It is dull and rainy today but last week, when it was sunny and warm, Polar and Grizzly took us bears with them to visit the gardens at Biddulph Grange. These are north of Stoke-on-Trent and are famous for having lots of smaller gardens within them, representing different countries.
There were lots of daffodils in bloom next to the car park. As soon as we arrived, we ran across to see them. Just seeing the cheerful yellow trumpets made us happy. We skipped about between the daffodils until Polar and Grizzly called us away.
'Come on bears!' said Polar. So we jumped back in our bear bag ready to be carried into the gardens. One of the ladies who works there recognised us from our last visit and said hello to us!
Last time we visited, we explored the Italian gardens, 'Egypt' and 'China', but we didn't see the whole site. This time, Polar carried us around the lake and through a tunnel. We thought we were going to China again, but instead we found ourselves among tall conifer trees.
'Can we do some climbing?' asked Endon, looking up at the trees and sniffing their nice, fresh smell.'
'Only if you're good bears and don't climb too high,' Polar replied, so we were sensible bears and didn't climb too much higher than Polar could reach, so she could catch us easily if we had to jump down. There were pretty little green birds called siskins in some of the trees, eating seeds from the pine cones, but they flew away before we could climb close to them.
After plenty of time climbing, we got back in the bear bag and Polar carried us up a long, straight path between more conifers to a far corner of the gardens where there is a huge stone urn, taller than Grizzly or Polar.
Behind the urn is a secret path that leads through the woods, and here there are adventure play things for human cubs, like balance beams, bridges and a see-saw. We tried to make the see-saw work but, even with all three of us at one end, it did not move.
'Never mind, bears,' said Grizzly. 'You can do some more climbing or jumping between the tree stumps.'
There were no human cubs about, because it was a school day, so we could play on everything we wanted to. We climbed and jumped and ran and balanced along ropes and poles. Sometimes it was nice to just sit in the sunshine.
After a little while, we heard the chimes of a church clock. We counted them. There were twelve.
'It's nearly lunchtime, bears!' Grizzly called. 'Which way do you want to go back to the café?'
'Through China please,' I said.
The smaller bears both agreed. Polar lifted us into our bag and carried us through the stumpery and down the steps to China. Because it was soon after Chinese New Year, there were bright red lanterns everywhere.
We sat on the patio in the sunshine to enjoy our lunch. Polar got a very tasty cheese scone with chutney, which we helped her to eat, then we left via the shop.
We all went 'boo!' when we saw the title of this book for sale, but Polar says it's a famous book by a very nice man, written to help human cubs learn to read, and no bears get hurt in it.
'Can we come here again?' asked Endon, who had really enjoyed climbing in the fir trees.
'Definitely bears,' Polar said.
We all cheered and sang happy bear songs all the way home.
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