Yesterday my humans took me along to a rather wonderful place owned by The National Trust known as Newark Hall. We arrived early before the house and gardens opened so set off for a walk around the estate. We started off walking through some splendid woods.
I decided it might be fun to hunt for some fungi. It wasn’t long before I found a small specimen.
I became a tad worried when a dog came to say ‘Hello’ while I was studying the fungus. Fortunately he soon bounced off to join his humans and didn’t try to pick me up with his teeth. I have had incidents with dogs so I am rather cautious of them.
The dog’s human stopped and spoke to us for a while, and pointed out a wonderful specimen of fungi called Dryad’s Bracket growing far down a steep bank. He said it was called Dryad’s Bracket. I clambered down to take a closer look.
The brackets looked a bit like pancakes growing out of the tree. I decided not to eat one.
It was easy going down the bank to find the fungi, but climbing back up again was hard work for a small bear of short stature.
I got back to the path with a little help from my humans and continued along the marked trail. When we emerged from the woodland there was an amazing view. 
It was very peaceful without the sound of traffic anywhere; very calming for a bear used to living in the city. We walked on through a valley where sheep were having some sort of meeting; you can see them just above my right ear in the photo below.
After walking back through the woods I stopped to take a closer look at the fluffy thistle seed heads that were everywhere.
Eventually we came to a gate and found ourselves in the garden. I stopped and had a little rest for a while and admire the view. My little legs were starting to feel quite tired.
After continuing on in the direction of the tea pavillion (my humans are always on the look out for such places!) we came across a special resting log for tired bears.
I managed to have a five minute ‘power nap’ then was picked up and carried in the spotty bag. I was very pleased when I climbed out to find that I too had a ‘nice cup of tea’ to drink.
Refreshed by the tea I toddled across the lawn to try my paw at croquet. I think perhaps the National Trust should get some smaller mallets for those of short stature as the mallet was considerably bigger than me.
I wanted to have a mooch about in the house as I had read that inside there were lots of swans and a dressing up room.
Once inside I got quite engrossed in a newspaper in the drawing room
Everything about Newark was very interesting indeed. After absorbing all the information I made my way upstairs to the dressing up room, where I found an excellent selection of bear hats.
On going up another flight of stairs I was very pleased to make friends with some bears living in a delightful bedroom. I stopped and chatted to them for a while.
My new friends told me that I should to go into the other bedroom to see all the swans. There were indeed many swans…
Before leaving the house I had a look at the little room that used to house the toilet; the hole is still there. I didn’t know that clothes used to be kept in toilets in Tudor times as the smell kept moths away.
As I left the house I was very pleased to see some bees collecting pollen to make honey on a big yellow flowering plant. I had a good look but was careful not to get too close as I really didn’t want a stung nose.
Before leaving to go back home with the humans I sat and just looked at the beautiful view from the garden in front of the house.
Newark Park is a splendid place for bears to take their humans (or vice versa). I hope I get to visit again oneday.
The cyclists had to go round a 10km circuit 8 times, and as they went around some got tired and left behind so they got told to leave the race for safety reasons. The end bit of the race ended on a flat road next to a lake (Chew Valley Lake). After we had watched 7 laps my humans took me to the lake to watch the finish. I posed for a photo next to the lake.
I then toddled along to the finish line, where there were big flags either side of the road.
I waited there with all the humans for about 5 minutes, then as Karen spotted the safety car coming along she scooped me up, after which one cyclist appeared, about 100 metres in front of the others. Karen rang her bell and shook and shook me to ring my bell too – I have never been shaken so much. Seconds later many more cyclists came across the finish line. You can see just how much I was shaken in this short video clip!
After ten minutes or so we wandered on up the hill to the place where the squirrels live. Karen had brought along some squirrel bait, which turned out to be walnuts. She sat me down by a tree with walnuts on my lap. I was worried, but it turned out that the squirrels were apprehensive about me too, and wouldn’t approach me to collect the tasty walnuts.
Karen decided it might be better for me to sit with her, as the Brandon Hill squirrels are not afraid of humans, so we moved and I sat by Karen’s feet waiting for a squirrel.
Within minutes a friendly squirrel appeared. He was a bit too friendly and decided to investigate me.
Karen decided that now the squirrel had made friends with me, she could probably get a photo of just me with it. I kept smiling but felt quite nervous inside. There wasn’t really anything to worry about though…
Squirrel Nutkin and me got along just fine…
….until a very big dog came along the path and frightened him away.
When I was nearly at the top of the tower I peered over the wall to enable my humans to take a photograph.
Then I carried on right up to the top, where there was a great view of Bristol – you can see Bristol University Tower just above my head.
I was put back in the bag while my humans walked home, then had a wonderful surprise when they decided to treat me to pizza on the way home for being such a brave bear modelling with the squirrels.
I wasn’t exactly sure how to make pumpkin pie, Nye used to eat it when he lived in the USA but unfortunately he doesn’t really know how to make one. I decided to use a recipe from the BBC Goodfood website 
While the pumpkin cooked I made the pastry…
I lined a special loose bottomed flan tin and then pressed the pastry into it. I had to make lots of little fork holes in the pastry to stop it bubbling up, then put it in the oven to cook. Meanwhile I mixed up the pumpkin pie filling mixture…
I found this somewhat difficult using a wooden spoon, so swapped to using a stick blender powered by electricity instead of paw power.
The whole lot was then tipped into the flan case…
The pumpkin pie had to be baked at a very hot temperature for 10 minutes then at acooler temperature for a further 20 minutes. Unfortunately when I removed it from the oven I managed to put a paw mark in the edge. 
I tried to fill the paw mark in with the icing sugar and cinnamon sprinkle topping but it didn’t quite work, but the humans seemed to be happy with the result!
This afternoon I gathered up a few of my bear friends to try out the pie. Nye is the only bear who has eaten pumpkin pie before, and he said it was very good, almost as good as the pies he used to eat in the Autumn in USA. Gilbert and Hester enjoyed it too, though Gilbert thought it ought to be served with cream. Growler wasn’t too keen, he said he preferred apple crumble. My own opinion, it tasted OK but I think it needed some more spice. 
Horace the Alresford Bear 