N is for No Goldilocks . . .

. . . and there's four of them! This year's bears; I tried to be careful, but in the end I found there were four more waiting to be hung, next time the tree comes out. Actually I've seen a lot of bears this year, so I have been quite restrained, they are making a comeback, although the big trend this year has been mushrooms. I have seen dozens upon dozens of mushrooms, in all styles and materials, everywhere I've been. There are no mushrooms on the family tree, and I'm not about to start adding them!

 

I got this one a couple of months ago, so long ago, in fact, he got shot twice! If you remember we had a plain'ish, gold'ish bear with tartan scarf last year (or the year before?), so I thought they' balance each other, on opposite sides of the tree! Pretty sure it was Gisela Graham?

 

But the tree gets turned twice each cycle, and is actually dressed in thirds, so this makes far more sense! Or at least that's the justification . . . TK Maxx for this chap, and he's a proper blown-glass, a bit on the larger side.

 

Then I found these smaller ones from Decoris in the Haskins garden centre near Forest Lodge, and couldn't leave them on the hook, although I guess, as a respectable couple, they will have to be hung close-together!

That's the Bears, this year! And I forgot the drummer we've already seen, so that's another five!

H is for Haskins Circus Baubles

I thought I'd posted these a week or three ago - I hadn't! A very themed collection of Circus baubles, to be found at the Haskins garden centre, between Farnham and Borden, not my thing, simply because there's too many themes and items already, but if I was just setting out on life's journey and had a tree to fill with memories, or a theme, I would be tempted!

 

They are mostly Gisela Graham so can be found elsewhere, both Redfields and Longacre had a few, but only Haskins seems to have A) ordered the whole line and B) ordered similar stuff from other sources and hung them all together.

 

A rather poor shot, or hurried-shot, I took of a hedgehog I left on the hook. I didn't like the landscaped base, it's basically a shelf-ornament converted into a tree-ornament, which is a bit naff on at least two levels, so it stayed where it was - there's definitely a 'personal' snobbery to ornament selecting!

N is for New Recruits - Seasonal Soldiery

A couple more additions to the bauble purchases, although I think tree-hangers is the correct term for these two non-glass additions!

 

I though, after I'd got him home, that I'd already bought one of these a year or two ago, but in fact, that was a different moulding altogether, and had green trousers or something, so there are now two of these glazed ceramic, slip-cast chaps!

 

Meanwhile, this chap is mostly wood, but with a resin head and accessories, glued on, it's another bear as well, so ticks two boxes, but do I place him on the tree with the bears, and end-up with another soldier nearby, or place him with the soldiers and end up with another bear nearby? What a quandary . . . doh!

 

Highlighting exactly why we will go extinct, possibly within the lifetimes of people already born - they highlight their creditable working with FSC sustainable forestry, then using a polymer-wax glue, place resin blobs all over him, give him a metallised polymer string hanger, and then use one of those annoying, and ephemeral clip-ties to hold ALL the 'paperwork' on, nothing remotely sustainable or eco' here!
 

He came from Haskin's on the Wrecclesham-Borden road, and they also had a family of non-military resins, and blown-glass baubles of bears in pajamas! I was tempted, but if you don't limit yourself to a few a year, you'll drown in them!

I is for Image Dump, L is for Longacres

I shot these in the Longacres Garden Centre up at Bagshot on the A30, back in 2023, and they sort of got half-forgotten, half unused, but it's intended to clear the bauble stuff this year, and as these aren't something I'm particularly interested in for the tree (modern poured resin), but yet, are interesting as possible conversions to stand-alone figures, here they are.

 

The entire display was Gisela Graham product, and another thing I liked about them was that while most of them are characters/stories covered by Disney over the years, they are not the recognisably Disney imagery, but rather independent/more traditional renditions.

 

I think they had the same display last year, but don't remember seeing them when I popped-up there the other day. Asda Supermarkets have a similar selection of resin solids, but they ARE Disney/Marvel/DC properties.

P est pour Poupette-à-L'Épingle

♪♫♪ Like a Puppet full of Piiiiiiinnnnnnns ♪♪♫! As mentioned yesterday, or seemingly the day before (I've had a few days off with a crock-ankle, and have lost track of time!), I have had some success with hedgehogs for the tree, again this year, with two from Gisela Graham, one from someone else and a duplicate from a few years ago, which I haven't shot, it was the bottle-brush one with little black-wooden feet sticking out.

 

These came in a few weeks ago now, and one is furry like a soft-toy, but on a wooden former so more solid than it looks, the other is another of the all natural materials, like the nut-husk ones which started this particular niche, a few years ago now, and is one of the Gisela G's.

 

This is the other Gisela Graham, and while it has the same bottle-brush face as several of the others (there's about 15 now?), the body is made of gold-chrome finished wire bag-ties! Which came as a relief, because my eyesight's so bad these days, I thought it was a delicate twiggy thing, like the nut-husk ones, sprayed with gold/silver chrome, and actually it is one of the more substantial ones.

 

It struck me, that these display an amazing property of humans, all of them look like hedgehogs. They don't look like mice, or voles, or rats, or tailess squirrels, they don't look like gophers, or moles, coypu or rabbits, hares . . . beavers or lemmings. They don't even look much like echidnas, despite being mixed collections of glued together scraps, or painted blown-glass, they all look like hedgehogs!

 

And that is down to our imagination in how we construct them, and our cognitive ability to recognise what they are then supposed to represent. When we're not butchering each other, or ripping each-other off, which we do most of the time, almost everywhere, at every level, we are capable of wonderful things.

 

And yet we stand here, on the brink of extinction, voting for the wrong people, running-down our public services, allowing our infrastructure to fade, failing to tax the super-rich or regulate the tech giants, and we wonder why our hearts feel so bad?

F is for Follow-up - Starmen and Sticklepins

So, I went back for the third spaceman bauble, and have picked up a couple more hedgepigs in the last week or so, I think when I finally get the tree up again it will promptly collapse under the weight of its decorative load!

The new one is in the middle, giving a decent idea of the size difference between them, plastic on the left (fourth colourway now) and two blown-glass traditional.

 

He's a Gisela Graham, so should be available in most of the larger garden centres, mine came from the Edwins in Woking, on the Guildford road. Gisela Graham are also responsible for the rocket, which I rejected earlier in the season, and rather regret getting now, so it's probably going to charity, for next year.

 

Wrapped in the moment, and rushing about, I didn't see or remember from the previous viewing, that the jewels are glued-on appliquéing, as are the resin fins, which aren't even straight, and have poor glitter flocking, so all a bit cheap and tacky, but it's there, if it presses your buttons! The body is blow-glass, and it's sort of half Wallace & Gromit, half Tin-Tin and all kids colouring book, circa 1975!

 

I've also given home to three more hedgehogs! And my maths was out in the previous post, I had eight, and added four, now here's another three, making fifteen, or five per turn, six or seven on view at any given moment - we turn the tree regularly so it never gets boring! With an albino (from Alderney!) on the left!

B&H is for Bauble Bears and Hairy Hangers!

Yeeeeessss, I do seem to be compensating for another treeless Christmas, with a spending spree on baubles against future traditional Christmases! We've met the bears before here, but I seem to have added five without really noticing!

This was in The Range, and is a flocked blow-mould

 

 

While I regret purchasing this one now, a garden centre standard from Gisela Graham, it's in a baby's romper-suit, and is a bit schmaltzy? But it was the first one I found this year, although second to be shot, and now it's met the others I guess it'll have to stay?

This was Homebase, but actually glass, not the plastic they've been using for the last few years, now going bust, some of the stores have been taken up by the above-mentioned 'Range, but not all of them. He ticks two boxes on the tree themes front, being both a bear and a soldier!

 

Charity shop rescue bear! I vaguely remember these being piled-high in somewhere like Clintons Cards a few years ago, and are clearly now being cast-off in favour of whatever 'this year's' fashion is. It has stitches all over and patches and stuff, and I think there were lines of cards and stationary attached to the licence? I don't know if it had a title, but has Me to You on the foot, which may be the franchise? . . . quick Google; Ah yes! Tatty Teddies!

 

Finally, another faux-distressed or 'aged' bear, but this one brand-new from Morrisions supermarkets, in that 'old' fur which first appeared about twelve years ago with grey-rabbits, one Easter, if I recall correctly?

 

A group-photo', there were about 24 last time I did the tree, and a couple more have been added in the last few years, so I think it's probably over 30 now, or ten-plus per turn. Having the mild ADHD which comes of being on the spectrum, I'm very strict, and will sort them into three piles, small-medium-large, resin-flocked-blow mould-glass, grey-brown-polar white etc, and then they go on the tree smaller ones near the top, larger ones down the bottom, equally spaced, like ursine snow!

Y is for Yule Urchins!

Possibly my favourite animal if I had to choose one, and while there won't be a tree up for a fifth year, it hasn't stopped me looking for additions for the tree, and one of the themes became, not that many years ago, hedgehogs or hedgepigs, which used to be called urchins in medieval times, giving rise to sea-urchins, because they looked like land urchins!

 

This one came in a few weeks ago, found in Mark's & Spark's, it's a felt/wool body with metallic and sequinned 'spines' which aren't the most realistic, but give a good impression of a hedgehog anyway, and though rather large, he might have been the only one I found, so I grabbed him! He can go near the bottom of the tree, where the other bigger baubles end-up!

 

I then found two traditional glass ones in the same day (ostensively looking for a pair of shears!) in different garden centres, one from Gisela Graham, the other an outfit called Ascalon, and of which, one may be a duplicate (opposite sides of the tree when that happens, and facing the other way!), and then, most recently, about a week ago a layered felt one (who's also quite large) turned-up, branded to Kingfisher (owner of Screwfix), however, I think he came from The Range, but it might have been B&Q, although before the takeover announcement last week, so maybe they were already linked/working together?

 

Which gives us a line-up of four Hedgepigs, eagerly waiting their chance to shine on the tree, don't they all look happy! Childish, I know, but wasn't it the greatest Doctor of all time, Tom Baker, who said, upon being accused of being childish,  "I know, but what's the point of being a grown-up if you can't be childish from time to time"? And with a possible duplicate glassware one, and several similar nut-shell ones - Blog passim - about nine now, or three per 'turn'! Less than four weeks to Crimbo!

Hedgehogs are going extinct in the UK, and if you're looking for a charity cause this Christmas, please consider a Hedgehog charity - there are several - or your local Hedgehog sanctuary or rescue centre.