Gadding about in Lower Godney
Added on 26 July 2025
Dear Reader,
You know one of the things about bears, and me 'specially, is that we have fur; lots of it. Just to remind you, in my case it is splendid, golden fur that glistens provocatively in the sunlight. [This is rather purple prose. Have you been reading the Thesaurus again, Big Ted?] And one of the main things about having fur is that it keeps a bear warm on a snowy winter's day. This is usually a rather good thing - we like to be cosy when taking our naps. But it's not a good thing at the moment! It is only July, there've been three "heatwaves" so far and I've been getting overheated. And when I get overheated, I get very grumpy 'cos I can't snooze (which is my main hobby).
So to cheer me up, Uncle Les and Auntie Fiona planned a trip away to a place called Lower Godney in Somerset to visit lots of new St Mary's churches (I've only visited one in Somerset up to now). What they didn't warn me about was that it would take hours to get there and it would be hot, stuffy and slow in the car, grrr! [We apologised for the long journey, Big Ted, but the motorways were very busy which couldn't be avoided. At least the car has air conditioning.]
When we got to Lower Godney, it was still very hot; but we were staying in a cool cottage and the weather got better after a couple of days. I visited a lot of St Mary's churches (12 in total) in some very funnily-named villages and had a lovely time once the temperature was more to my liking.
I've put all the churches I visited on my new Somerset page - it used to be a "Somerset & Dorset" page but it only had one Somerset church on, all the rest were Dorset (I don't know why it wasn't called "Dorset & Somerset" either). So, I've created & renamed things (or, more accurately, Auntie Fiona has rejigged them) and now there is a separate Dorset page too. And you can read about what's going on in this picture too (look out for Westonzoyland).
And then, for a change, I went on a train! I haven't been on one for ages. This was at the East Somerset Railway which has got a lot of really nice people and a steam train. There is a museum, an engine shed (with some broken down trains in) and a really int'restin' signal box. You can go on the train to the end of the line pulled by a steam engine (going backwards) - and then back again pulled by the steam engine (going forwards!). It was good fun and Auntie Fiona took lots of photos of me with her phone. Uncle Les did some magic to one of them to make the background look blurry like we were going really fast 'tho we weren't. And then she took a photo of me stuck in the carriage window.
It's been a good holiday, but I'm ready to go home for a decent snooze. I only hope the trip back isn't as awful as it was on the way down!
Love, Big Ted 
PS The trip coming back was fine, and the weather's not been as hot since, so I'm a much happier (less grumpy) bear!