Bears at the Beach

After our visit to Rosemoor, Polar and Grizzly drove us across north Devon to the coast road and into Cornwall.  Their little car went up and down some very steep hills, while we bears sat in our bear basket on the back seat, looking out at the views and singing happy small bear songs.

'I can see the sea!' cried Hanley excitedly, as we reached the top of one of the hills.  'Are we nearly at your friends' house?'

'Not yet, little bears,' said Grizzly.  'We still have quite a long way to go.  You could have a nap.'

We were far too interested in where we were going to sleep, so were wide awake when the little red car came down a long hill and very close to a wide sandy beach, then up the hill on the other side of the cove and down a little lane.  Polar put us in our bear bag and carried us up to meet Mrs Ann and Mr Derek, who gave us pats and cuddles, and tea and cake.  

From Polar and Grizzly's room, we could just about see the sea, but we could smell it and hear it very clearly.  We were almost too excited to go to sleep that night.

In the morning, we scrambled into our bear bag to be carried down to the beach.  There was a little path through some woods and lots of steps to go down before Polar was standing on the sand.

'The waves are quite big today,' she warned us, as she helped us out of our bag.  'I don't think you should try to paddle but you can watch the surfers, explore the rocks and caves and make a sandcastle if you like.'

Grizzly was going for a paddle, as he has poorly feet and the sea water is good for them.  Hanley Bear jumped about in front of him, asking to be carried out for a closer look at the waves.

'Come on then,' said Grizzly.

Hanley held on tight to Grizzly's hand as he was carried out into the waves.  He jumped onto Grizzly's shoulder when a bigger one came in that came right up to Grizzly's knees and got his trousers wet, but Hanley stayed dry and so did Endon and I, as we ran up the beach towards the cliffs, well away from the sea.  The damp sand was lovely to run on and the salty smell of the sea was very refreshing.

After doing some running, we climbed on some big rocks and examined some that had fallen out of the cliff, which Endon and I thought were partly made of gold.  Hanley Bear, who is interested in geology, came over to investigate.

'That's iron pyrites,' he explained knowledgably.  'There are all sorts of minerals in these rocks, because they have been heated up and put under lots of pressure in the past, when there were volcanoes here.'

Endon looked around nervously.  'I hope there are no volcanoes now,' he said.

'We could build one out of sand,' Hanley suggested.

'I would rather build a castle,' said Endon, who had seen some human cubs making one nearby.

We set to work, scraping the sand out of a circular trench with our paws and claws to make a moat, then moulding the sand from the moat into a wall.  

I asked the human cubs if we could borrow their bucket to make a tower and by the time our human friends were ready to leave the beach and go out for lunch, we had made a super small bear castle.

Hanley wanted to come back the next day to add extra towers and to fetch his City of Culture flag from the bear basket to fly from one of them.  Polar had to break the news gently to him that the rising tide would wash our castle away later in the day, and that his special flag was safer where it was.

'Can we make another castle tomorrow?' asked Endon.

'We will be having a different adventure tomorrow,' said Polar.  'You will still be by the sea and it will still be lots of fun.'

We all cheered and got back in our bag to be carried back to Mrs Ann and Mr Derek's house.  We wondered what our next adventure would be but we didn't ask, as that would spoil the surprise.

A lovely Autumn Garden

We bears have recently enjoyed another little holiday with our human guardians, Polar and Grizzly, which was a lot of fun.  We visited a place called Cornwall, where we stayed with some of their friends and, later, Grizzly's sister's family.  

As it is a long way from Staffordshire, Polar decided we should break up the journey and stop overnight in Devon, at a nice small pub with a thatched roof.  Polar picked it as it was very close to the gardens at Rosemoor, run by the Royal Horticultural Society, which she was very keen to visit.

'It's a very big site,' she said to us, as she carried us to the entrance in our special bear bag.  'You can run about and explore but try to keep us in sight and then, if you want to save your paws, you can always jump back into your bag and let me carry you.'

The first thing we noticed when we came into the garden was a lovely smell of apples, coming from a display by the entrance.  As soon as Polar let us out of our bag, Hanley climbed up to sniff them.

'No nibbling, Hanley Bear!' warned Polar.  'Although I don't expect they will mind you eating any you find on the ground later.'

Hanley, who was feeling hungry, as usual, ran off to look for the fruit garden.  

Endon and I kept closer to our humans and started to explore the flower gardens.  The trees and shrubs looked beautiful, with colourful berries, pretty bark and, of course, glorious autumn leaves.  

There were lovely roses to admire and to sniff and we loved the bright colours in the 'hot' garden.  Hanley and Endon found plants they could climb for a better view.

I found a trough with some small alpines in, that made a perfect small bear garden.  I showed it to Polar and suggested that we bears could make our own little garden in a big pot when we got home.
'That's a lovely idea, Sonning,' she said.  'There might be a corner of the patio where we could put one.'

I was very pleased about that and skipped away to tell the other bears.  Hanley and Endon had found a play area for human cubs with big insect sculptures in it.  

We had lots of fun climbing on them, especially the woodlouse, then we went in different directions to explore again.  I found some very pretty leaves to skip through and roll in but Hanley and Endon found even more exciting things to do.  

Endon went climbing in a ferny glade and saw a lovely waterfall and Hanley discovered a dinosaur skeleton!

It was a long way to the top of the hill after that, so we scurried back to Polar and Grizzly and had a lift in our bear bag up to the arboretum, which is a collection of trees from all over the world.  We jumped out of our bag to play in the leaves again.  

After lots of rolling down the hill and running on the grass, Polar gathered us up and put us back in our bag as it was time to go.

We were very sad small bears to leave Rosemoor, as it was such a beautiful garden, but Polar says she would like to visit again next year, in the spring, so hopefully we will be able to see it again.  

'Cheer up, little bears!' said Grizzly.  'We are going to visit some friends who have been reading your small bear adventures - and they live beside the sea, so you can go to the beach tomorrow!'

We all cheered and then we sang happy small bear songs for the rest of our journey into Cornwall.

An Afternoon at the Allotment

I have shared some pictures in previous posts of Grizzly and Polar's garden, which has lots of flowers, some little ponds and a vegetable patch.  We bears love to explore it, as there is always something new to see or do, and we like to help our human guardians to look after it.

We know that some of our vegetables - like the onions and potatoes - come from another place, called 'The Allotment'.  We have often wondered what it is like and last week we found out, as Polar and Grizzly took us to see it.

'I'll have to carry you down in this,' said Polar, holding up a carrier bag.  'I won't have a free hand to carry your bear bag as I need to take my cultivator and this garlic for planting.'

We sniffed the bag suspiciously.  'Poo!' cried Hanley Bear.  'That will make our fur stink and we'll need to have baths.'

'No!' squealed Endon.  'It's too cold for bear baths!'

'You won't be in the bag for long, little bears,' said Polar.  'The garlic is inside another bag and anyway, the breeze will blow any smell out of your fur before we come home.'

We climbed reluctantly into the carrier bag, sure that we would be very smelly bears by the time we reached the allotment, but it was only a few minutes walk away and, as Polar had said, it was a nice, breezy, fur-fluffing day.

Polar and Grizzly's plot was at the top end of a sloping site, with very neat plots on each side which belong to Mr Chris and Mrs Jean.  They have other allotment friends, including Mr Steve, who likes engineering things, and Mr Peter and Mr Andrew who keep pigeons.  Unusually, Polar and Grizzly were the only people there that afternoon, so we did not meet any of the others.

'Don't run onto other people's plots and stay away from where Grizzly is trimming the edges of our paths with the shears,' Polar said.  'You can play anywhere on our plot, though - why don't you take a look at the pumpkins?' 

We found some squashes and pumpkins which were ready to bring home, but they were too heavy for small bears to lift.  There were some bear-sized ones, but they were too small to bring home.

'We'll leave those for a few more weeks,' said Polar.  'I'm going to plant this garlic now.'

There were several big bulbs in the bag, which Polar started splitting into individual cloves.

'Let us help!' cheered Endon.  'Sonning can rake the ground, I can use my walking stick to measure how far apart to plant the garlics and Hanley can dig the holes!'

'That's very kind, little bears.  Are you sure you don't just want to run and play?' asked Polar.

'We like to be helpful bears,' I said.  We set to work, just as Endon had suggested.  There were almost fifty garlic cloves to plant, so that kept us busy for a long time.  We were very pleased with our work.

'Well done bears!' said Grizzly.  He helped us up into his deckchair and Polar gave us a little pot of freshly-picked autumn raspberries, which we ate straight away, as we were hungry after working so hard.  Luckily, there were plenty more to take home for tea.

Grizzly and Polar carried us home in the trug holding the pumpkins, which had a much nicer smell than the garlic bag.  We helped to put them in the greenhouse, with the last of the tomatoes ripening in the sunshine.  

We are looking forward to having some nice roast pumpkin with our autumn dinners or even helping to make soup, and might save some seeds from them to grow next year.