Another visit to Trentham

I have lots more to tell you about our journeys to the Peak District last week but first, I am going to share some pictures Polar took of us yesterday, having fun at Trentham Gardens.  It is one of our favourite places to play, as there are so many pretty flowers with nice smells, as well as interesting places to explore.

It was a very warm spring day yesterday, so Polar and Grizzly decided we would go round the lake first.  They carried us most of the way in the bear bag, as there were geese and swans on the path.  Because the birds are making nests, they were being fierce and hissy, which would have been frightening for us small bears if we had been on our own.

Polar let us out of our bag to see two of the famous fairies and to play on a hollow tree, while she took pictures of a new sculpture.  The tree was big enough inside to make a small bear cave, so we crawled inside and pretended to be wild bears, smelling spring in the air and coming out of our hibernation den.

'If we were wild bears, the geese and swans definitely wouldn't hiss at us,' said Hanley Bear, practicing a menacing growl, but he didn't look at all scary, especially wearing a jumper with a steam train on it!

After a cup of tea at the café by the lake, Polar and Grizzly carried us into the woods where drifts of lovely flowers have been planted.  Polar put us down just off the path in a quiet place near a little stream.

'As long as you don't get under other humans' feet, you can have a good run and play around here,' she said.  'We are going to take some photographs of the grebes, so we won't be far away.'

We found a bank of celandines in the sunshine where we could sit to plan our adventure, then scurried off to find some big bug sculptures we had wanted to climb for ages. 

'There are no human cubs on them today,' I said.  'Let's climb!'

We scrambled up onto the giant beetles and pretended we were riding them through the forest, then we jumped off into the soft bark chippings around them, and did some rolling.

'Where are Grizzly and Polar?' asked Endon, who was worried we had lost them.

'We're here,' said Polar, lifting him up and picking little bark chips out of his fur.  'Look at all this dirt!  You bears are going to need a bath soon.'

'Nooo!' cried Endon and Hanley Bear.  'It's too cold!'  Which is true, because it's still very cold at night.

'We can make ourselves smell nice by running through these daffodils,' I said, and I dashed away up another path through lots of lovely white flowers.  I ran and ran until I was so tired I had to sit down on a tree stump.  I thought I was lost, but Grizzly spotted me and passed me to Polar.

'You've got muddy back paws now,' she said.  'But you do smell of narcissus rather than grubby bear.  Maybe we won't bath you just yet.'

We were all allowed to have another run and found some rocks by a stream to climb on. 

'Maybe I could wash my back paws in the stream?' I said, but Hanley said it smelt cold and that as we didn't have a towel with us, that wasn't a good idea at all.

'Tea and cake would be a much better idea,' he said.  'Let's race across the grass to the other café!'

'We'll have tea and cake when we get home, bears,' said Polar, picking him up and snuggling him into the bear bag before he could run off.  'It's time to go now, as we have to do some shopping, but we'll come again very soon.'

I'm sure we will and, when we do, I will tell you all about it.