Bobsleigh Bears!

Although our human friends think it is a nuisance, Hanley Bear and I have been hoping for more snow. 

When we were watching the Winter Olympics, we thought the bobsleigh looked particularly exciting and so we started looking for things we could use to build one for ourselves.  We rummaged about in Polar's cupboards, where we found an ice-cream tub and a big yogurt pot.

We cut the yogurt pot to make a streamlined nose for our bobsleigh then stuck it onto the tub, cutting the back out of that so whoever was pushing could jump in easily.  Then we covered it in foil, so it looked sleek.  When Polar came into the kitchen, she found us sitting in our bobsleigh making whooshing noises and pretending we were racing downhill.

'Can we go outdoors to try it out?' I asked her.

'I don't know, bears,' Polar replied.  'It is very, very cold outside today.'

'Please let us!' pleaded Hanley Bear.  'We were very good bears yesterday and made lots of marmalade.'

This was true.  Polar had bought lots of left-over Pancake Day lemons from her local supermarket and we had helped her turn them into delicious marmalade for her workmates.

'Alright then, bears,' she agreed.  'But don't stay outdoors too long and try not to get wet or too cold!'

'Hurray!' we cheered.  We dragged our bobsleigh up the drive, which was covered in a thick carpet of soft, powdery snow, and we were soon zooming down again.

'Let's do that again, and this time we'll go even faster!' said Hanley.

'Don't lean so far forward, Hanley Bear!' I shouted, but I don't think he heard me in time.  Luckily, the snow was very fluffy and we were having so much fun that it didn't seem to matter when we crashed!

We kept playing in the snow even when fresh snow started to fall and the wind got stronger and stronger.  In fact, I think we would have carried on trying to race our bobsleigh until we were frozen bears if Polar hadn't come out to fetch us.

When she picked us up and carried us back into the warm kitchen, we noticed that our teeth were chattering, we had snow frozen onto our fur and our clothes were wet through from the snow too.

'Goodness me, little bears!  We'll have to thaw you out very carefully!' Polar said.  'You're both freezing cold!'

She wrapped us up in towels while she made us some warm drinks, then we were taken back to our bear basket in the living room.  Polar helped us to take off our wet clothes and put our jumpers to dry on the radiator, then we put fresh, warm things on and settled down in our basket to carry on warming up, with a nice little bowl of rice pudding each.

It took a long time until we had thawed out completely, especially our back paws which had got very cold indeed.

'Perhaps humans are right about snow,' said Hanley Bear, snuggling up in his favourite Stoke City jumper.  'It can be fun, but it can be dangerous too.  Perhaps we had better stay indoors tomorrow if it's going to be very, very cold.'

According to the weather forecast, it is going to be very, very cold, so we're going to be sensible bears tomorrow and stay indoors where it's warm! 

Making Jam

One summer day, Polar, Grizzly and I worked up a long flight of locks and reached a summit pound of the Grand Union Canal at a place called Bulbourne.  Of course, when I say 'we' worked up the locks, I really mean Grizzly and Polar did, as I am a very small bear and can't do very much to help with locks, especially big locks like the ones on the Grand Union Main Line.  I can watch out for hazards and make sure Uppie isn't too close to the cill or likely to catch on the sides of the lock, and I can check that the ropes aren't getting tangled up, but I am far too little to hold the ropes, push the gates or wind the paddles up and down. 

Where we moored, there were some small trees covered in purple fruit growing beside the towpath.  They looked like giant grapes so I decided to bite one I spotted on the ground, to see what it tasted like.  Unfortunately, it had a nasty, sharp taste which made my mouth feel funny for a long time.

'Poor Sonning!' said Polar.  'You are a hasty little bear sometimes.  These fruit are damsons.  They don't taste very nice fresh but, if we cook them, we can make them into lovely jam.'

As you might remember, one of my favourite foods is rice pudding with jam.  Polar and Grizzly were very kind and often let me have this for tea, so by this stage of the journey our jam supplies were getting low.  When Grizzly and Polar decided to take a walk along the Wendover Arm of the canal, I decided to be a busy bear and pick lots of damsons, so we could make jam.  I waited until there was nobody about, climbed into one of the small trees and threw the fruit down onto the ground, before gathering it into a bear-sized bag and dragging it back to Uppie. 

When Polar got back from her walk, she helped me to wash the fruit then we put it all in a pan with some water to 'simmer'.  This means cooking something without boiling it, although this is very tricky using boat gas, which Polar explained has more energy than house gas, so gets food hotter faster.  I had to watch the pot closely to make sure the sticky fruit mixture didn't froth out and go all over the hob.  When the fruit was very soft, Polar put some sugar in, stirred it until it melted, then boiled the mixture very fiercely, making me sit a long way from the pot so I wasn't in danger of being hit by little spits of boiling jam.  As it boiled, the stones came to the top and Polar fished them out with her wooden spoon.

When Polar thought the jam had boiled long enough to set when it cooled, we lined up some clean, empty jam jars and she carefully poured some of the damson mixture into each of them, then screwed on the lids.  When the jam cooled down, it was a dark pink colour.  It was still a little too runny to put on bread or scones but it tasted delicious and was absolutely perfect for stirring into rice pudding, so I was a very happy small bear indeed.

Later on our journey, we picked crab apples, blackberries and other hedgerow fruits and made even more jam.  In fact, we had more than we needed for our journey, even with a hungry small bear to feed.  We gave some to our friends, who thought they were very lucky indeed to have special bear-made jam to enjoy for their tea.  I hope to make lots more this year, with help from Hanley Bear so, if you see us scrambling about in the hedgerows later in the year, you'll know why we're harvesting!

Bears' Winter Olympics

Hanley Bear and I are enjoying our stay at Polar and Grizzly's house.  We have a very cosy bear basket to sleep in, and lots to do indoors, including writing my Boat Bear Blog. 

On dry days, we are allowed to run about in the garden, build dens and even climb some small trees.  However, we have had most fun when it snows, as we can play snowballs and make snowbears. 

After seeing the Winter Olympics on the news, Hanley and I had all sorts of ideas about other things we could do if it snowed again.  There was lots of snow at the weekend but, at first, it didn't settle.  Hanley and I watched the huge dark clouds rolling across the sky and the big white flakes swirling outside the window, but everything that fell on the garden seemed to melt.  We were sad, because we had found some plastic trays which were just perfect for making sledges for small bears and we wanted to try them out on the drive.

We were very excited on Monday morning when we saw that, although it was sunny, a little bit of snow had settled.  We asked Polar and Grizzly if we could go outside and test our sledges.

'You'll have to be quick, little bears,' said Grizzly.  He told us that Polar was going out soon and wanted to clear the drive of snow and ice before she drove the car over it.

Hanley and I ran up the drive carrying our sledges, put them down and jumped in.  Nothing happened at first, so we jumped up and down, leaning forward to try and make them slide.  Suddenly, we were off!

'Wheeeeee!' went Hanley Bear, leaning forward in his sledge and shooting past me. 

Unfortunately, he lost his balance and crashed his sledge but the snow was quite soft and powdery, so he just laughed and jumped up and got into his sledge again, without even brushing the snow off his nose.  When we got to the bottom of the drive we picked up our sledges and ran all the way back up to the top to go again.  This time, we went even faster and Hanley Bear didn't fall out.

'This is just like being in the Winter Olympics!' cheered Hanley.  'I wonder what other sports we could do?'

We thought it would be fun to look for a bigger tray so we could make a two-bear bobsleigh and speed down the drive together, even faster, but just then Polar came out of the door and picked us and our sledges up.

'Sorry bears, I have to go out now,' she said.  'The car wheels will squash the snow into ice if I don't sweep it up first, which will be dangerous for the postie or other visitors, so I'm afraid your sledging is over for today.'

She carried a pair of quite sulky little bears back into the kitchen but we cheered up when we found that Grizzly had made hot chocolate for us, to warm us up after our adventures. 

'There might be more snow later in the week,' I said to Hanley.  'If there is, we will definitely find something to make a bobsleigh!' 

A Bed for a Bear



As Polar, Grizzly and I were making our way north along the Grand Union Canal, it was often showery and cooler than it had been on the Thames.  I liked to see where we were going but, even in my waterproofs, my ears and paws would get wet if I stayed outside too long.  The cratch windows steamed up in wet weather, making it hard for me to see out forwards.  Polar and Grizzly encouraged me to stay warm and dry but, sitting on my cushion in the saloon, I couldn't see out very well.

I tried balancing on the washing-up sponge to look out of the galley window.  That was not one of my good ideas. 

'Poor Sonning,' said Polar, picking me up from the dish-drainer, where I had got stuck after falling down.  'We'll have to find some way of giving you a better view.  You'll need somewhere warmer to sleep than your cushion as the seasons change and we go further north too.  I wonder if we could make you a hammock?'



At Apsley, there were lots of shops.  Polar and Grizzly were going to their land home for a few days but I said I wanted to stay behind and look after Uppie.  Before they left, they bought me a wonderful present - my own little bed, which they hung up by the window, so I could see all the boats and birds and people going by.

It was very comfortable and gave me a wonderful view.  I could climb into it quite safely from the back of the settee and adjust the bungee cords to pull myself up so I could see out, or lower them when I wanted to get down.  When I wanted to go to sleep or if the sun was too bright, I could reach to pull the curtains. 

'We don't want you to get cold while we're away, so there are some nice, snuggly flannels for you to use as bedclothes,' explained Grizzly.  'We've also left you plenty of bear food but make sure you use the fresh things like grapes and tomatoes first, and eat the seeds and raisins later on.' 

I was a very cosy bear that night, with a fluffy flannel for my blanket and pillow and lots of Polar's fabric scraps underneath for a mattress.  

I found that my bear bed was the perfect place for sitting and reading small, bear-sized books on wet days when there were few boats on the move and no well-behaved human cubs to wave too.  It was also a comfortable spot for a snack but I was very careful not to eat crackers or biscuits in bed, as I'm a tidy bear and I didn't want to get crumbs in my bedclothes.  I tried to clean the boat during the day, herding the spiders out of their hiding places around the curtains and carpets and sweeping their webs away with my paws, although I couldn't make them go further away than the cratch as it was raining outside and I felt sorry for them.

It seemed to rain all the time when Polar and Grizzly were away and, after a few days, I began to feel rather sad and lonely.  When I heard a train stopping at the station, I always wondered if they were on it.   Then, late one night, I heard the hatch scraping open and knew my human guardians were home.  They cuddled me and thanked me for being a good bear and looking after Uppie, and Polar showed me some more material her friends had given her for making me new bear clothes.

'Now you have a proper bed, you ought to have some proper pyjamas too!' she said.

In the morning, the sun came out, Grizzly started Uppie's engine and we were on our way again.  Polar and Grizzly had lots of locks to work through as we were climbing up towards a town called Berkhamstead, where there is a ruined castle, and on to the summit at Tring the day after.  It was lovely to sit on my bear bed in the sunshine, watching the countryside go by, but it was even nicer being with my human friends again.

"I want one, and I want one NOW!'

Hanley Bear and I are still at Polar and Grizzly's house, hoping either for proper snow we can play in or bright, sunny days suitable for more boat journeys.  Hanley wants to go to Stoke City's stadium by boat and moor near Mrs Kay and Mr Steve's B'Oatcake Boat, but Grizzly won't let Hanley go at all for the time being, with his current record as a lucky mascot, or at least not until the team are well clear of the relegation zone and could cope with losing a game! 

Poor Hanley says he doesn't feel like a proper boat bear, because he's only travelled a few miles in Uppie, whereas I travelled hundreds of miles during the summer.  I was very surprised, once we got onto the Grand Union Canal, how much green space and nice countryside there was to the north and west of London.  As Grizzly and Polar worked Uppie up the locks, I sat on my pile of painted tins in the cratch and watched the pretty lock cottages and fields go by.  I could see more than when we were on the river, as there were no high banks in the way and, because the towpath always ran right beside us, I could watch people walking, cycling and jogging.  I liked to wave to any human cubs I saw as it made them happy to see me.  There were people fishing too, but they almost always looked grumpy.  Perhaps they were very hungry because they never seemed to catch any fish using their funny sticks and strings.  I wondered whether I should show them how to fish properly, like wild bears do using their paws, but I decided not to because they were so unfriendly when Polar and Grizzly said 'hello' to them, and I thought the fish seemed friendlier.  

One afternoon, we stopped at a town called Rickmansworth.  Polar took the shopping bags and went ashore, Grizzly settled down for a nap and I sat on my tins, wearing my boat bear clothes, watching the boats on the canal and the people on the towpath.  There was a lock just ahead of us and a little trip boat which whizzed up and down the canal and spun round very neatly to drop its passengers off by the lock and pick up new people.  Polar told me later that it was run by the local canal society who had a nice little shop and information centre next to the locks ahead of us.  I always waved when the boat went by and, sometimes, a little human cub would see me and wave back. 

I was so busy watching out for the trip boat that I didn't notice a small girl and her mother walking by on the towpath, until the girl called out, 'Mummy!  There's a teddy bear on that boat!'

I looked round and was going to wave 'hello' until I saw that she had quite a fierce look on her face.

'I want one, and I want one NOW!' she shouted, still staring at me.  

I was afraid she would unzip the cratch cover and grab me.  I didn't want to be bearnapped, especially by such a bad-tempered human cub, so I was very relieved to see that Grizzly had woken up and was reading his Guardian newspaper, which I think is a special paper for kind people who have become guardians of small, rescued animals, like me.  I was quite certain he would save me if necessary.

The little girl's mother stopped her stamping and shouting by promising to take her to a shop where she would buy her a new bear, which made me sad as I felt very sorry for that bear.  I was sure the bad-tempered girl wouldn't take care of it.  Then it occurred to me that she might drop her new bear on the towpath, when she got bored with it, a boat crew might rescue it and then there would be another boat bear having adventures on the canal, just like me!  I hoped so.  

A little while later, Polar came back with the shopping and we set off again.  We passed lots of houseboats but I didn't see any boat bears living on them.  I sat on the roof, in the lifebelt, and kept a sharp look-out for the little bad-tempered girl in case she was walking along the towpath.  I asked Grizzly whether, if we saw her, we could bring Uppie close to the bank and use our boathook to rescue any bear she was carrying and lift it onto our boat, but he said she would probably have forgotten all about wanting a new bear by the time she got to the shops, as little human cubs don't remember things for very long. 

Soon we found a nice place to moor for the night and we had our tea.  Polar and Grizzly explained that they would soon have to go back to their house for a few days but Polar had bought me lots of bear food that would keep while they were away, so I wouldn't be hungry or have to hibernate.  I promised to be a good bear and to look after Uppie while they were away, but I decided I would stay well away from the zips on the cratch cover, just in case the bad-tempered girl who wanted a new bear came by.