Small Bears at Tatton Park

We bears are very lucky to live where we do, because there are so many nice and interesting places to visit quite close to us, at least if you have human guardians willing to take you there. 

Last month, Polar and Grizzly decided to visit Tatton Park, which is in Cheshire near a town called Knutsford, between Stoke-on-Trent and Manchester.  When she was a horticulture student and before she had small bears to look after, Polar twice got to help build gardens at the famous flower show held there in the summer.  There was no flower show to visit when we went there, but there are some lovely gardens and a huge park with lakes, woods, open fields and lots of deer.

We visited the gardens first.  We bears were delighted to find a big kitchen garden with fruit trees loaded with apples and pears, tasty greens and lots of brightly-coloured squashes, because we guessed there would be a nice café somewhere selling dinners made from them.  Polar let us out of our bear bag so we could run along the paths, climb the trees and play on the pumpkins.

Then we followed our human guardians into the rose garden and through to some woods, which smelled very bear-friendly because there were trees from all over the world, including conifers from the great northern woods where wild bears live.  We did some climbing, although we didn't go too high.

When we reached the lake, we found a plant with massive leaves.  They were so big that all three of us could sit on one leaf.  We had to be careful not to fall off, as the ground below was quite boggy and we would have got out fur all slimy and soggy, so Polar lifted us safely back into the bear bag and carried us for a little way.

We liked the look of the Japanese garden, which had colourful trees and interesting small buildings in it.  We wanted to go in and roll on the banks of soft moss, but it was the wrong time of day for a tour and Polar said we weren't allowed to sneak in on our own. 

Instead, she found us a sunny bank with short grass overlooking the park, where we could do some more running and rolling, before we found another lake and some rocks to climb.

After that, our paws were too achy to walk all the way back to the kitchen garden, so Polar put us back in our bag and carried us, until we reached the lovely Italian Garden, with wonderful views across the park.  

Then we went to look at the orangery and found the fernery hidden away behind it, which was a perfect place for small bears to play, with lovely, mossy banks to climb and a pretty waterfall, although it was rather warm in there. 

We were starting to feel hungry by then, so we were glad to hear Polar and Grizzly planning to go to the restaurant for their lunch.  We jumped back in our bear bag for the journey back through the gardens.

The restaurant had a special shelf for small bears to sit on, which was an excellent design.  We found that by staring at Grizzly while he was having his dinner, we could persuade him to share his delicious vegetable quiche with us!

After lunch, while Grizzly had a nap in the car and Polar was busy taking photographs, we bears found some fallen branches where we could practice our climbing.  Hanley Bear found some sweet chestnuts too.

 'Those look even better for climbing!' cried little Endon, pointing towards what he thought were some more branches poking up from the long grass.  We were about to run over to explore when the branches started moving - they were the antlers of a huge red deer!

When we looked more closely, we saw there were lots of them, resting in the tall grasses.  They looked big and fierce and were obviously not afraid of small bears, so we ran back to the car and jumped in with Grizzly.

 We saw more of the huge stags on the move when Polar was driving us back to the gate out of the park.  We were very glad we hadn't tried to climb their antlers, as they would probably have tossed us into the lake.

On the way home, we chatted about our day and what we had liked best.  Endon said climbing in the woods and Hanley that the pumpkins were his favourite, but I loved the mossy banks in the fernery and we all wanted to go again for a closer look at the Japanese garden, so we will keep our paws and claws crossed for some more fine weather before the end of autumn.

A Canal in the Sky!

On our second day out with Grizzly's cousin, Polar drove us all west to Wales, to see a very special place on the canal network - the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct.  It is on the Llangollen Canal, which Polar and Grizzly have been along in Uppie, but before we joined their crew.

We arrived at a place called Trevor (or Trefor, to use the Welsh spelling) and had a lovely walk alongside the canal to the café and visitors' centre, where Hanley Bear found one of his favourite Transport Trust red wheels.

The information on it was in Welsh and English, so we bears now know what the Welsh for aqueduct is, and how to spell Pontcysyllte properly!  

We watched as a couple of boats cruised out onto the aqueduct.  We could see that, on one side, there was a good towpath with railings to stop humans or human cubs falling off (although they were too far apart to make it safe for small bears) but, on the other side, there were no railings at all!

Polar said that if we promised to be very good bears, we could go across it with her, in the bear bag, and look down into the valley below, so we all climbed aboard and tucked ourselves in snuggly.

Peeping over the edge, we could see the River Dee, but it was a very, very long way down and we were scared!  People walking towards us must have wondered why Polar's bag was shaking - it was because it was full of trembling small bears!

On the far side, Polar found a path that went right underneath the aqueduct and took us to where we got a good view of the trough the boats were in and the side with no railings.

We were allowed out of our bag very quickly, for a photograph, but I had to make sure the smaller bears stayed away from the edge and we were all glad to be safely back in our bag for the return journey.  We didn't know if we would like to cross in a boat, unless we were safe inside or in the cratch.  We wouldn't want to be on the roof, especially if it was a breezy day. 

As she carried us back to Grizzly and his cousin, Polar showed us a strange thing.  There is a little handle that opens a plug to let all the water out of the aqueduct, when it needs to be repaired or checked.  It is bolted closed to stop humans, human cubs or curious small bears from tampering with it! 

When we got back to the visitor centre, I found more to read about the history of the aqueduct, and we saw there was a trip boat that went across and back again.  It had tables and chairs and people on board were drinking tea and eating cake.  Our small tummies started rumbling.

But we wouldn't be hungry bears for long!  Polar drove us all to Llangollen, where we had the most delicious Victoria sandwich sponge cake.  We all cheered when Grizzly said we were going for a train ride too.

While we waited, we did some climbing on the vintage luggage, which is something we always do when we visit heritage railways.  We think that is why it is on the platform - to keep small bears occupied while they wait for their train.

I had just scrambled to the top of an old milk churn when Hanley Bear called out that the train was coming.

'Don't get left behind!' he warned me, but Polar quickly gathered us all into our bag, and Grizzly found a compartment for us to sit in. 

When we were here before, for Grizzly's birthday, it was dull and rainy, but this time we had glorious sunny weather and great views of the river and the mountains.

We got tiny gritty pieces of coal called 'smuts' in our fur, because we had the window open so we could listen to the sound of the engine, but we brushed them out quickly so Polar wouldn't think we needed baths when we got home.

Grizzly bought some beer to enjoy on the journey.  When the humans got out to watch the engine run round the train, we had a sip each, but Hanley Bear had an extra sip and got caught.

Luckily for him, the humans thought he was only pretending to drink the beer, so he wasn't in trouble.

When we got back to the station, it was time to go home again.  Polar, who had not had any beer, drove us back through east Wales and into Shropshire, where we stopped for our evening meal in Wrenbury, at a nice pub beside the canal.  

We bears thought the Llangollen Canal looked like a great place for a cruise and we hope our human guardians might take us there next year, if we are good bears.