.

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We passed a castle.

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Finally we got back to Blicking house.

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I wanted to help out the gardeners but Nye pointed out that the cafe would be shutting soon and that we needed cake.

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The doors of the big house were all closed up.

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What a relief that the Muddy Boots cafe was still open. Yum yum yum…

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Blickling was our last outing in Norfolk, we have had a wonderful holiday.

For more information see: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/blickling-estate

Horace the Alresford Bear 22/6/2021

There are lots of Rhododendrons at Sheringham so off we went to see them all.

There were also some splendid fox gloves.

Nye tried to hide in one of the Rhododendrons without success.

We marched on passed many more blooms looking for somewhere to pose for a photo.

This bright pink Rhododendron had a branch in just the right place for two small bears.

Further on we found an excellent hole in a tree where we sat and waiting for the rain to stop.

We continued on our way towards the coastal path.

It was quite a long way for small bears with short legs.

It was quite windy up on the hill so we kept away from the edge. I think the view would have been clearer on a sunny day.

Before making our way back to Sheringham we just sat for a while. Sometimes it is good just to sit and look at the sea.

On our way back to base we passed through even more Rhododendrons.

We hope you enjoyed our photos. I do enjoy blogging about our adventures. Sheringham Park is another great place to spend a few hours.

For more details see; https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/sheringham-park

Horace the Alresford Bear 17/6/21

We were feeling quite warm as we walked through the archway into Ickworth.

Bears can do things that humans cannot so we climbed into the ornamental urn for a photo.

On spotting the grassy slope in front of the house we couldn’t resist doing some roly polying.

We sat in a little shelter to cool off away from the sun.

Ickworth has a huge round Italianate house, here it is behind us.

Nye spotted a sprinkler and thought it would be a good way for us to cool off to just wet our fur a little bit.

We briefly stood under it which was very refreshing though our fur can get very soggy quite quickly so didn’t stay there long.

We always like to see tree ferns so got ourselves photographed with these.

A large very strange looking fungi was growing under one of the trees.

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We set off across a field to look for the lake.

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The walled garden that we passed on the way was huge.

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When we found the lake we sat and watched the dragonflies for a while.

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We love the wild flowers that are growing all around Ickworth.

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At the end of our visit we enjoyed cups of tea, without cake today as our tummies have been getting a bit too big lately!

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We think it would be interesting to see inside the big round house oneday!

For more information see: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ickworth

Horace the Alresford Bear 14/6/2021

We were delighted to find the research plots full of wildflowers.

The cornflowers, daisies and poppies looked very beautiful.

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We visited on a very hot June day, it felt refreshing just to sit by the fountains for a while.

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Our visit to the glasshouse was very brief, way too hot for bears. We wondered if our human’s new baby cacti will ever get this big…

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…or this tall…

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Nye wanted to sit on the giant lilypad but I told him it wasn’t allowed.

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These dangly flowers were amazing, hanging down like one of those beaded curtain things some humans put at their doors.

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At The Schools garden the bee house was very busy.

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It was good to find a bear sized bench in the Schools Garden too 🙂

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Cambridge university Botanical garden is a lovely place to visit when in Cambridge, though it was a tad too hot when we visited!

For more information see: https://www.botanic.cam.ac.uk/

Horace the Alresford Bear 13/6/21

We were rather surprised to find a splendid Jacobean house at Anglesey Abbey instead of an Abbey. The Abbey was destroyed back in the 16th Century.

We found the pillars of a temple as we walked around the grounds.

The lions guarding the temple both looked quite friendly, so we posed for a photo with one of them.

In the woods we discovered a den building area and set to work building one.

We didn’t get far as the logs were too heavy for small bears to lift. Fortunately someone had made a bear sized den already.

I managed to complete all the balance trails in the woods. Nye just sat and watched!

There were some really beautiful pink roses in the rose garden.

We set off through the woods to find the water mill.

Some time later we finally found it.

Here we are outside. It has an under flow wheel which you might be able to make out just above Nye’s head in the photo.

There was a copse of silver birch trees that made excellent Bear perches.

We heard music nearby so set off to find the source. Some folk musicians were playing in the garden.

We listened to the music for a while and enjoyed home made rock cakes.

After the musicians had finished playing lots of people moved on, leaving the deckchairs for us to sit in.

All in all another splendid day out.

For more details see https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/anglesey-abbey-gardens-and-lode-mill

Horace the Alresford Bear 12/6/2021

As we approached Waddesdon we started to wonder if we were in France as it looks a lot like a French chateau.

The first activity on the agenda was afternoon tea in The Manor Restaurant. We very much enjoyed the sweet course (the savoury course was good too).

Afterwards we set off to explore the grounds. This photo got ‘photobombed’ by the Waddesdon bus that takes people that aren’t walkers from the car park to the house.

We were delighted to find a playground in the woods.

Nye was a bit light to make the swing round and round thingy go up and down.

The rope climb was rather challenging for Nye too so our human lifted him up to watch me@

I had a go on the balance trail while Nye watched. His size does limit what he can do sometimes…

We were very excited to find a slide. (Our human calls them sliders as she is from Bristol). We wondered for a while before taking the plunge….

It was very fast. I went down first then waited for Nye at the bottom.

We could have played all day on the slide but decided to explore some more of the grounds.

We found two large elephants and a baby one on our way to the aviary.

The avairies are quite splendid.

There were some beautiful birds living in the aviary but unfortunately we couldn’t get a photo with any of them.

There was a grotto that looked like it could be a very interesting place for bears but we weren’t allowed in.

It was good to see lots of buttercups flowering in the long grass.

Dogs aren’t allowed in some parts of the estate, we are glad that we are bears and not dogs.

The flower beds in front the house were empty as in between spring and summer bedding. Here we are posing in front of the fountains.

Waddesdon was really peaceful while we were there and we had a wonderful time.

For more information see: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/waddesdon

Horace the Alresford Bear 11/6/2021