Britannia Bear's Blog

Surprise! I am home!

2008-02-19T15:25:00.000-08:00

Britannia Bear suprised us by showing up at home after being gone visiting the Flory Family since September. From the looks of her log book she was a very busy boxing buddy. She visited boxes in North Carolina and Colorado now that must have been some adventure! She brought a postcard home with her too. She also brought home a cootie (Saturn).

After a few days rest she will be ready to go traveling again.

Slide Show of UK Photos

2007-09-04T18:16:00.001-07:00

A Big THANKS to Yorkshire Tortoise for hosting Britannia and taking these great photos!

Off to Visit The Flory Family

2007-09-04T16:18:00.001-07:00

After a good long visit at home and letting Mom look at the cool stamps I collected while in the UK, I am off to my next host in today's mail. They live in Wendell, NC, I can't wait to see what it is like there!
Britannia Bear

Britannia Leaves UK to come home

2007-08-18T09:53:00.000-07:00

Well, Britannia's trip had come to an end. She was parcelled up comfortably in her padded envelope and sat to wait for her journey home (it was the weekend and the Post Office wouldn't be open until Monday). Imagine her surprise when she heard the tearing of parcel tape after only 24hours and she was dragged out to discover she was still in Yorkshire!! It was YT's birthday and a surprise picnic with her letterboxing friends had been arranged. It would have been a pity for Britannia to miss that.

Britannia was delighted to meet Wild Women and Lily and jumped straight in asking them if they had their traveller with them. It was called 'Lily' and was inside their lovely purple bag which had an AQ badge and NYM 101 letterboxing badge side by side on it.

When Britannia opened Lily's box she found a parasite called Busy Bee! A Parasite moves from Personal Traveller to Personal Traveller, so Britannia took it to leave in the next one she found. Lily was really a lovely black Labrador and was so well behaved she allowed a photograph to be taken of Britannia sat in front of her. Britannia was a little frightened, Lily was so huge compared to her, but Lily didn't even try to lick her so all was well.

When everyone has finished stamping into everything in sight, Britannia headed off to find two last letterboxes on the moor. One was called Box Hunting - Shoebox and when Britannia opened it she was amazed to discover about six different stamps inside it with all different types of shoes. There was even a letterboxers hiking boot!

So now, after all the excitement, Britannia really is parcelled up, sent on her way and probably mid Atlantic at this very moment. What a wonderful time we have had together.

Happy boxing

The Yorkshire Tortoise

Mudflats and Oil Tankers

2007-08-02T12:19:00.000-07:00

Today Britannia set off to look for a letterbox that is sited near an oil refinery where the oil tankers unload their cargo. It doesn't sound a very nice place for a letterbox, but it is in keeping with the rest of the series which of course is about pollution in general. In fact the area does have it's own charm. It is beside the Humbar Estuary and the mudflats are home to many specialised birds. It is a wonder any birds survive with all the oil drippings polluting the water, but they seem to love these mudflats. From here it is possible to walk on the bank edge as far east as you like to go until you reach the sea. Thank goodness we didn't have to go that far today.

Eventually we found the box we were looking for, nice and dry despite the recent rain/floods — thank you Lock n'Locks! I have warned Britannia before not to jump up and down on top of stiles. They are not all built to take her weight, but she didn't head my words and look what happened!

Happy boxing,

The Yorkshire Tortoise

Greenwich Meridian

2007-07-19T18:09:00.000-07:00

Britannia felt she must visit the Greenwich Meridian Box today for her studies in British Letterboxing. Not only is it a tourist 'Must Have' photo, but the corresponding letterbox is 'the' most Northern Letterbox on the Prime Meridian. The next landfall is the North Pole! For further information visit: http://wwp.greenwichmeridian.com/line.htm

It was very tricky putting one paw in the east, and one paw in the west for the photograph, so Britannia insisted on sitting in the Eastern Hemisphere for a more decorous photo.
Happy Boxing
The Yorkshire Tortoise and Britannia

Letterboxing after the rains

2007-07-05T14:04:00.001-07:00

At last, we have managed to fit in a couple of hours letterboxing. Britannia, trooper that she is, donned her Gumboots today and helped me check up on some local letterboxes amongst the floods. Two have vanished, which is a shame for Britannia as it meant less for her logbook. Still that is the way of letterboxing. She did get the opportunity to sit in a tree above a box that she helped to plant.

She also took another chance to immerse herself in all things British and had her photo taken near an old British Railway Station House and also had the obligatory photo on a British Letterbox!

We are hoping to get up to the moors on Saturday as the weather is supposed to be good. We shall see. Happy boxing The Yorkshire Tortoise

Flash Floods Stall Letterboxing

2007-06-28T11:37:00.000-07:00

We have not had much luck letterboxing today. There were horrendous flash floods due to the unprecedented rain on Monday. Many people's homes are under 5 - 4 ft of water. Thankfully the worst I had on Monday was 3inches across the garden and in the garage. It just stayed below my tumble dryer which is on blocks in the garage. Trains and all public transport was stopped into the city. The next morning my garden was back to normal.

I was just going to stay local for one or two boxes with Britannia but sat in my nice dry home I hadn't realized that the flooding was still causing problems in the surrounding countryside. The roads I needed to get to the letterboxes had police diverting everyone back, and although I tried a few back roads they were just flooded and so I gave up trying to find a way through.

Nevertheless Britannia has managed to do some of the usual things you do when stuck indoors. She found a couple of garden letterboxes, one of which was near the Gnome-ery, studied the map ready for letterboxing adventures to come, and made me get out my Personal Traveller so that she could look through the logbook and also get the stamp for her own book. In the middle of all this she had a slight moment of homesickness, but turned the computer on in order to catch a quick glimpse of her own dear Bear family.

England at last!

2007-06-27T12:19:00.000-07:00

The Yorkshire Tortoise reports that Britannia has arrived safely.

Swinging One Last Time

2007-06-18T12:20:00.000-07:00

The 3 bears swing together one last time before they all set off to travel and letterbox all over the world.

Getting Ready to Visit Great Britain

2007-06-18T10:33:00.000-07:00

This is Britannia Bear and she is a boxing buddy. She will be visiting Yorkshire Tortoise very soon.