All Around the World

After our visit to the Greenway Country Park, Polar and Grizzly took us to a place we had never been before, called Biddulph Grange.  It has a very special and exciting garden, and I am going to tell you all about it, because we had a brilliant bear adventure there.

'Because you have been such good bears, we are going to let you explore the gardens on your own,' Polar said.  'Don't get under people's feet or be silly near the water, and make sure you're back at the terrace for 4 o'clock as we're going to have a cream tea.'

'Yay!' we cheered.  Polar let us out of the bear bag and we skipped away down the steps into a very pretty part of the garden with neat borders full of blue, purple and silvery flowers and a big pond.  We were going to paddle our back paws in the pond until we saw how deep it was and that there were huge carp in it.

At first, we followed Polar and Grizzly, as the gardens were quite busy and we needed to get our bearings so we could find our way back to the tea terrace later.  They showed us the Geology Gallery, with fossils of ancient creatures and let us look at their map.

When Grizzly sat down for a nap on a shady seat and Polar went off to take photographs, we decided to split up and do some exploring.

'I'm going to explore the flower gardens,' said Hanley Bear.  'Look at those dahlias!'  He scurried off along the path to see them.

There were fabulous flowers in many different colours - Hanley even spotted one in Stoke City red and white.  At the far end of the dahlia walk he found a little path that seemed to lead somewhere very unexpected.

'I wonder if it's a long way to China and if I can be back by four o'clock?' he said to himself.  Being an adventurous little bear, he decided to find out. 

Meanwhile, Endon Bear did some climbing along the honeysuckle pergola to a big stone urn where he had a great view of the old house.  

Then he found a path which led to The Stumpery, which is a perfect place for a small bear who likes to climb things, as it is made from hundreds of old tree stumps.  

Endon enjoyed scrambling around on them, then he spotted something even better to climb - a watchtower on a big stone wall.  There we lots of uneven steps to climb to get up to the tower and more steps inside, then he had to scale the parapet at the top to see over it, but it was worth the effort.

'I can see the tops of all the trees from up here,' he cried.  Looking very carefully, he could also see a small figure moving about between some stone walls down below.  It was Hanley Bear.  Endon decided to climb down to meet him. 

I set off in a different direction to the other bears.  I took a turning between two high hedges and found myself face-to-face with a Sphinx!. 'I must be in Egypt!'  I gasped.  'I thought it was much further away than this from the maps in Grizzly and Polar's house.'

I found another pair of sphinxes and in between them was a doorway into a dark passageway.  I thought it might lead into a pyramid so I decided to be a brave bear and explore it, but it was very spooky and there was a strange animal idol inside.  I decided this was not a good place for small bears and made a run for it, out of what had suddenly turned into a Cheshire-style cottage and into some lovely pine woods.  

'This is proper bear country!' I said to myself.  'Hanley and Endon would like this.  I wonder where they are?'  I sniffed the breeze for the soft smell of fellow small bears.

Hanley and Endon thought they were in China.  Endon was climbing on the Great Wall and Hanley was keeping a look-out for pandas.  

Of course they weren't really, just as I hadn't really been to Egypt; they were in a China-themed garden, which was on the other side of a stone wall from my woods.  I climbed up and over and soon found my little bear friends, watching the big fish in another pond.  The best view was from a very pretty building where we found a bamboo seat perfect for small bear naps. 

'It's lovely here,' said Hanley Bear.  'But we're still a long way from the terrace and I think we're going to be late for our tea.'

'Oh no!' said little Endon.  'I like cream teas.'

Luckily for us, Polar and Grizzly came by just then.  Polar put us back in the bear bag and carried us through another spooky tunnel, along a narrow path by a little stream and past the pond full of big fish until we were back at the tea terrace, which saved our little legs a great deal of scurrying and skipping.

And we had a delicious tea too!

Reservoir Bears

I had hoped to have new boating adventures to write about, but we have been stranded at home most of the spring and summer because Polar has had work to do and hospital appointments to go to.  She is better now, so we were expecting to go on a nice long journey when she has her holidays next month.  Unfortunately, because it has been such a dry summer, there are water shortages and some of the canals are closed.

Last weekend, we went to see why.  One of the places were are sometimes taken to play is the Greenway Country Park.  There are woods and little streams here, all around two big lakes - which are actually the Knypersley Reservoir for the Caldon Canal.  Usually, there is lots of water in the reservoir and a big waterfall where it feeds into the feeder stream for the canal.  Hanley Bear took us there last autumn when we were doing our #BearsBackingTheBid campaign for Stoke-on-Trent to be City of Culture 2021.

But when we went to visit this time, there was no waterfall because the main reservoir was so low.  We were very shocked small bears to see it.  Grizzly estimated that it must have been more than two metres below it's usual level - meaning no water for the canal.

We still had fun climbing on the old pumping gear and playing in the woods.  Endon, who hadn't been here before, enjoyed exploring around the old trees and doing lots of climbing.  We saw grebes on the top lake, which still had lots of water in it because it is used for fishing.  The young ones are very noisy!

Usually, we have to be careful not to get muddy paws but it was too dry for that and we didn't see or hear as many birds as usual, which was sad.  There wasn't even enough water flowing under the little bear-sized bridge for a proper game of Pooh Sticks.

However, the saddest thing was seeing how low the water level was and realising that we wouldn't be boat bears again for some time, unless there was lots and lots of rain.

'Cheer up, little bears,' said Polar.  'There is lots of rain forecast in the next few weeks, so I'm sure we will be able to do some autumn journeys in Uppie.  And we've got another adventure for you to enjoy this afternoon.'

It was a very good adventure too, and I will tell you all about it in my next blog.
 

From our Furry Correspondent

Hello Everyone!

I've had a little break from writing my blog because I have been a very busy bear helping Polar with work things, along with Hanley and Endon.  I have also written another article for the newsletter of our local Inland Waterways Association branch (North Staffordshire and South Cheshire) about my adventures last year.

I have written five articles now: one about how I was found, one about the first lock I went through, one about our scary journey on the tidal Thames, one about the Grand Union Canal and, my latest one which isn't published yet, about our journey along the Aylesbury Arm.  Mr Roger, who edits the magazine, is very pleased with me as I always get my articles to him well before the press day deadline, which the naughty human writers often don't! 

You can read earlier newsletters (and my other articles) online here: https://www.waterways.org.uk/staffscheshire/knobsticks

Our newsletter is called Knobsticks.  This confuses a lot of people because a knobstick is usually either a big stick for fighting with or someone who goes to work when their colleagues are on strike, which are not very good things to name a magazine after!  However, my human guardian Polar (I call her that because she has white fur and is very big and strong) explained that knobsticks is also a special style of painted canal rose from this area, like the ones in this picture.

They look more like real garden roses than the usual folky ones painted on boats and boat things, like Polar paints for her craft stalls.

Because I have been a good bear, I have been allowed to have a Twitter account.  This has been great fun, because I have been able to make friends with other small bears and animals all over the world, as well as lots of 'anipals' in the UK.  I have lots of new bear friends across Great Britain and others in the Netherlands, Canada and the USA, Norway and Australia.  Bear Twitter is nicer than human Twitter because bears are much more polite to each other, even if they disagree about things.  My bear friends include Henry, who does a very wise daily 'Nowtiss Board' encouraging us all to be better, kinder bears, and Toddy Furrington who is a very distinguished bear who teaches anipals how to fly with #TheAviators. 

As you can see, Hanley Bear has done his basic training and is now an aviator!

There are other lovely bears, otters, sheep, dogs, cats and geckos I haven't mentioned, who are all very kind, although one or two of the beers seem to drink quite a lot of beer (you know who you are!).  The Teddy, who lives in America, even wrote a story about Hanley, Endon and me.  You can read it here:

https://teddysbwog.com/2018/08/08/little-teddy-and-the-farmers/

Sometimes they arrange to meet each other and have adventures together, which looks like lots of fun.  Maybe I will visit some of them one day, or they will come to see me and my 'hug' (which is what groups of small bears and anipals call themselves)?  In the meantime, I can tell them about life in Stoke-on-Trent and read about their adventures.  

My best bear buddies are still those I live with, Hanley Bear and little Endon, and we are still gardening, helping Polar at work, playing and having small bear adventures, so I have plenty more things to blog about and will write again soon.