The other week I was visiting up north in UK, and on one afternoon we had half an hour to kill before meeting up with family for dinner. We decided to check out one of the local attractions, a supposedly Japanese/Oriental themed park. To be honest, I wasn't impressed with the park at all when I saw the entrance. The Japanese/oriental design was very unauthentic as they are two quite different cultures, a bit like if you mish mashing say German and Bulgaria into a design you end up with a mess. The result was so bad that I didn't even bother to take a photo of the pagoda entrance to the park.
Anyway, as I walked through, suddenly I saw a glimpse of red and white sticking out from the bush. It wasn't flowers. I took a closer look, and saw a teddy bear!!! A teddy bear hiding in the bushes!
Originally I thought a child had lost it, someone found it and put it on the bush to keep it off the ground. Then I walked around the bushes and saw three more. How odd.... I picked one up, and the even odder thing was that these were brand new clean soft teddy bears. Upon closer inspection, each of the teddy bear had sewn on it's little back butt, a label with a TG logo which said townwomen's guild and a website. There was also a paper tag around it's neck that said "Please take me home" on on side, and "TG for fun, friendship and making a difference to other women" on the other side. How cute! It seems like this organisation was doing some outreach work.
Since there was an invitation to take a teddy bear home, it would be rude not to do so. There were four to choose from, but I decided to take home the first one I saw instead of choosing out of the four. I believe it is fate that I came across this particular one with a red and white zig zag top waving at me. He looked like a cheerful chap that needed a name, and the first name that popped up in my mind was Norman. Not sure why. So everyone please meet Norman Scarborough.
When I got home, I decided to find out more about this "leaving cute teddy bears out in the wild" program. I hadn't heard of townwomen's guild before but they sounded like Women's Institute. If you've watched the film Calender Girls you would have heard of the WI. Unfortunately, their website https://the-tg.com/ didn't have any information on why they were leaving teddy bears out in the wild. I mean I know it's to promote their organisation, but surely there must be some sort of initiative, and not a few random members who got nothing better to do. The fact they sew these labels on the teddy bears and printed these take me home tags means it's organised in some way. But nope, there was no mention on the website at all.
Then I googled the townwomen's guild to see if they were on any other social media. And I came across a very funny comment on a chat forum from 2014 where one person said " The eldest is 92, I am one of the youngest at 70. The rest are mid 80's and not very fit, mentally and physically." Maybe that explains why their website has limited information about their activities!!
So I never got to the bottom of this initiative but am pleased to say that Norman is now living happily at home with me. And writing this post, actually gave me an wild idea for the Needlework Community. Since HiveFest is coming up, why don't you ladies orgainise some lovely hand knitted items to be placed around the HiveFest venue for members to find and take home, a bit like how I found and took Norman home with me. I know @shanibeer said she might be going to Hivefest, and since I can't knit or crochet, I would be happy to help with organizing at HiveFest if you want 😃
You’re certainly right. It would have been rude not to at least take one home. 😄
He’s a cutie too. I love the bright red and green he’s wearing. This initiative is so sweet. It does make sense why the website probably hasn’t been updated. Too bad they can’t find someone tech savvy to help them. Either way at least they are still able to give in such a fun way. Thanks for sharing all of the photos. So cool you got to take Norman home.
I really really love your idea! @Akipponn was just asking me how she can help represent our community while she’s at HiveFest! This could be a way! What do you think @shanibeer and @akipponn? Could we set up a way and a place to mail our finished items to? Could we make this work? What better way to represent what we do here! Brilliant idea @livinguktaiwan, thank you! Hey and you can make some more whales for the event. 😉
We’ll see if I can win some HiveFest tickets so I can be there to help too! 😅
I'm glad you like the idea @crosheille. There must be an army of good knitters in your community who can churn out enough stock in a month ready to be mailed. It would also give them a good opportunity to be part of Hivefest and to raise their own profile if they add their name to the tag. I might even be able to manage a whale or two myself within a month if I get my act together 😂 (thanks for remembering, you have such a good memory)
Hopefully you can organise something, it will be so fun and even better if you can make it as well.
Yes, I was thinking that putting our names in the items would be a good idea and would make us a part of the fest. It would be even more amazing for people to include what they found and who made it in a post later on! 😍
Of course! I won’t forget those cutie pie whales you made!! 🤩
Yes I hope we can get something together. I would so LOVE to be there!!
Aw, he is so cute, what a lovely idea to hide them in the foliage.
Okay, for HiveFest, most people will be travelling by air with minimal baggage, so any tokens would need to be very small ... @akipponn made some fun tails last time, even though I never found her 😂 (we must have been in the same room a hundred times), maybe that is something we could think about?
lucikily little soft toys don't mind being squashed!!!
Good point. If we do this we can suggest the max size they should be. I know @irenenavarroart may want to do a cute small amigurumi for the event! 😃😍
Do we want to further discuss this on discord ladies?
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I just love this idea, I wonder how many teddies they had originally left there? It certainly must have warmed the hearts of many little kiddies, even many kids disguised as adults, so enjoy Norman, he looks very pleased with himself in his new home 😉
It is an awesome idea for Hive Fest and any other event for that matter, one could actually leave little handmade surprises all around or even hidden.
A friend's son desperately needs a heart transplant, so she's been to a couple of organ donor awareness drives where they do a painted pebbles hunt. Some of them have been painted by the the donors' families with the name of their loved one. She said it's really a special event.
I'm sorry to hear about your friend's son Lizzie. I hope he finds a suitable donor very soon.
@alchemystones does some beautiful pebbles that he/she sells and also encourage people to leave around, have you seen them before?
Thank you @livinguktaiwan! He's 52 and has been waiting for 2 years, goes into hospital every so often to have fluids drained, but he doesn't let this stop him from getting on with life. He's now at the top of the donor list as it's becoming critical.
I must pop over & look at @alchemystones, have not seen him/her.
These are one of the pebbles they used for the hunt, some are also set into concrete as a memorial for donors at the Botanic Gardens.
It's actually sad to think one has to wait for someone to die in order to have a chance of living.
My friend lost her younger son in a car crash about 8 years ago, but he wasn't a registered donor & they obviously were traumatized and not as aware of the impact 1 organ donor can have on many lives. It's his daughter holding the pebble.
I just hope they find a suitable heart soon.
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That is pretty cool that they are doing that. I bet it brings a lot of smiles and joy to people's faces when they see the bears and bring them home. Norman is an awesome name. Great choice. Both of my Grandpas were named Norman, so my middle name is Norman. I wholeheartedly approve!
I knew it!!! Norman is such a good name, and now I shall declare that Norman Scarborough shall also be known as Norman Bozzy Scarborough!!
Haha, thanks! I appreciate it. It's not really a name you hear to much anymore except when my wife is mad at me :)
Like this? 😄
How nice it must be to be walking and find these nice gifts. Good way to promote the work, I hope you can gather more information about this group. Now I am happy for Norman and his new family.
And about the Hive Fest, it would be great to see the projects of our fellow knitters at a real life gathering. I hope they can make it, it would be a good crossover ❣️
That would be really cool if you ladies can pull something off, not everyone can make it there personally, but to have something representing them would be lovely. look forward to see what the community come up with
This is an interesting way of promotion,,Teddy is also very funny and cute @livinguktaiwan. I'm sure, if my niece saw this thing on the street, she would be very happy and take it.
Have A nice day Pauline🌸
That's tru, I'm sure any child would be very happy if they see this