Return to Trentham Gardens

 

Because our humans have been extra careful while the nasty virus has been about, it's been more than a year since we last visited Trentham Gardens.

Now Grizzly has had both of his vaccinations against the virus, and Polar has had one, our humans are getting out a little bit more.  Last Friday, Polar arranged to meet our Aunty Tina, her friend who used to look after Hanley Bear, at Trentham Gardens, and we all went too.

Aunty Tina had brought one of her bears along to meet us, a very tiny bear who is even smaller than Waverley!  We did not have very long to chat and make friends, because Aunty Tina was also looking after her Mum and needed to take her home before she got too cold, but perhaps we will meet Tiny Bear again another day.

Trentham is always lovely at this time of year, when the spring bulbs are in flower.  We think the tulips look particularly nice in these tall terracotta pots.

After walking to the exit with Aunty Tina and her Mum, Polar and Grizzly took us for a walk all around the lake.  Some more big trees had been cut down, which would make us sad if there weren't lots of new trees being planted.

After doing some climbing, we looked out for the birds on the lake, seeing greylag geese and the black swans, as well as grebes, tufted ducks and cormorants.

There was also a big, bold heron standing on the edge of the River Trent where the overflow from the lake runs out, who didn't seem at all bothered by Polar and Grizzly walking over the bridge behind him.

We had ice-cream from the cafe at the far end of the lake and watched the rowers practicing, before setting off along the west bank of the lake where the woodland meadows are.

As there were not too many people about, Polar helped us out of our bag and we did some more climbing on tree-stumps that we remembered from our previous visits - except Waverley, of course, as he had not been to Trentham before.

Waverley couldn't believe how beautiful the woodland meadows were, with masses of scented narcissi in big drifts under the trees.  'It looks like snow!' he cried.

We all sat together on a fallen branch, enjoying the sunshine and the scent of the flowers, before running up the path to catch up with our human guardians.

A little further on, Waverley found a bracket fungus that was big enough for him to sit on!

Polar carried us in our Bear Bag back along the high path above the lake to the formal gardens, and then along the route to the exit.  It took us through the area that is full of tall perennial plants later in the year, but looks like scrubby grass at this time of year.

It was chilly enough for us to put our jumpers on when we got back to the bridge out of the gardens. 

'Can we come again soon?' asked Waverley.  'It's lovely here!'

'We've all missed it too,' said Endon.  'I hope we can visit when the irises are in flower.'

'Hopefully, we can visit regularly in future,' said Polar.  'We've updated our annual tickets.'

We all cheered, because Trentham Gardens is one of our favourite places to visit in the whole world - although there is an awful lot of the world we haven't been to yet!

I wonder where we will go next?

Waverley's First Boat Trip

Last week, Polar and Grizzly had some exciting news for us - we were going to have a little break on Uplander II, our narrowboat.  It cheered us all up, after trying to support Hanley Bear's team through a dull, goalless football match, and Waverley was particularly excited as he hadn't stayed overnight on the boat before.  

'Take your basket of clothes and souvenirs with you,' said Polar, as we started sorting out what we needed for our little holiday.  'We need to swap it for the big basket on the boat, which is slightly too big for the space between the seats.'

On Monday morning, it was bright and sunny as Uppie pulled away from our wharf, heading north to Hardingswood Junction then turning under the bridge for the Macclesfield Canal.  We sat out in the cratch in my old bunk, as it was the safest place for little Waverley, who doesn't have a life-jacket yet.

One of the most interesting places on this canal is where an aqueduct carries us over the top of the Trent and Mersey Canal.  We had shown Waverley this on one of our walks, but it's even more exciting going over a canal on a boat on another canal!

There is only one little lock on the lower section of this canal, but it was hard to work through because the bottom gate wouldn't open fully, and Uppie could only just squeeze in.  

Further along, there were some repairs being made to the towpath.  We cheered the workers, as it's important to boaters, hikers and cyclists for the towpath to be safe, but they couldn't hear us for the noise of their machines.

The canal runs through a town called Congleton, past a lovely old warehouse building that has been turned into flats, over an aqueduct with smart black and white railings, and under the second of two 'turnover' bridges, that allowed the horses of horse-drawn boats to cross the canal when the towpath changed sides, without having to unhitch.

Just north of the town there is another aqueduct and a high embankment, which carries the canal over a tributary of the River Dane.  A superb railway viaduct also spans the valley and there are nice moorings on the embankment which give a good view of it.

As we crossed the embankment, we saw a family of little fluffy baby ducklings.  They were even smaller than Waverley!

By evening, we had reached the Bosley Locks.  We moored below them and we weren't going up the locks; there is a canal 'stoppage' above the locks, so we couldn't go through to Macclesfield even if we wanted to.  Polar and Grizzly took us for a walk part of the way up the lock flight before dinner.

The canal crosses the Dane again here, and there is an even longer railway viaduct across the valley, which we must have been over in the train when we've gone to Manchester.

After our dinner, it was time to swap our bear baskets over.  Waverley, who only has one little onesie to wear, was amazed to see all the clothes we have.  

'We must remind Polar to make you some more things,' Endon said.  'She's supposed to be making some things for some of our bear friends, but you will need some summer clothes first.'

Then we had to take our bedclothes out of the other basket.  While we were doing that, Hanley found the beret he wore when we went to Belgium and tried it on again, while Waverley tried his cap on.

When both baskets were empty, we put all our clothes and keepsakes into the bigger basket and made the smaller one up as a bear bed.

And we still had time before bed for a game of football!

Waverley hadn't played before but he was actually very good and had lots of fun, until Polar told us it was time for bed.

We took off our life jackets, jumpers and hats and soon we were snuggled up in our new bed basket.  Grizzly asked if we would like a story, and read us a few pages of Peter Rabbit, but we were so sleepy we fell asleep before he could finish it.

We woke up before our human guardians the next morning.  We decided we would play quietly until breakfast time.  

Waverley wanted to find out what happened at the end of the Peter Rabbit story, so he sat in the basket with me while I read to him.  

Endon looked out of the window at a high hill called The Cloud, and wondered what it would be like to climb it!

Meanwhile, Hanley practised his football skills, although when I was at the most exciting part of the story, all the other bears climbed back to the basket to listen.

After breakfast, we had to turn Uppie around, which meant going up through the bottom lock to the big 'winding hole', and then coming back down again.  

This would be the first time Waverley had been in a proper lock, so we decided we would all stay inside the boat where he would feel safest, and watch out of the window.

Polar worked the lock, emptying it so Uppie could go in, closing the gate behind us, then letting in some water to raise us up to the level of the next pound.  Waverley was a little nervous at how dark it was down in the lock and relieved to see the sunlight again when we reached the top.

Then Grizzly turned the boat around and came back into the lock, Polar closed the top gates and paddles, then started letting the water out of the lock.  It went dark inside the boat again, but not for long.  Soon Polar had the bottom gates open and Uppie could leave the lock, and start the journey home. 

Endon kept looking at The Cloud and told us he hoped he could climb it one day.  'I bet you could see the Peak District from there,' he said.

Hanley was looking out of the window at the long railway viaduct.  'I'd like to see that close up,' he said.  'I wonder how close Polar and Grizzly could get us in the car?'

There was plenty to see to keep us interested on our journey home.  We stopped for lunch at the aqueduct near Congleton and Polar and Grizzly met some boating friends there, before going back through the town, including the tricky bridges under the railway.

While we were on our way back, Hanley, Endon and I explained more about boating to Waverley.

'You can read about some of our other adventures in the log Grizzly writes of our journeys,' I told him, showing him the log book.

I also showed Waverley our 'Libeary' of Observer's books and Beatrix Potter stories, and he climbed up the china shelf too! 

Soon we were passing Ramsdell Hall, which meant we weren't very far from Polar and Grizzly's favourite pub, although we weren't able to go there for our dinner that day.

It was getting late in the afternoon and light rain was falling when we got back to Kidsgrove, so it was nice to see some of the other boaters looking out for us and ready to help us moor up.

There was a reason why they were looking out for us - a duck has made her nest very close to where Uppie's bow usually comes to rest and, without help, we might have bumped into it!

We hope that, the next time we visit, we'll see little fluffy ducklings swimming all around Uppie!