Garden Bears' World, with Waverley Bear

 

Goodness me, everyone!  The three bigger bears have disappeared for a little holiday with their human friends Aunty Anne and Uncle Alan, and I have been left in charge of our Twitter account and Sonning's blog.  

I'm Waverley, the smallest and newest member of our hug.  I'm originally from Glasgow, where me and lots of small bears like me help to look after a beautiful paddle-steamer.  I love boats but get seasick, so my human friend Uncle Derek suggested I come to live with some inland waterways boating bears - and here I am!

Endon Bear usually writes our Garden Bears' World posts, but today it's my job, so I'm going to share some photos of the tulips in the pots on Polar and Grizzly's patio.  Don't they look grand?

As you can see, some of them are as big as me.  I tried to sit in the one on the right, but the stem was a wee bit too bendy and I ended up in a heap in the forget-me-nots!

The big pond Polar built that we all went boating on is settling in now.  Last week, there was a load of nasty green algae growing on it, but after the rain this week I'm glad to say that's all sunk and the water is looking nice and clear again.

Being a very wee bear, I can climb things that even Endon - who's quite the mountaineering bear - can't get up to.  Here I am high up in the alpina clematis, which is covered in these little harebell-blue flowers now, and in the wisteria, that is almost ready to flower.

The rhododendron is flowering now too.  I like watching the big bumble bees visiting the flowers, but we couldn't catch any of them in the photograph.

Polar asks us bears not to climb the fruit bushes, so she lifted me up to see the flowers forming on the blackcurrants and on the gooseberries.  I love gooseberry jam, but I won't be doing any climbing to pick them, as the stems are covered in nasty bear-proof prickles.

Right at the bottom of the garden is a tree Polar planted two years ago, which is a quince.  There was just one flower last year and no fruit but this year there are lots more buds so I have my paws and claws crossed that we can make quince jelly.

Down in the vegetable garden we have some perennial leeks, called Babbington's Leek.  Polar grew them from little 'bulbules' and they are supposed to regrow each year if you just cut the leaves off to eat.  We had some with our dinner one night and they taste like garlicky leeks!

To keep the frost off the potatoes, Polar used shredded paper, held in place by some chicken wire.  We're hoping there won't be any more frosts here now.

We bears helped to plant some strawberry plants in this old recycling box, along with some sweet peas.  I love strawberries, so I'll help to look after them and make sure we get something to cover them with to keep the pigeons off.

Nearby is a big rosemary bush and a pear tree, fan-trained against the 'outhouse'.  The blossom looked very pretty but we don't know if we will get fruit this year, because of the late frosts.

I love playing in our garden, but it's not the same without my pals!

It'll be great when we're all back together, having fun, helping our humans and enjoying chocolate ginger cookies!