Three Bears in the Garden

It is raining today, so I am writing, as I want to tell you about our latest adventures in the garden and about Endon Bear's special skills.

You might remember than Hanley Bear and I rescued Endon by helping Polar to win him in a spin-the-wheel game.  He is still quite a young cub and full of energy, so we need to watch over him to make sure he stays safe when we go out into the garden.

Little Endon can't run and skip as well as most small bears, as his left leg and back paw is slightly twisted, so he uses up a lot of his energy climbing, as he can use his three good paws for this and rely less on his poorly paw. 

Because he is small and even lighter than Hanley Bear, he can climb very thin branches, but this makes it hard for us to rescue him if he climbs too high and gets frightened to climb down.  As he is a fearless and inquisitive little cub, this sometimes happens.  Last week, he climbed up and out onto a very thin stalk on the wisteria where we couldn't follow him, then panicked that he couldn't get back.  

Hanley Bear and I couldn't go to get him as his branch was too thin to hold more than one small bear.  Luckily, Hanley Bear was able to talk him down while I was scurrying about looking for either a blanket for us to catch him in, or for Polar, so she could lift him down.  We were all very worried bears for a few moments.

Part of the problem - although it isn't really a problem, unless it leads him to climb further than he should - is that Endon is very interested in bees.  He knows that they are a bear's best insect friend, because they make honey, so he always listens carefully when there are nature programmes about bees.  He's asked Polar and Grizzly to help him do the Great British Bee Count. 

There are lots of bee-friendly plants in our garden, like foxgloves and honeysuckle, but as the bees' favourite flowers are very prickly little roses, he will have to ask our human guardians to lift him up to see them rather than climbing, or he will get thorns in his paws.

We are trying to get him interested in other nature too, which doesn't involve so much climbing.  He likes sitting by the pond, looking for frogs and tadpoles with us.  

Bears have a very good sense of smell so going into the garden for us is as exciting as going to a concert or firework display would be for a human, as there are new and lovely scents everywhere.  There are herbs, including thyme, lavender, lemon balm, sage, marjoram and chocolate mint - which is our favourite - and lots of roses. 

Eventually, after more climbing and looking for insects, we persuaded Endon to have a nap in the rosemary with us.  It is a nice springy shrub and smells so nice it made us all feel sleepy.  We were still dozing when Polar came out to call us in for tea, so she scooped us up and carried us back indoors using her old straw gardening hat.

We're glad it has rained today, as plants need water, and the garden will smell even nicer when the sun comes out and we go back out to play in it again.