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!