Wet Weather Gear

Hanley Bear and I were looking forward to playing in the snow again this week but, unfortunately, the snow that fell was wet and splodgy and didn't settle, so we have stayed indoors.  

If I want to go out in the rain I can, because I have a good set of waterproofs which Polar made for me soon after we came onto the Grand Union Canal at Brentford.  Hanley Bear will need some too, if he is going to be a proper Boat Bear, as it often rains on the canals.

One of the first things I noticed about being on the canal instead of the Thames was that it rained a lot more.  This was not too much of a problem for me as I didn't have any important boat jobs to do.  I could stay inside Uppie's cratch cover and watch through the window, sitting on some little tins Polar had painted. 

 Grizzly and Polar had to go out in the rain to steer the boat and work the locks.  There were lots more locks on the canal.  They were smaller than the Thames locks - wide enough for two boats and only long enough for one each side - but all the pushing and pulling and winding has to be done by the boat crews, as there usually aren't any lock-keepers.  I wanted to help but knew I would soon be a very soggy bear if I went out in the rain.

Polar and Grizzly have waterproof coats and trousers to keep them dry, so I decided I would make myself a coat like Grizzly's and a hat to stop my head getting too wet.  I rummaged about in the saloon and found just the thing - an orange plastic bag!  Small bears, human cubs and other creatures have to be careful not to get tangled up in plastic bags because they can be dangerous for us, as you can't breathe through them, so I waited until I had Polar's help before I started making holes in it and wearing it.  Because it would tear if we stitched it, Polar fixed the sleeves to the body with thick, sticky tape, making sure all the stickiness was stuck to the coat so I didn't get my fur stuck to it.  She used the tape to trim around the edges of the coat too. 

We used lots of sticky tape to make the brim of the hat stiff, so it kept the rain off of my nose and stopped it running down the back of my neck.  It was like a proper deep-sea fisherman's sou'wester!  I was very pleased with my new Boat Bear outfit and, when it was finished, I went to show Grizzly, who was steering our boat through the rain.

'Very smart, Sonning,' he said.  'As well as keeping you dry on days like today, you'll find that will come in very handy when we're in tunnels.'

I couldn't imagine why I would need a raincoat in a tunnel, unless it was so big that it had clouds and weather.  However, it was nice to have my raincoat when we stopped for the day on a very wide section of the canal near Uxbridge, because I could look out of the side hatch and talk to the London water birds without getting too wet.   

Although my ears got slightly soggy, if they had been under my hat I might not have been able to hear what my fellow creatures were saying.  They told me about the different fish in the canal and that there were eels too and I asked them if there was weather in tunnels, but they didn't know.  I would obviously have to wait to find out for myself.