A Day Out with Friends

Just over a week ago, we had a lovely adventure.

Our human guardians took us with them to Biddulph Grange Gardens and we met our friends Milly the Mammoth and Blueberry Bear there.  They were on their way to a camping holiday with their humans and had asked if there was somewhere we could all have an adventure together.

Biddulph Grange is great for small bear (and mammoth) adventures, because it has gardens representing lots of different countries, even though it is a typical English Country House. 

But before we went exploring, we had time for a nice natter with our friends and some lunch, including a proper National Trust Scone from Milly and Blueberry's humans.

Because the nasty virus is still about, the humans had to follow a one-way route around the gardens, which took us to 'China' first, along the Himalayan Gorge, through the cavern and out into the pagoda by the pool.

We went the same way, having lots of fun running and climbing, but being very careful not to fall in the stream.  After we had explored the caves, where Milly and Blueberry were very brave and not at all scared in the dark, we all sat together on the bamboo seat, enjoying the view across the pond and waiting for our humans to stop chatting and catch up with us.

Then we did some more exploring in 'China'.  Endon climbed up to see the stone frog and get a better view across the water.

The humans weren't allowed over the little bridge or through the Great Wall this time, so we bears (and Milly) decided we ought to keep to the human paths too, just in case we did some climbing, got stuck and needed to be rescued.

This meant we were soon at the Stumpery, which is the best place for small bears (and mammoths) to practice their climbing, because there are good paw-holds on the wood and nice springy moss to land on if you fall off.

We could have stayed there for hours but the humans had decided to do the longer walk around the grounds, so the picked us all up and carried us along the Dahlia Walk. 

Hanley Bear calls it the 'Delilah Walk' after the song they sing at Stoke City and says they should only plant red and white dahlias there, but in fact there weren't any dahlias this year, just a tall, yellow flower Polar says is a Ligularia, which the bees love.

Our human guardians carried us until we got to the woodland walk, then it was time to run about and explore again.  We found some more things to climb on but couldn't play on the see-saw because there were human cubs on it, who didn't get off even when we all gave them hard stares!

After we had finished our walk, Grizzly and Polar drove up to Mow Cop, with Milly and Blueberry's humans following, so they could see the view right across Cheshire from the top of the hill.

Then it was time for our friends to carry on their journey to their campsite.  We felt sorry for the humans because, while we 'stuffies' could all share hugs, they weren't allowed to, but hopefully things will get better and safer for humans soon and we will be able to visit Milly and Blueberry on Uppie in Birmingham before too long.