Too Hot for Furries!

Lots of people have been enjoying the summer but when you have fur all over, like us bears, it is not at all pleasant.  We have spent most of the last few weeks indoors, in a cool corner of the living room near the north-facing window reading quietly, although we did stow away when Polar and Grizzly went to stay with friends. 

I helped Hanley and Endon to get into their bags, then sneaked into the boot of the car when they were packing, but it was so hot in there during the long journey south that I had to shout for some water and make sure the other bears were let out of the luggage.

'You silly little bears!' said Polar, sitting us on the back seat. and giving us a drink.  'You could have suffocated in the boot.'

Unfortunately, the reason we were supposed to stay at home was that our human guardians' friends, while very kind to their humans friends, aren't keen on furry friends.  This meant that while Polar and Grizzly had some interesting days out in the Hampshire countryside, we didn't get to go out with them.  At least we didn't have to travel home in the boot.

We had hoped we would be enjoying some summer boat journeys, but the long. hot spell has left the local canals rather short of water. The hot weather hasn't been too good for the garden either, although Polar and Grizzly have worked hard to keep the vegetable plot watered, as well as the plants in pots, like these lilies. 

We were pleased to see some rain today.  Yesterday, we helped to pick some fresh food for us and our humans, including courgettes, broad beans, raspberries and runner beans. 

We were particularly proud of the broad beans as we helped to plant those in the spring.  We do like to have fresh food to eat!  

We were hoping that the tomatoes would be ripe, but they are still green.  Endon climbed up to check.  When he got down, his paws were all green from the tomato plants!

Out in the garden, we saw lots of other things growing.

'Why are these cabbages in cages?' we asked Polar, peering through some mesh at some plants.  'Will they escape if you don't keep them inside these nets?'

'They are sprouts,' she said.  'The nets are to keep the butterflies off.  They lay their eggs on the leaves, and these hatch into little caterpillars which eat them.'

'Boo!' said Hanley Bear, who is very fond of sprouts.

Endon Bear's climbing skills proved very useful when we came to harvest the runner beans.  Some of them were even too high for Polar to reach, so Endon scaled the poles and carefully pulled off the highest ripe beans, leaving the small ones to grow.

'We might need Endon's help to harvest the hazel nuts soon,' said Grizzly, pointing to a big tree by the greenhouse.

Us bears didn't know there were nuts in the garden.  They are one of our favourite foods so, when it is dry, we will have to sneak out and see if they are ripe yet!
 

Hanley Helps Out

Last weekend, little Endon Bear and I helped Polar at her craft stall, while Hanley Bear stayed at home with Grizzly to watch England play Sweden in the World Cup.  This weekend, Polar was working again, but this time it was for Citizens Advice. 

Polar is in their benefits team and helps to run a project called Potteries Gold.  This project tries to explain, in simple language, what help is there for humans without enough money to manage on and how this help is changing.  We bears try our best to understand, but it is very complicated.

Because we want to learn more, so we can explain the rules to other bears whose humans might be badly paid or unwell, Polar says we can be Benefits Champions - or rather, Bearnefits Champions.  Benefits Champions tell their friends and neighbours about benefit changes, so everyone gets what they ought to and asks for advice when they need it.

On Saturday, Polar took all her leaflets and newsletters to a church summer fayre.  Hanley Bear volunteered to go with her - as long as he was home in time for the England versus Belgium World Cup game!  Polar said they would definitely be back for the second half.  Hanley didn't like the idea of missing the first half but he wanted so much to be a helpful bear that he agreed to go.  He put his red and white striped scarf and hat on, even though it was a hot day, so he was ready to support England as soon as he got home.

Hanley Bear made a little sign to hold, encouraging humans to become Benefits Champions, and held this up to everyone who came to the stall.  Hanley hoped lots of humans would want to be champions but Polar was very happy with the two who did volunteer, as they already do other things to help people so will be brilliant 'champs'.

When it was quiet, Hanley went to look around the hall.  There were other stalls, with local people selling hair slides and bows, bags and scarves, nice smelly things and even knitted animals, and there were raffles and tombolas. 

Top prize in the raffle was a Port Vale football shirt.  Hanley Bear growled at it and went "boo!".  As you probably know, he supports Stoke City; Port Vale are the other Stoke-on-Trent team and Hanley doesn't like them.

'Don't be mean, Hanley Bear,' said Polar.  'If they have donated it to help raise funds for the community, that's a kind thing to do, like when you and the other bears make jam or marmalade for the Paddington Fund.  You mustn't growl when someone is being good.'

Hanley Bear felt bad for booing and his ears drooped because he was sad, so Polar said he could have some cherries.  He honestly meant to save some for the rest of us, but they were so scrummy and he was so hungry after helping Polar - and growling at the Port Vale shirt - that, before he knew it, he had eaten them all!

Even though he had a very full tummy and was feeling a little bit poorly, when it was time to pack up Hanley set about gathering up the leaflets and rolling up the bunting very keenly, and soon they were ready to go.  He only missed the first few minutes of his football game but, by then, Belgium were already a goal ahead.

"Boo!" went Hanley Bear.

On the Village Green

Endon Bear and I had a busy day this Saturday, because we were helping Polar with one of her craft stalls.  It was held in Penkhull, on the day of the Penkhull Mystery Play.  When we arrived, there was a brass band playing, which we liked, then people in white clothes and rags jumping about with sticks, who Polar told us were Morris Dancers.  Apparently, these are traditional things done by English humans, like Mystery Plays.

The Mystery Play isn't a detective story, as I first thought.  It's actually a history play which the local people write and act in, with a different theme every year.  Polar says the original Mystery Plays were performed in medieval times, many hundreds of years ago, and were usually Bible stories.  She never gets to see the Penkhull play properly, because the stalls face away from the green onto a little road, but we were able to peep through the back of the stall towards the end of the show and thought we could see Suffragettes!

A little later, a lady gave us a programme for the other things happening that day, and a sticker with Penkhull's official flag on it.  I have never heard of a village having a flag before!  It's very smart and we will keep it in our bear basket with Hanley's City of Culture flag and other special things.

After the Mystery Play, we had lots more music.  There was a ukulele band, which we liked a lot as they played cheerful songs we could dance to.  We waved at the human cubs as we were dancing, and they brought their mums, dads and nanas over to see Polar's painted things, and we sold lots of pots, spoons and watering cans.  

For some reason, it got very quiet just before three o'clock, and there weren't so many people coming past.  With no human cubs to wave to and no people buying Polar's things, Endon and I started to get bored.  Polar worked out how to open the back of the stall so we could watch what was happening on the green.  There were people teaching circus skills to human cubs, which looked very clever, then there was a tug-of-war.  

Endon and I thought it might be fun to have a bears' tug-of-war with the two small bears, Endon and Hanley, against me, as I am bigger than them, but there were only two of us at the stall. Can you guess why?

That's right - he was at home, with Grizzly, watching the World Cup, where England were playing Sweden in the quarter finals.  That was why it was so quiet at the village green in Penkhull - everyone was watching the match.  Polar was checking the score on her phone, when suddenly there was a huge cheer from the pub nearby.

'I think England have scored!' said Endon.  He was right, and they did it again, just as Grizzly arrived with the car to take us home.  We were home just in time for the last few minutes, so we could celebrate with Hanley Bear.

Here we are towards the end of our day at the Penkhull Mysteries. Can you see how much we've sold?

Finding Day

Friday was a very special day for me, as it was exactly a year since Grizzly and Polar found me beside the River Thames and let me join them on their journey back to Stoke-on-Trent on Uplander II.  As I do not know when my birthday is, I celebrate this day instead, as my Finding Day.

I hoped we would go out on Uppie for my Finding Day, but it was so hot that we decided it would not be good for either humans or small bears to be toasting inside a metal boat, so we stayed at home.  Us bears decided that, as it was Finding Day, it would be fun to spend the morning 'finding' things.  

The first thing Hanley and Endon 'found' was a big punnet of strawberries from our garden.  We had the biggest, ripest ones for breakfast and Polar used the rest to make jam.

After breakfast, Polar and Grizzly 'found' some new potatoes growing in the garden.  We decided to see what other fruit and vegetables we could find.  We checked our broad bean plants and found they were much taller than small bears now.  We found they had pods full of beans, which are almost ready to eat!

Then we found the runner bean plants were even taller - Endon Bear climbed up the poles and said they were at least as tall as Polar!  This variety has white flowers, rather than the usual red, but we hope the bees still like them.

We found a good climbing tree at the bottom of the garden and found something very surprising growing in it - figs!  Grizzly likes figs but never expected them to grow in North Staffordshire.  He thinks it is because the weather has been so hot.  Polar says it is because she pruned the tree properly.  I think it is a little of both.

We found currants which were almost ready to pick.  The birds had eaten some but other bushes were covered by a big tent of netting to keep them off and they hadn't figured out that these white-currants weren't under-ripe redcurrants and some were already ripe (I helped Grizzly to pick some yesterday).

We found lots of pretty flowers too, like these roses Hanley and Endon climbed up to smell. 

We had toast and some of our bear-made lemon marmalade for Elevenses, before doing some more exploring.  Then we found Grizzly's deckchair was empty so, as we had been such busy bears, we all had a nice nap in the shade.  

When we woke up, we found Polar and Grizzly had made us a cream tea, to celebrate my Finding Day, with scones, our homemade strawberry jam and clotted cream.  Delicious!  We ate scones, jam and cream until we were all quite fat little bears.  We needed another nap after that!

When we came indoors for our supper, I found Hanley and Endon had a surprise for me.  They had sneaked out shopping with Grizzly and Polar and bought me a present.  It was a DVD of Paddington Bear's latest adventure!  I was so pleased, we all had a big bear hug together, as Paddington is my hero and I love hearing stories about him and watching his films. 

I wanted to watch it at once, but first Hanley Bear had to check that we would not miss any World Cup games.  Luckily, there was no football to watch so we enjoyed the film instead.  It is the best film ever because, as well as having Paddington in it, it has narrowboats, steam engines, a balloon and even a little flying boat, and lots of marmalade too. 

I had a lovely Finding Day and have had a really exciting year.  I hope to have more adventures with my human guardians and my little bear buddies soon, and I will tell you all about them when I do!