Get Baking Bearwood!

The Great British Bake-off’s back on our TV screens over the summer but before we see Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry discussing how best to make a Victorian sponge Bearwood has its very own Bake-off competition. 

Photo Credit: Express and Star

Bearwood’s Bake-off is on Saturday 28^th June and if you’re a sponge or cupcake making expert there’s still time to enter.  

You can pick up your application from Upcycle Chic, 420 Bearwood Road (opposite the snooker hall) or by emailing upcyclechicbearwood@yahoo.co.uk.  

The judges are Team Bearwood’s Richard Marshall, top Birmingham chef Gary Griffiths and cake maker extraordinaire Khakan Qureshi so get baking!

The prizes include hampers and there’s also going to be a raffle with top prizes supplied by local businesses with proceeds going to the very worthy Women’s Aid.  Raffle tickets cost £1 a strip. 

We suggest you visit Upcycle Chic quick and get your raffle ticket before they’ve all gone. 

Upcycle Chic sell all kinds of upcycled loveliness for your home so we won’t be surprised if you’ll leave the shop with a new piece of furniture too.

Bearwood Shuffle#6 at Lightwoods Park Bandstand on Sunday 15th June 2014

Despite a little drizzle (call that rain, pah...we’re tougher than that in the ‘wood) there was a decent crowd building up in time for the relentlessly enthusiastic compere Tom Naylor to introduce the sixth Bearwood Shuffle’s first act Simon Boswell who kicked off (you’ve guessed it we’ve got World Cup fever!) with his chilled out acoustic covers of Hey Ya!, 3 Little Birds and, as he described it, ‘the acoustic cliché’ Wonderwall. 

His classic closing mash up of Mr Pitiful, Johnny Be Goode, Ride Sally Ride and I Want You Back got us nicely in the mood for The Blue Notes Junior and Senior.

Juniors first and the ‘new notes’ ranged in age from 8 – 16ish, the late great Andy Hamilton would have very proud that his legacy lives on in Bearwood’s youth. 

The band includes several of Andy’s grandchildren and they finished their set with a gloriously upbeat Happy! dedicated to all the Dads in the park for Father’s Day. Bless ‘em!

It was then time for the seniors to get Lightwoods Park in the jazz mood….niiiiiiiiice! With the velvety mellow tones of Vic Evans (man, does he know how to play the bongos!) and Dutch Lewis on flute Lightwoods Park came over all Caribbean and one of the highlights of the afternoon for me had to be their version of It’s A Wonderful World. Replace the word World with Wood and it sums up their set in Lightwoods Park perfectly.

Bearwood based producer and DJ Kouben was next in da ‘wood (oh yes we’re down with the kids!) and with his Detroit style beats prepared us for party people Dantanna.

Ragga, hip hop, the mad hatter tambourine player, saxophonist, they’re a damn funky bunch. Their song ‘One Life To Live’ was definitely their testament to life and it showed by how much fun they were having on stage (and how much fun the audience were having off it too).

Unfortunately I didn’t get to see all of the Beatfreeks performance as I was busy serving on the cake stall but the Birmingham street poets got a big round of applause and we heard lots of people saying how much they enjoyed their set.

The headliners of the Bearwood Shuffle, the Atlantic Players, had Stax-appeal by the bucket load. Think Memphis in the mid-1960s and the band exuded old school soul classics from every pore.   As big fans of Tainted Love we couldn’t fault their version and Mercy left the crowd begging for more.

MC Tom Naylor kept everybody going with his boundless energy and although the park didn’t seem quite as full as previous Shuffles (we blame World Cup hangovers, the summer drizzle and Father’s Day) the Bearwood Shufflers who were there stayed for the whole afternoon and looked as if they were having a great time.

There were so many different stalls including Peel and Stone with their Lightwood Park first of a mobile pizza oven, Bearwood Pantry who couldn’t sell their local produce quick enough and Webb’s of Bearwood who raised money for future Bearwood Shuffles by raffling off one of the welovebearwood Bearwood Bears.

All in all a wonderful afternoon , can’t wait for Bearwood Shuffle#7!

P.S  All photos courtesy of Bearwood's finest Mr Ken Harrison.  You can see more of his photos here!

Warley Woof!

Calling all Bearwood dog lovers and fans of Warley Woods!

A new initiative called ‘Warley Woof’ is being launched on Saturday 28th June to bring together everyone who visits Warley Woods.

Viv Cole, Warley Woods Trust manager explained to welovebearwood that the project will run until March 2015 and involves a partnership with Warley & District Dog Training Club, whose qualified instructors will be running advice sessions and leading social walks for dogs and their owners.

Dog owners will be encouraged to join the Warley Woof initiative by paying a small fee for their pets to be included on the park’s Dog Log. In return, they will receive regular updates, invitations to special events and seminars, and regular contact with their fellow members as well as expert trainers. All members will get a special poo-bag holder for their dog’s lead to help them recognise each other on the park, so they can share news and views about all things doggie!

The launch event will be a special seminar day on Saturday 28th June at the Pavilion, Warley Woods, with an expert seminar led by Hannah Molloy of Pawfect Dogsense. Hannah and Deborah (of Warley & District Dog Training Club) will be there to offer free help and advice. So if people want to learn more about ethical, effective training, find out why their dog behaves in a particular way, or need advice on training and behaviour, they can come to sessions in the morning (10am–12pm) or afternoon (2pm4pm) free of charge. They just need to book a place on 0121 429 2440.

Viv said “We have been talking about this project for a while now and are really pleased that we are in a position to launch it with this special event with Hannah. We are really hoping that the Warley Woof Project will help bring the Trust into contact with many more owners who use Warley Woods to walk their dogs, in a very positive way. Together we will be able to make the Woods an even better place for everyone who visits.”

Deborah Yuill, instructor with Warley & District Dog Training Club, said: “ As a local club, we were thrilled when Viv invited us to be involved in this great project. As a user of the park myself, I know that dog owners often need a little bit of help with their best friend, and getting a community of people together to support each other is such a brilliant way to go about it.”

Warley Woof has been funded by the Big Lottery Fund through the Awards for All programme.

To reserve your FREE  (yeah our favourite word!) space on the Warley Woof day please call Warley Woods Community 0121 429 2440 and to find out more details visit the Warley Woods website right here!

You know it makes pawfect sense!