Garden Bears' World - A Surplus of Apples

 

When we haven't been going for walks or having boating adventures, we have tried to be helpful bears about the house and in the garden.  

This year, we had a very good harvest of apples.  Some of them keep well for eating fresh or baking, but the Discovery apples won't stay nice for long, so Polar bought a press so she could get the juice out of them.

Hanley Bear helped to chop the apples in half, to check for rotten bits and insect damage, and washed the barrel of the press - Polar says it helps to make it wet, so the wood doesn't soak up the apple juice!

Then we helped to put all the pieces together.  There is a stand, with a hole to screw in the central spindle, then the barrel goes on with a bag for the apple to stop big bits getting into the juice.

To get the most juice out, the apples need to be broken into very small pieces.  Polar uses a rubber mallet to smash them up, or sometimes puts them in a plastic bag and treads on it!  I had a go with the mallet, but it was rather heavy for me and the smaller bears couldn't lift it at all.

When we had smashed enough apples to almost fill the bag, it was time to attach the pressing gear - although juice was already running out of the pulp - and it smelled delicious!

Hanley and Endon put the first two blocks on.  These cover the whole of the top of the barrel.  Then there are some blocks of wood that push these down.  These go on top rather like a Jenga game.

Hanley Bear decided this was science, so a job for him.  He piled up the blocks and then, with Polar's help, fitted the handle to the press.  

Balancing very carefully, he gave the handle a few turns, but it was soon too hard for a small bear to push it any further, and Polar took over.

A barrel of pulp makes about a litre of apple juice.  We put one bottle in the fridge, to enjoy with breakfast, then pressed two more loads, which Polar has frozen, so we can enjoy it for a few more weeks.

'And I have just the thing for disposing of the pulp!' she said.

I will tell you all about what that is in our next Garden Bears' World.

Autumn Walks - The Whitfield Valley Nature Reserve

Now that autumn is here and there is less work to do in the garden and on the allotment, Polar and Grizzly want to try and keep fit by doing lots of walks, and have decided to visit some of the country parks around this area they haven't been to before.

 

 Of course, we like to go with them, even when it is chilly or windy and we need our duffle coats on, as it's always interesting to go somewhere we haven't been before.  One of these places is the Whitfield Valley Nature Reserve, on the north-east side of Stoke-on-Trent.

Like many of the country parks in our area, it hasn't always been so green, as there was a very big colliery close by, but now it is lovely.  There is a large lake here, with geese, swans, ducks and some great crested grebes, including a young one which was still pestering its parent for food, despite being quite big.

After passing the lake, the main path runs along the valley, past the football centre at Bradeley - where Hanley Bear stopped to watch some players practicing - until it reaches the neighbouring Chatterley Whitfield Heritage Country Park, which Grizzly said we would visit another day (and we did!). 

 

Once we had reached the northern edge of the nature reserve where the fishing lake is, Grizzly led us all along a smaller path which went through some woods and followed a little stream back towards the big lake.

This took us into perfect small bear adventure country, where there were autumn leaves to play in and small trees to climb, so we jumped out of our Bear Bag to have fun.

 

You can see that we really enjoyed ourselves and, by the time we had finished scurrying about exploring, we were quite tired and hungry.  Luckily, it was almost lunch time and Polar and Grizzly were ready to go home too.

So, the next time you see pictures on your television of Stoke-on-Trent, looking all built up and run down, remember that there is lots of green space here too.  

You can explore more of it with us bears in another blog soon.

Return to 'The Macc'

 

Although we haven't been on any more long adventures on Uppie, we bears did have a day out when it was sunny a couple of weekends ago.

It was a very still day, so we quickly put our life jackets on and scrambled up onto the roof for a good view.  We were just going a little way up the Macclesfield Canal, so Grizzly and Polar could get the fuel tank topped up before the winter and, hopefully, get a new front fender for Uppie from the boatyard at Scholar Green.

There is only one little lock along this route at a pretty place called Hall Green, where there are a couple of lovely little cottages, but it used to be quite hard to operate.  Grizzly (who used to have more trouble than Polar with it,because he is smaller) was especially pleased to find that, while Uppie was down on the Weaver, the Canal and River Trust had fitted new gates.

'That's much better!' he said, when he got back onto the boat.

This part of the canal is quite shady as it runs through a cutting.  We bears like looking at the pretty gardens beside the water, but we had to duck and put our paws over our heads when we went under one of the willow trees.  

Then we were out into the open countryside again, looking out for interesting things and boats with funny names - like this one.

We even saw a big bear looking out at the canal, who waved to us - and we waved back.

'I bet he would like to be a boat bear!' said Hanley.

'We are very lucky bears, aren't we?' said Endon.

One of the nice things about boating at this time of year is seeing the pretty autumn leaves, although Polar says they can slow the boat down because they can stick to the sides of the boat and get around the propeller.

Grizzly turned the boat around at Ramsdell Hall and we moored for lunch nearby, before heading a little way back to the boatyard and marina where we would get our supplies.

Someone was operating a little model boat.

'That reminds me of The Danny,' said Hanley, remembering the lovely Daniel Adamson steam boat we had seen on the River Weaver.

Polar and Grizzly went to organise the fuel and fender.  We stayed on the roof, hoping that the dark skies weren't going to mean rain before we got home.

Then Grizzly came over from the little shop with a present for us - a little pot of chocolate mint ice-cream!

'We really are lucky little bears!' I said.

Once Uppie's new fender had been fitted, it was time to set off for home, back through the countryside and the cutting to the little lock.  It was starting to get a little bit cooler now, but we decided we still liked being on the roof.

Polar steered us home from the lock.  She was quite shocked when we got back to Hardingswood Junction, as she realised that the new supermarket being built nearby was very big and was going to look very ugly from the canal.

'Booo!' cried Hanley Bear.  'I liked Hardingswood Junction, because it looked just like it did a hundred years ago - and now it won't!'

He was still doing a very hard stare when we got back inside Uppie - Polar had lifted us down off the roof as she wanted to see if she could turn Uppie in the canal right opposite our mooring (and she can!).

'Maybe we can help Polar and Grizzly write to the Council and to Lidl's, and get some nice trees planted along the fence to screen it from the junction?' I said to the other bears, who agreed that we should do something.  

Then it was time to take off our life-jackets ready to go home.  We hope to have another Uppie adventure soon, so I'll tell you all about it when we do.