I was born in 1951, and since 1980
I have lived close to the shores of beautiful Morecambe Bay in
the North West of England. To me, on a clear day there is no
finer view across a bay anywhere in Great Britain, as that of the
mountains of the Lake District, particularly in the winter when
they are shining white under a blanket of snow.
For most of my life I have been
passionate about the countryside and have spent many days
exploring the valleys and climbing to the summits of the
mountains and hills of the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and
Howgill Fells. Long may my legs enable me to continue doing this
too!
I am fortunate too, that I have two
good friends Eric Bartlett and Bob Woolley who separately
accompany me on some of my outings.
Eric, who lives nearby in Kendal in
Cumbria, I met through work and we started walking together in
1993. Over the years we have shared many walks exploring the
Lakeland Fells, Howgills and the countryside of Cumbria and North
Lancashire.
Bob I met by chance on Fellbarrow
in the North Lakes in 2005. We have since become good friends and
shared many an adventure together first in the Lakes as we each
completed the Wainwright Fells. From the end of 2006 we started a
project to climb to all the summits in the Yorkshire Dales. To
date out of the about 114 tops we have done 112.
One of my other passions has been
the collecting of soft toys, primarily teddy bears. It all
started very innocently with just one bear named Gladly. At the
last count my Hug (the collective name for teddy bears) had
reached 500.
Bear lovers will tell you that
teddies develop their own characters. So unsurprisingly five of
my Hug have become regular companions on my walks, with their
heads poking out of my rucksack of course, as I walk along.
Whilst their walking club is called "STAG", after the
initials of the names of the four original members, they are
generally referred to by their human walking companions as
"The Lads".
They asked me to transcribe the
stories of some of their adventures, which I hope you enjoy.
I would welcome any feedback or
comments on the content of this site. Please write to -
gerry.bear@btinternet.com
Gerry
