Small Bears Dine Out

My friend Hanley Bear is at football with our human guardian Grizzly this afternoon.  It will be half-time now and Polar tells me that the other team are leading by one goal, so his little black ears will be twitching anxiously under his red and white striped hat, but at least his tummy will be nice and warm, because he had spicy snacks before the game.

We bears are very lucky that Polar, our other human guardian, has a friend called Shug who runs an Indian Street Food stall in Stoke Market.  It is called 'Tiffin and Chai' and is open on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

Polar and Grizzly took all of us bears there a few weeks ago, and we tried a feast of tasty things.  As he had been there before, Hanley Bear was quick to recommend the chicken curry, made to Shug's mum's recipe, but Polar and Grizzly wanted to try the vegan food and ordered chickpea dahl instead, along with samosas and pakoras.  They had Indian tea with it - chai - which is made with lots of sweet spices.

We were very good bears and waited patiently for our dinner, sitting on some very pretty embroidered cushions on a brightly-painted chair which were decorated by another one of Polar's friends called Naomi, who has a little business called Doveridge Crafts.

When our dinner arrived, we couldn't believe our small eyes - there were so many different things to try!  It was very exciting for Endon and me, as we had not eaten there before and didn't know what to start with.

Hanley Bear was thirsty so, after giving it a good sniff, he had a big sip of Polar's chai.  'It's delicious, duck!' he told me.  'Try some!'

Endon was more interested in the samosas, and nibbled the corner off of the one nearest to us to get at the spicy vegetables inside.

Soon we were all tucking in, humans and bears alike.  The pakoras were my favourite!  

Mrs Shug and her family were kept very busy serving their customers.  Some of them sat in to eat, like us, while others bought take-away food to enjoy at home.

With three hungry small bears to help them, it wasn't long before Polar and Grizzly had finished their meals.  We hoped we would get to try some of Mrs Shug's lovely home-made cakes too but, sadly, our humans said they had eaten enough and had things to do, so we were gathered back into our bear basket.  

We all hope to visit again soon.  Grizzly has invited Mrs Shug and her mum, and the other nice ladies who help out at Tiffin and Chai, to join us all for a trip on Uppie next spring, when our boat is back from the paint-shop.  

Mrs Shug says she would like that, and will make a vegan picnic for us all.

Yay!

Boatless Bears!

The day after our wonderful visit to the Black Country Living Museum, we were out on Uppie, enjoying the autumn sunshine as we cruised through Cheshire towards Middlewich.  We love boating, although this was quite a sad journey for us, as it would be our last journey of the year and for several months. 

Uppie (Uplander II) our narrowboat, is going to spend the whole winter at a boatyard at Northwich on the River Weaver, being repainted and having some improvements made inside.

There are thirty locks between Kidsgrove, where Uppie usually lives, and Middlewich, but Polar and Grizzly are used to working up and down them, and know where they can moor for snacks and overnight.  We bears look out for things like the little details on the bridges and these interesting old boats hidden away in a little arm at Malkins Bank.

Luckily, we were in the saloon looking out of the window when this big bull was looking at us!

Polar and Grizzly were pleased to reach Middlewich when we did, as some of the locks behind us were due to be closed for repairs.  The boat lift onto the River Weaver was being closed too, so we had to get Uppie down before that happened.

We had spent two days making our way to Middlewich.  We bears spent the wetter second day inside, reading our books and packing small things away that needed to be brought home.

We were very lucky when we arrived in Middlewich, as a boating friend (Mrs Gillian) saw us from her car and gave us all a lift back to Polar and Grizzly's house, as it takes a very long time to get there by bus. 

Uppie stayed at Middlewich for almost two weeks.  During that time, there was an awful lot of rain and lots of local rivers, including the River Weaver, flooded badly.  Uppie was perfectly safe but the boat lift had to be closed and a boat sank at the yard we were going to, which made us very worried bears.

It was a fine day again when we set off for Northwich, and we bears sat on the roof again for the long, lock-free journey from below Big Lock to the Anderton Lift.  We love looking out for kingfishers at the 'flashes', which are big shallow lakes left where the ground has collapsed due to salt mining, and the Lion Salt Works Museum at Marston.

Grizzly decided Uppie should stay in a marina at Anderton until it was safe to go onto the river.  We helped to pack more things, then had a little hug to say 'goodbye' to Uppie for the winter.

Seeing we were sad bears, Polar and Grizzly took us for a snack at the Anderton Lift visitor centre café, before we all went home.

It rained and rained over the following days and three times Uppie's journey onto the Weaver had to be delayed, because it was not safe.  Finally, last Friday, the water levels were low enough and the current was slow enough for Uppie to be allowed out on the river.

We bears stayed at home in our bear basket this time, because Polar said she and Grizzly would have lots of things to do and it might not be very safe to have small bears to worry about when they had a difficult journey to make.

Uppie had a slow journey upstream to Northwich but, eventually, the two black-and-white swing bridges came into view.  Grizzly was very relieved!

Uppie's winter home is beside an island between where the river goes through some sluices and the cut leading up to Hunt's Lock.  We bears have not seen it yet but Polar showed us these pictures of some of the big boats that will be keeping Uppie company.

Polar says that she and Grizzly will visit Mr Steve the Boat Painter whenever there are important things to decide and that if we are good bears and promise to be sensible near the water, she will take us there. 

We will miss our floating home over the winter but we are looking forward to seeing Uppie again when the repainting work has been done and going on lots more exciting adventures with Grizzly and Polar.

Bye bye for now, Uppie!  See you in the spring!

Bears at the Black Country Museum

Last month, we bears had a very special adventure.  As you will know if you have been following my blog, we have lots of adventures with our human guardians, Polar and Grizzly, but this one was extra special, because it was organised by a bear called Tour Guide Ted, in honour of another bear, called Toddy Furrington.  We met both of them on Twitter and, like hundreds of bears and other anipals, we had been heart-broken when Toddy and his human 'valet', Dr Kevin, had - as we say on anipal Twitter - passed Over the Rainbow Bridge during the summer.

So when Ted suggested a 'TweetUp' at the Black Country Living Museum in their honour, on Toddy's birthday 27th October, we really, really wanted to go - and Polar and Grizzly agreed we could.  They bought tickets for our train to Wolverhampton and on to Tipton, and we set off that morning from our favourite station at Kidsgrove.

 We had been worried we might not get there, because there had been lots of rain the day before and there were floods all around Stafford, but we arrived safely.

Polar carried us from the station to the Museum.  From our bag, we saw a canal, with a tour boat on it, and a steam engine.  That was two of our favourite things, before we even got inside the museum!

In the cafe, we started looking out for other bears and anipals.  We thought we might have been the first to arrive until we saw our pal Chomper and a small bear friend, helping their human guardian to eat a scone.  Soon, lots of our friends and their humans had arrived.

Tour Guide Ted had a special job to do, introducing some small bears who had been part of Toddy's 'hug' to the bears who were adopting them.  There were lots of small bear tears of mixed sadness and joy as the bears met their new friends and guardians.  I wondered if I ought to have asked Polar and Grizzly to adopt another bear, but I do not think there would have been enough room in our bear basket or bear bag for any more small bears.

When all the introductions had been made, Tour Guide Ted suggested we went to visit the mine before the queues got too long.  Of course we bears are quite happy exploring dark caves, so we did not find it scary, except when there was a simulated blasting of the coal with gunpowder, but it must have been horrible for the humans, human cubs and ponies who worked there.  Polar found it very difficult to move about, because the ceilings were very low.

 It was nice to be back in the fresh air.  We found some small waggons to climb on and soon some of our friends, including Chomper, Milly the Mammoth, Blueberry and a very big bear called Fred.  We met so many new bears that I'm very sorry to say I don't remember the name of the small bear in the green jumper, for which I am very sorry, as I don't mean to be rude.

Then we made our way to the town by the canal at the heart of the museum, where we enjoyed the best fish and chips we bears had ever eaten.

Being boat bears, we were excited to see the canal running through the town and even happier when Ted told us we were all going on a boat trip.

While we waited in our bear bag, some of our friends joined us in the bear bag.  First in was Mr T Bear, then Fuzzy jumped in too!

Then more of our friends came to see us but could not all fit into the bag.  We suggested Polar bring a bigger one next time, so more of our friends could share it with us. 

Then we were on the boat and off on our journey along the canals.  Look how many bears and other anipals there are here!  What a great tribute to our friend Toddy Furrington.  Lots of them are wearing Panda Jumpers made by Reddy's human guardian.  We ought to have worn ours too but we had our duffle coats on instead.

We went back to our bear bag for some of the journey as Polar said we either had to stay in the bag or put our life-jackets on, which would have meant taking off our coats, and it was too cold for that. 

We decided we liked the look of the Birmingham canals, as there are green spaces as well as interesting industrial scenes.  We would love to visit on Uppie.  Grizzly says we might do that next year, when Uppie has been repainted.

We would also like to visit the Black Country Museum again as there was lots more to see and do than we had time for on this visit. 

By the time we got back from our boat trip, it was almost time to go home, but there was just time for a ride on the trolley bus and tea and cake back at the cafe.

Milly and Blueberry's humans gave us a lift back to Wolverhampton Station and we told them they were welcome to visit us and see some of our favourite bear haunts around Trentham Gardens or Biddulph Grange, so maybe they will - or maybe we'll have a big tweet-up for lots of our pals?   

It was dark on the way home, so we snuggled together and talked about what kind things we could do to remember Toddy and be a gentlebear like he had been, then we napped in our bear bag until we arrived home, for biscuits and hot chocolate before bedtime.

'Sleep tight, little bears' said Polar as she tucked us in.  'You've got another adventure tomorrow!'

And she was right.