By Truffle McFurry
(Illustrations by Miki de Goodaboom)
Hi everybody!
I told you I am writing books, but my Mom told me that as long as they are not published, i am not a real writer yet.
But now I am really a real writer: my story of visiting the Bear House from my friend Gyles Brandreth in England has been published in an international Teddy Bear magazine. Part 1. Next month is part 2. I am so happy, and my Mom and my Dad are so proud of me!
And I hope, so are YOU!
Love you all xx
Truffle
By Teddy “The Pirate”
(Illustration by Miki de Goodaboom, based on a photograph of The Pirate by Jo Du Nor)
Hello ! I am Teddy Bear “The Pirate” !
Jo du Nor, my adoptive father is native from Calais and when I was young, he used to tell me the story of Levasseur, a famous pirate from Calais…
I was so scared because this pirate was a very bad guy.
Please, do not be afraid ! I only wear a disguise because I am a very, very kind teddy bear and I love all of you !
By Ann La Mar
(Illustration by Miki de Goodaboom)
One day in early March while racing round making holiday preparations I went to Thornaby on Tees. The little shopping centre there doesn’t have all the fancy chain stores but enough shops to provide basic provisions to the community. It was an ideal place to go for my last minute bits and pieces and the parking is easy.
As I was wandering and as is habit nowadays…probably addiction…. any way one of my many guilty pleasures…I went towards the charity shops, there are three close together to look for teddy bears. I went in the first two and didn’t find any bear that I felt…all teddy bears are beautiful but I like to feel something personal from them. Outside the third shop was a tombola..now I’m not sure how Miki and Truffle would feel about this (maybe they will tell you) and I didn’t tell them at the time because they had so much sadness going on in their lives it didn’t seem right. The tombola was raffling very many orphaned bears all sitting patiently waiting to be loved in new families. I couldn’t pass by and not try to bring some home so I had ten goes on this tombola and not one bear was to come with me.
I went in the shop thinking should I try again then I saw a higgledy piggledy pile of bears and other creatures in a basket in the corner so I began looking in the basket and the back of a yellow patterned waistcoat stood out so I lifted out the bundle and to my joy it was a beautiful little cream coloured bear. He looked so cute in his waistcoat and he was also carrying a sign saying Provence… I had found my bear…Miki and I have had conversations about Provence so he was perfect. I went and paid for him then as I was leaving lots of children were at the tombola so I hope they had teddy bears to take home. I had to walk quickly otherwise I would have gone back and tried to get them all.
Once my bear was safely home I took a good look at him and discovered he was indeed a real French bear from Colmar in the Alsace region of France. Hopefully one day we will all go on a trip and take him home for a visit.
Next he had to have a name so I searched the internet for famous people from Provence while reading the list I read about Alphonse Daudet a writer…he wrote’ Lettres de mon Moulin’ about life at the windmill in Fontvieille well this was an amazing coincidence as Miki had told me her family name was Fonvielle ( a modernised version of Fontvieille meaning ‘old source’)….so he had to be called Alphonse.
I took his picture and sent it to Miki saying meet Alphonse, she adored him and asked me to bring him to Spain the following week. Alphonse was going on holiday to meet Miki and Truffle.
PS: Miki de Goodaboom here. Truffle and me did meet Alphonse, what a beautiful bear he is! And a perfect personage to invite you to visit the Provence, and the Fontvieille Moulin. My Dad loved teh Lettre De Mon Moulin, the famosu book written by Alphonse Daudet. For those who know the book and its characters, my Dad made a phenomenal impression of the “Curé de Cucugan”… it still cracks me up when i think of his face doing it!
By Truffle McFurry
(Illustration by Miki de Goodaboom)
Hallo everybody, here is Truffle!
I have exciting news: I have been invited to write my own article in the international magazine “Teddy Bear Times”. I will write there about our visit of the Bearhouse at Newbyhall in England. And I will illustrate it with many bear paintings by my Mom Miki de Goodaboom.
Here are Bua and Bua. One Bua, the one on the right, is Auntie’s Ann German Teddy Bua, my dear cousin. The other Bua is Gyles Brandreth’s Bua… we met him at the bear picnic. I will tell their whole story in the article. And many more! I need to write them before 
🙂
Take care
Love you all
Truffle McFurry
By Miki de Goodaboom (Text and Illustration)
My last post was about the Royal Balcony in the Bear House at Newby Hall. Noblesse oblige – I know, I know, they are all noble… 🙂 -, I had started painting Queen Elisabeth and Prince Philip.
Next to them were a young couple with two kids. I assume they were Prince William and Kate with George and Charlotte. At least the resemblance was amazing, and it was a delight to paint them.
Little George was holding a teddy bear himself.. one could hardly see him, but what a cute detail! My Truffle McFurry, so obsessed with celebrities, saw him very well though, and asked me to have him as George’s bear on the painting… I could not refuse -can you see Truffy on the painting?-, but no way I would ever give my Truffle to anybody in the world, not even to princes, princesses, kings or queens or even gods! I could lend him to pose for a photo with them, but that’s it!
By Miki de Goodaboom (Text and Illustration)
One of the settings which most impressed us when we were visiting Gyles Brandreth’s Bear House at Newby Hall in the UK, was the royal balcony. Gorgeous bears meaning to represent the royal family were standing there and waving to the crowd. It was so beautiful!
For some reason, one could really recognise Queen Elizabeth in that cute teddy with the blue dress and hat.
As for Prince Philip, I am not that sure. I suppose it was him, but the teddy standing next to the Queen had so much “hair”… well, I guess it is not easy to find a half- bold Teddy! But the ears certainly do the job… 🙂
By Miki de Goodaboom (Text and Illustration)
Let me introduce you to GrandMa and GrandDa, the gorgeous grand-parents from the Bear House at Newby Hall in Yorkshire, UK.
My own Teddy Truffle McFurry, who was there with me and Ann La Mar, was a bit upset that GrandMa and GrandDa had some numbers tattooed on them. I explained to him that it was like with the Paddington bears, that there are many of them, because they are so famous, and many people wants one of them.
“Does it mean that there will be many of me when I have written the best-seller and I am famous?”, he asked.
“Perhaps, Truffy. Would you like that?”
“Euh… I am not sure… I like to be unique, me…”
“Well, we will see then, Truffy. You would still be unique, you know. The other Truffles would just be copies of you. But anyway, first we have to write this best-seller, and for that you have to work now !”
“But it is Sunday… Daddy said it is Sunday and one does not work and one hangs around in pyjamas the whole day!”
My Truffy has always the last word!
“Hermann Dressed Bears: The Pauline Grattan request
The Teddy-Hermann company was founded in 1912 in Sonneberg, Germany by Bernard Hermann who had earlier worked with his father, Johann, in the family business, crafting children’s violins and wooden toys. The Hermann Dressed bears are now among the world’s most collectable bears and almost all the dressed bears here were generously bequeathed to the collection by a very special bear collector, Pauline Grattan.”
By Miki de Goodaboom (Text and Illustration)
Before my Truffle McFurry entered my life some years ago, I had no idea about the world of teddy bears. I had never had one before. I did not know how beloved they are around the world, among children and adults as well.
I went from one surprise to the next when I read Michele Brown ‘s (Gyes Brandreth’s wife) book “The Teddy Bear Hall Of Fame ” and discovered their story. I found out that even some very important people in history have had and loved a Teddy bear, and not only as they were children. And I thought:
“As long as this is the case, the world cannot be that bad!”
One of these men is Tony Blair. There he was, his Teddy Bear “Lynton”, posing in front of following letter written y Tony Blair:
“Here is Lynton, my family Bear. he was sent to me just after the 1997 General Election and holds a special place in our hearts. He normally leaves at Chequers but has come for a holiday at The Teddy bear Museum. I hope you enjoy meeting him as much as he will enjoy meeting you!
4 July 1998 – Tony Blair”
We certainly were over the moon to meet Lynton. I could, of course, not resist painting him in front of Downing Street 10…
Text by Truffle McFurry
(Illustration by Miki de Goodaboom)
Hi everybody!
My Mom Miki de Goodaboom has started painting the great bears we met at my friend Gyles’ Bear House when we were on our Tour of Yorkshire.
On the third day, we had decided to take with us Auntie’s Ann bear Bua. We took every day with us another of her bears, and we all had a ball. It was so nice to have so many different travel mates.
Bua is a German boy, and Auntie Ann will tell his story in our book. I think he was the last one she had adopted before we arrived… we were so impatient to meet him. As soon as we saw him, we adopted him in our hearts too, he is so cute.
Before we went to the Bear House, we sat at the cafe there, it was very lovely, Bua and me we posed for Miki, very close to each other, like the best friends in the world!
I hope you like the painting… and us!
Love you all
Take care
Truffle
By Miki de Goodaboom (Text and Illustration)
With “The Three Paddington Bears”, I started yesterday publishing a series of Teddy Bears from Gyles Brandreth’s collection. Today it will be “The Diana’s Bears”
These are the ones who probably touched me the deepest… here is their story, written next to them at Newby Hall:
“This is a small collection of the bears left by members of the public at Kensington Palace in memory of Diana, Princess Of Wales, who died in a car accident in Paris, alongside her friend, Dodi Fayed, in August 1997. Paul Burrell, Diana’s former butler, accepted the bears on behalf of the Brandreth Bear Collection in 2000. All the other bears were collected, cleaned and distributed among the children of war-torned former Yugoslavia.”
I habe nothing to add to that really, except perhaps that when i stood in front of them, tears came to my eyes and I had the feeling of witnessing an important and best moment of humanity’s history…
Go Teddy! 