Bruno's Postcards

Hello! I am Jean's teddy-bear She is my Human Mother (HM). As you know she collects postcards so I thought I would like to collect them too. I have quite a lot and will show them to you. What do I collect? What a silly question! BEAR postcards of course!

This is the first card in my album. It is of a church with the same name as me. The church is in a place called Voiron in France. I don't think it is named after me as I was only born two years ago and Saint Bruno was born ages ago. We looked up about him on the internet. He was an ecclesiastical writer and founder of the Carthusian Order. He was born at Cologne about the year 1030 and died 6 October 1101. Isn't it funny not to know when you were born? If he had been a bear he would have had his birthday on 1st January 1030. The words on the card read L'Eglise Saint-Bruno but the rest of the words round the steeple are difficult to read.

Don't be silly! Of course that's not me! He's a Russian teddy-bear. He belongs to a little Russian girl named Natasha. She was the great-grandmother of that wonderful skater, Yvgeny Plushenko, who wins lots of medals. The picture was painted by a man called Salomko who is very famous too.

These postcards were made in Spain. They are called "silk cards". Spanish ladies embroider parts of the bear clothes before sticking on the backs where people can write messages and the address. They make lots of cards like these with flamenco dancers on. I love Spain. It is the next best place to England. We go there for a holiday every year.

I am hoping to go in for the Olympics, not the next ones in 2008 but in 2012 when they will be held in England. I am hoping to do the duathlon which is rock-climbing and diving. Here is a picture of some earlier bear Olympics. Most of these bears are cousins of mine and they all won a gold or silver medal.

Did you know I come from a musical family? The conductor is my Grandpa Haydn and the choir and orchestra are all cousins.

The next picture shows a dentist. I haven't had to go to a dentist yet because I clean my teeth every morning and night. And the last card is for a Happy Easter. The two cards above and the two cards below were all published by a lady named Brenda Goodwin. She used to live in England and now lives in Ireland. HM and HF (Human Father) used to see her every month at a Postcard Fair called Bloomsbury in London. The series is called Teddies to Treasure and they are all from original paintings by Pamela Bassett.

As you probably know HM and HF used to go every month to the Bloomsbury Fair in London. Every month every dealer and every customer was given a postcard and in November 2003 this was the card. My friend, Mr Bear, was the model for the artist. You will hear more about Mr Bear elsewhere on this website.

Us bears (or is it we bears?) enjoy doing the same things as you humans. The postcard to the far left is me helping the Post Office deliver the Christmas mail, and the next one shows me blowing a trumpet in a band. We were playing "Happy Birthday to You" for the little girl in blue named Tabitha. All her presents are in the box behind the car and we were going for a picnic in the woods like my favourite song says. The card was painted by Audrey Tarrant who I think is a relative of Margaret Tarrant who was a very well-known artist.


These three cards come from a country called Holland. The first one is a Mummy watching her two little ones having a swing. The second one is hiking in the Lake District. And the third one is a doctor. I think I will be a doctor when I grow up. I have a Human Cousin who is diabetic and I would like to help diabetic children learn how to do their own injections. Martin is almost grown-up now, he does his own injections and plays rugger for his school. I have been looking after a diabetic bear who is named Rufus. He has been living with us until HM and HF give him to Martin at Easter. He has patches on his legs and arms which show where I have had to teach him to put his injections in.


We went to Greenland and Iceland and several other places last year. We went in a ship called Saga Rose and I had a special hat to wear with the letters H.M.S. on the ribbon. It was very cold but I had my best fur on so it didn't worry me. I saw lots of geysers where the water shoots sky-high, lots of icebergs and glaciers, and we also went to a place in Ireland called Cobh where the Titanic sailed from a long, long time ago.

We went to a Teddy Bear Museum in Dorchester nearly two years ago. There were lots of Teddies there in their own house. We saw Grandma and Grandpa and all their friends and relations. Every room had teddy-bears and it was great fun to see so many.

I have a little bit of news for you. I have heard that about 100 years ago bear-dancing was very popular in some countries. The bears were on a chain and made to dance on two legs. At present on eBay there is a postcard of bears being trained and it is selling for £276.00 and maybe more in two days time when the auction closes. Here is a copy of the postcard which makes me very sad as it was so cruel. No, it is not me bidding, it is not in my collection and I would burn them all if I had the chance.

At the end of January 2006 we went to Paris for a few days to go to a Postcard Fair there and HF bought this card for me. In the picture they are called Ours Blancs which I know means White Bears and I know they are really called Polar Bears. Did you see I have some cards of Polar Bears as we went to Iceland last year?

	In February this year (2006) we went to a big Postcard Fair at a place called Shepton Mallet. It was very, very cold, but we managed to buy some postcards. On the Friday HF bought the zoo card for me and on the Saturday HM bought the ice cream card for me. It was too cold to eat ice cream that day so I am looking forward to when the summer comes and I can have some. I like pink best.
That's all the postcards in my album at the moment. I will ask HM to show you when I get any more, so do look again sometime.
Please click on the postman to write to me. I would love to hear from you.