Oatcakes!

Now you know more about the birds I met on my journey, I'm going to tell you another story about me which has birds in it. It also has oatcakes! One of the best things about Stoke-on-Trent, according to my friend Hanley, is the food. He is always talking about North Staffordshire oatcakes. I had never heard of oatcakes until I came to Stoke-on-Trent.

One morning, Hanley seemed even more excitable than usual. 'Kay's boat is at Westport Lake,' he told me. 'And I've asked Grizzly and Polar to take us there so you can have an oatcake!'

We put on our jumpers, which Polar made for us out of her old socks, got into our special bear bag and Polar carried us outside. I thought we would be travelling there on Uppie the narrowboat but Grizzly drove us in their little red car. When we arrived at the lake, Polar let us out of the bear bag.

'Be good bears and don't get lost!' she said.

Hanley wanted to go straight to the Oatcake Boat but I hadn't seen the lake before and I wanted to explore. There was a big pond nearby, which I thought was the lake at first. All around it, and on it, were ducks and geese. They looked much bigger from the ground than they had done from our boat! I found a park bench and climbed up onto it, so I could look the bigger birds straight in the eye and talk to them about their home. The geese didn't seem to like me very much and kept hissing at me, which wasn't very nice of them, so I told them not to be so naughty!

'They think you're a small dog,' said a very big swan. 'We have trouble with dogs. Sometimes they chase us and bite is, because the humans who look after them don't keep them on leads when they're walking around the lake. Some of my bird friends have been badly hurt or even killed.'

'I'm very sorry to hear that, Mr Swan,' I said, because I was.

He scowled at me. 'You're not a dog, are you?'

'No, Mr Swan. I'm a bear.'

'A bear!' He came very close and sniffed at me. I thought he was going to peck me with his big orange beak. 'You're very small, for a bear, but you seem like a kind animal to me.'

'My friend is even smaller,' I said. In all the excitement of meeting the swan, I realised I had lost Hanley Bear! 'You haven't seen him, have you?'

'I'll ask the other swans to look for him,' said my swan friend. 'He might be by the lake.'

'Isn't this the lake?'

'This is just our pond, little bear. The lake is over there!'

I jumped down from my seat and we walked up a little hill. On the other side of it was a huge expanse of clear, blue water, twinkling in the sunshine. A path went all the way around it. It was the prettiest place I had seen since arriving in Stoke-on-Trent.

'There he is!' I could just see a tiny figure on the bank of the lake, a long way from us, waving his special flag.

The swan said something - in swan - to one of his friends, and the other bird started paddling across the water. Swans go very fast when they have to and he reached Hanley in no time at all.

'I've asked my friend to bring him back to us,' explained the swan. 'He's so small, he can ride on my friend's back, even if he decides to fly!'

'Hang on, Hanley!' I shouted.

However, when Hanley saw the huge swan coming towards him, he turned around and ran away in fright. Luckily for him, Polar and Grizzly were walking around the lake and had just got to where he was. Polar picked him up and put him in the bear bag. Then they came to look for me.

'You bears ought to stay together when you're out and about,' Polar said. 'Sit here in the sunshine, while I take some photographs of the lake, then we'll all go for oatcakes!'

We sat on a sunny bench with Grizzly and waited for her to come back, then we went up to the canal together. There were lots of boat shops there, selling clothes and cards and wooden things, and Polar bought some very pretty cards with kingfishers on from a clever lady called Lesley. There was even a boat of pirate things. Hanley and I thought it might be fun to be pirate bears, but Polar said she didn't want to encourage us to be bad bears and refused to buy us pirate hats and cutlasses, so we will just have to make our own one day!

Then we saw the Oatcake Boat. Mrs Kay and Mr Steve were very busy, with a long queue of people waiting for oatcakes and something called lobby, which Hanley says is the best sort of soup in the whole world. After our adventures with the swans, Hanley and I were very hungry, so we were very relieved to find there were still oatcakes for sale when Grizzly reached the front of the queue.

'Here you are, Sonning!' said Grizzly.

My oatcake, which I shared with Grizzly, was really scrumptious and I was sad when we finished it.

Hanley shared Polar's oatcake. He said he had so much energy afterwards that he thought he could open and shut lock gates, so he tried to get a job helping Mr Rob the Locks. Mr Rob thanked him for offering but said he didn't really need a small bear's help, as his son assisted him if there were lots and lots of locks.