I haven't disappeared off the face of the earth despite being so bad about updating my blog. After having my flu/cold linger for longer than I wanted I seem to have found something in my new environment that has set my hay fever off. So I spend my days sniffing and sneezing and driving Bronwen mad.

I have just put two new bears on eBay so if you have the time please go and visit Delphine and Daniel.
A couple of weekends ago the sun was shining so nicely on the Sunday that Bronwen and I drove to Epping Forest to have a look around, it is not more than 1/2 hours drive from here and you have the most amazing trees to look at. Everyone else had the same idea but we found parking and went for a lovely walk, I think you would have to be careful that you didn't get lost as the forest is protected land and is something like 6000 square miles. Some of the trees must be so old, the trunks are so wide that it would take at least three people with arms out stretched to circle the tree. It was so peaceful that you tend to forget that we are still on the outskirts of such a huge city.
The back garden of the house that we are living in is starting to look a bit like a jungle as the lawn has still not been mowed but the neighbourhood cats don't mind, they get to play in the long grass. This is a frequent visitor but he hasn't yet let me get close enough for a proper introduction but that will happen, some cats are just more wary of humans than others.


One last photo, when Bronwen goes to see Max at the quarantine prison she drives past this hotel and I just had to include a photo, it is such a strange name for a hotel but it is a lovely old building and looks over the road into a big park.
Otherwise I am just busy stitching bears and going to some job interviews. I went for an interview for a job on Tuesday and it went very well, next interview is at the end of the month and then maybe I will have a job. It is not many more months before Max is out of quarantine and Wendy and my Dad can bring the cats across from France and then maybe we can settle down to a bit more of a normal, sane life. Although I do sometimes wonder if that is something our family could actually live with, we have got rather used to living strange lives.

A whole lot of news since my last update. I met Wendy on the Thursday at the train station after her epic journey across France and we then embarked on the train journey across London.

The three of us (being myself, Wendy and Bronwen) had fun on Friday doing some shopping and sightseeing and then came back to pack all the stuff for the Bear Fair. I always enjoy making miniature bears but when you pack for a show you really appreciate the size of the bears you make. We only had to take a small wheelie suitcase each and everything we needed was packed.

Saturday dawned with rainy skies and it didn't stop, it rained the whole day. We got to Marylebone train station early as per usual ( I don't seem to now any other way of keeping time but to be hours too early for everything). The train journey to Stratford-Upon-Avon was 2 1/2 hours of looking at beautiful countryside through the rain. England is so different to France, everything is so ordered in France and every little inch of ground is used for growing crops etc, England has so much land that just seems to be left to grow wild.

We walked around Stratford looking at all the beautiful old buildings, I couldn't take many photos because trying to juggle an umbrella, handbag, shopping bag and camera in the rain is just not fun and you just don't get very nice photos. I did manage to get a couple of Anne Hathaway's house and the museum. Amazing old buildings.


It was still raining on the Sunday morning and we even had thunder and lighting when we were sitting eating our breakfast at the B&B we where staying at.

The bear fair was lovely, Samantha Potter does an incredible job of organising it. We met some lovely new customers and some old friends and enjoyed ourselves a lot. We also brought some new fabric which really made us happy as we are both rather uninspired with the small stock that we have to work with. So expect to see some fantastic new bears very soon.


We had a choice of two trains to catch to get back to London, the 4:00 or the 6:00. The fair ended at 4:00 so we decided to slip out 1/2 hour early to catch the train rather than have to wait around for 2 hours and only get home at 10:00 at night. Of course our table was in front of the stage where the prizes where handed out and that started at 3:00. We threw everything into the bags and ran out of the hall at 10 minutes to 4:00 and ran all the way to the station, luckily not to far from the show venue. The train was at the station and we flung ourselves through the first available door. We never seem to have boring lives. Managed to get home at about 8:00 which was so much better than the other option.

On the Monday we went into the centre of London to get some thread and fabric dye and had to stop for a few hours at Borders to look at all the books. Tuesday was a very early morning trip to the train station so that Wendy could catch the train back to France and by this time she was really fighting the flu that she got from somebody. She then had to repeat the epic journey back to Brittany while I went home.

I thought I had got away with it but by Wednesday I was also starting to feel under the weather, luckily I have managed to sort of recover in about three days.

On Thursday Bronwen had to go for a job interview in central London. It was day two of the tube strikes so we were a bit worried about the journey and how many delays there were going to be so allowed plenty of time for the trip. Plenty of time for us was 2 1/2 hours for a trip that should normally take 1/2 hour so we were fine. We took the overground train to Liverpool Street Station and then a long bus trip. One nice thing about the journey is that you get to see amazing buildings and do a bit of sightseeing as normally you would be below ground for most of the journey.
While Bron was at her interview I wandered around the area and found the Imperial War Museum. Amazing looking building and we will defiantly have to go back for a visit.
Enough news now, such a long post from me is unusual. I am busy stitching some new bears and in the meantime we still have a few lovely bears left from the show on the website looking for new homes.

I have been very quite the last week or so, busy working on the little bears and not much else to report.
The only outing I have had is to go and visit the local graveyard with my sister, we walked up there last Friday and got some lovely photos ( which I will put up later). Some of the gravestones date back from 1880 and look so beautiful wrapped up in ivy sitting among a forest of trees.

The bears are almost all done, just one poor little guy waiting for his clothes. Wendy has put all the photos on the web page so please go and have a look, a couple have been reserved already but if there is one that talks to you please email us.

On Thursday Wendy starts her marathon trip across France and the UK by bus and train to get here and on Saturday we will take the train to Stratford-Upon-Avon.