By Ann La Mar

(Illustration by Miki de Goodaboom, partly based on a photograph by Ann la Mar)

I first saw Winnie on the Internet, she was so cute and had such a sweet face. We, the other bears and I decided we would like her to come and live with us on Planet Boomerann. She lived on the south coast of England so arrangements were made for her travel to Yorkshire.

We waited and waited, days became weeks and still Winnie didn’t arrive. I checked with the lady at her previous home but she hadn’t gone back there. By this time we were very worried. I knew Winnie had been to that place called ‘ the Royal Mail sorting office’ full of conveyer belts and big baskets of mail. I think poor Winnie had been dispatched to Wimbledon in London. This would have made her happy because she had big dreams of becoming a tennis champion.
We were so sad and downhearted that Winnie was lost that Miki and Truffle decided to look for her. Some weeks later a surprise package arrived and to our delight there was Winnie. Miki and Truffle had found her and sent her home from her adventures. We were over the moon.

Winnie has settled into Yorkshire life but she is always up to mischief with her brothers and sisters so I thought it would be a good idea that she had a hobby. I decided to take her to Thirsk to visit the yarn bombers display. These ladies as so clever knitting amazing things to decorate their town. Winnie loved sitting on the bollard with the Yorkshire rose and a background to match her dress. She was very high up, her ‘head in the clouds’ needless to say not one stitch of knitting has been done!

Little Addition by Miki de Goodaboom

While I was painting Winnie sitting on that lovely bench knitted by the Yarnbombers from Thirsk, in North Yorkshire, a little bear with a blue bow came around. He looked at Winnie, looked at the free place next to her and then asked her if he might sit there next to her.

“Of course you may!’, she said in a quite posh way. “I am Winnie Wimbledon… and who are you?”
“Hello Winnie… I am BlueBow, and I come from Richmond.”
“From Richmond? It is quite a distance! Have you come walking, all alone?”
“No, there are others like me, we came in a bus to see the Yarnbombers decorations!”

And they went on and on and on… Teddy bears have always so much to tell each other!

(Prints of all sorts are available. Click on the painting to go to Miki de Goodaboom’s shop online)