Polar and Grizzly took us to Trentham Gardens yesterday.
'You deserve a day out for being good bears this week and helping us to make marmalade last weekend,' said Polar. 'It would have taken ages to chop up all those lemons and limes without help from you bears.'
Our marmalade is on sale in Polar's office. The money raised from selling it is to buy plants for a little courtyard garden at the back of the office, which Polar has been tidying up so her friends can sit out in it at lunchtime. No-one except the workers there know about it, so they call it the Secret Garden. It is surrounded by buildings and very shady, so lots of plants won't grow there.
It also got very messy, because lots of pigeons started nesting around it, so Polar made a plastic-bottle peregrine falcon to try to scare them away. There are real peregrine falcons on a tall building near Polar's office, which she can hear screeching when the windows are open during the summer.
Polar has taken in some ferns and other spare plants from our garden that like shade, but wanted inspiration to help her choose other plants.
'Why don't we look in the woodland meadows at Trentham and see what they grow under the trees?' I suggested. We love it there, as it is very pretty, even in winter, and there are lots of things for small bears to do.
'That's a great idea, Sonning!' said Polar.
Before we went into the woods around the lake, Polar and Grizzly let us play. We climbed the big terracotta flowerpots in the Italian Garden to see if the tulips were coming through, then we sat on a nice bench to enjoy the view.
'Look at all those daffodils!' said Endon, pointing across the gardens. 'We could play hide and seek in them!'
We had lots of fun hiding and seeking, then got back in our bear bag. Polar and Grizzly took a new path behind the show gardens.
'That one is called the Secret Garden,' she told us. 'It was originally built at the Tatton Park Flower Show by students from Reaseheath College - including me!'
'Is it like the Secret Garden at work?' I asked.
'It has an ivy-covered wall, but the flowerbeds are all in the sunshine here,' Polar answered. 'We need to see what will grow in the shade.'
We carried on up to some pasture, where there were lots of panda-coloured sheep and baby lambs.
'They look like little woolly bears!' said Hanley.
We left the lambs to play and headed back towards the lake, along a path we hadn't been down before. When the magnolia trees have grown more it will be really beautiful in the spring, when they flower. There was a carpet of white daffodils nearby, whose flowers were almost ready to open.
'Some of those would look brilliant in those old ceramic sinks in your work garden,' said Hanley. Polar agreed, and made a note to plant some, with hostas and ferns.
'What about a stumpery?' I suggested. 'We could come to work with you and go climbing when you have meetings or quiet work to do.'
'I think the pigeons might perch on stumpery logs,' Polar replied.
'And they would poo on them,' said Hanley. 'Errgh!'
We decided not to have a stumpery in the Secret Garden, but thought some wood anemones, violets and primroses would be nice. 'I've got some spare snowdrops and Tina says she has spare white bluebells in her garden,' Polar told us. 'So we should have plenty of flowers next year.'
We were confused by white bluebells but, by that stage, we were almost at the café. Grizzly bought a choc-ice for us all to share while we watched the reeds, where a pair of great-crested grebes had made a nest.
'Can we come here again soon?' asked Endon, as we walked back to the car park.
'Of course you can, bears,' said Polar. We all cheered.
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