Small Bears at Trentham

Although our Christmas cruise is over and it is winter, we are very lucky bears, as our human guardians like to take us with them when they go for walks and visits to nice places.  One of our favourite places is Trentham Gardens.

 If you want a small bear to join you on a visit to the gardens, there is a bear adoption shop very near the entrance.  Grizzly and Polar let us wave to the other bears but didn't adopt any extra bears.  Polar says we are as many as they can manage!

Because they know they can trust us to be good bears, Polar and Grizzly let us out of our bear bag, once we were in the gardens.

'You can have a run in the gardens, and explore the woods around the lake,' said Grizzly.  'But keep us in sight and don't be afraid to ask to be carried if your paws get tired.'

 

One of my favourite parts of the gardens is just inside the entrance, where there are big drifts of prairie perennials.  In the summer and autumn, there are lots of lovely flowers and, in the winter, tufts of grass which are all soft and springy and great for bouncing on!  After bouncing on lots of grassy tussocks, I climbed up one of the owl sculptures and pretended I was flying.

Endon and Hanley like this area too.  There are lots of small trees with rough bark, which makes them good for climbing and clusters of seed heads where small bears can play hide and seek.

Some of the small shrubs are good for hiding, climbing and bouncing in too.  We all ran around having fun in the winter sunshine, while Polar and Grizzly walked nearby, enjoying the views and taking photos.  There were even a few flowers in bloom, including these snowdrops we found and carpets of pretty little cyclamen under the trees.  

When we reached the far end of the perennial beds, we realised it was a very long way back to the lake and the woods, so we decided to ask our human guardians to put us back in our bear bag.

Polar carried us through the Italian gardens and along the edge of the lake, past the dandelion sculptures and under the big pine trees.

'If we were wild bears, we could climb those trees!' said Endon, but I think they are too tall for even the biggest and bravest wild bears to climb.

Once we got to the edge of the woods, the small bears wanted to get out of the bag and play, but I liked being high up on Polar's shoulder where I could see all the ducks, swans and grebes out on the big lake.  

Hanley Bear found a post to climb, so he could watch the lake birds too, and a hollow tree trunk he could use as a small bear cave.

Endon climbed some more trees, being careful not to go too high, and found a patch of primroses flowering in a woody glade.

'Come on, Sonning!' they called.  'We're having lots of fun - come and join us!'

So Polar helped me out of the bear bag and I joined the others, exploring the woods.   We played in the leaves and sniffed all the new plants put in by the humans who look after the gardens.  I liked sitting on this mossy stump in the sunshine, imagining what the glade in front of me might look like when spring comes again. 

Polar and Grizzly gathered us up and put as back in the bear bag when we got near the café, and carried us all the way back along the other side of the lake, as our back paws were very tired by then and it was starting to get cold.  

She carried us over her right shoulder, to keep us out of the cold wind blowing across the lake.

'Is it going to snow?' asked little Endon.  He had never seen snow but, after hearing about the adventures Hanley and I had last year, was looking forward to it.

'I think it might soon, duck,' said Hanley Bear, sniffing the air.

And he was right!