Return to Parrot's Drumble

 Last Sunday morning, our human guardians took us out for a long walk.

Polar's plan was to follow a footpath that would take us across the fields near the farm shop and up to a monument on the hill south of our village.  It was a bright but cool morning, so she and Grizzly got their coats and walking boots on and set off, with us in our bear bag.

We enjoyed looking at the countryside and some baby lambs as we made our way along the path but, when we got to the big dual carriageway, Polar and Grizzly had a shock.  There was no bridge or tunnel to cross the main road!

We sat on the stile while Polar and Grizzly talked about what to do.  It was scary how fast the cars and lorries were going past!  We were very relieved when Polar and Grizzly decided it was too risky to cross the road, and turned back towards the village.

Luckily, the path goes along one side of the lovely Staffordshire Wildlife Trust nature reserve called Parrot's Drumble, which we bears had visited back in 2018 to see the bluebells - and it was bluebell time again!

The path we took into the bluebell woods this time went along a ridge above a stream with orange water, because we're still in an area with lots of iron in the rocks.  As well as bluebells, there were patches of celandines and wood anemones, and some wonderful old trees.

Polar put our bag down so we could get out to explore, as long as we promised to stay well away from the stream.  We followed her and Grizzly along the path, until we found a super tree.

It had a hole at the bottom that made a great little bear cave, with a tiny holly tree growing just outside.  

Then we found a marvellous tree for climbing, which was almost hollow in the centre and covered in ivy. 

We spent so long playing on these trees that, when we looked around, we couldn't see our human guardians.  We climbed another stump with a good view of the path to look for them, but they were nowhere in sight.

'The path curves round a little bit further down the slope,' said Hanley, peering ahead through the trees.  'If we run through the bluebell patch in front of us, we can cut off a corner and maybe catch up with them.'

So that's what we did but, when we got to the path, there was still no sign of them.  We thought we could make out Polar's big footprints but couldn't be sure - and the path forked just ahead of us!

'I'll climb higher and see if I can spot them,' Waverley offered, and scrambled up a long, trailing piece of ivy to a sunny branch.  'We need the left-hand fork,' he called down.  'The other path goes back towards the path across the fields, and I think I can see Polar's hat bobbing along further along the left-hand one.'

From his vantage point, Waverley directed us to another short-cut, then we waited while he caught up with us.

'Now I'm down here, I can't see where we have to go next!' he said, in a small, worried voice, but Hanley Bear said he could definitely smell humans ahead, and he was right - as we were soon back on the path and in a clearing where some of the fallen trees had been carved with words and pictures.

We climbed up onto a big, curved bough with some carving on it and, sitting just across the path from us, we saw Grizzly.

'Yay!' we cheered, and Grizzly waved back.

Polar asked if we wanted a lift in the Bear Bag, but we were having so much fun climbing and playing at being wild bears that we said we didn't, at least for now.

We were coming to the part of the woods where the bluebells are at their prettiest, and there were still excellent climbing trees and stumps.

This time, we ran a long way ahead of our human guardians, while Polar was taking photographs, so had to wait for them to catch up, so we found a tree stump in a sunny glade.  I was going to have a small nap but Endon said he could smell dogs somewhere close by, and we should be ready to climb something tall if they were too nosy or fierce.

Endon was right - there were dog-walkers coming towards us, so we climbed a very big beech tree to hide from the humans and get up where the dogs could not reach us.

We had the most wonderful view of all the bluebells from up in our tree - and we could see Polar coming too.

It was almost time to get back in the Bear Bag for our lift home, but not before Waverley had climbed the Nature Reserve sign.

'Can we come here again tomorrow?' asked Waverley, but Polar and Grizzly said they had other things to do, and we might come back in a few days, if it wasn't too rainy, as the paths get very muddy and slippery if there is a lot of rain.

There has been a lot of rain in the last few days, so we think we might not be going back to Parrot's Drumble for a little while, but we are very lucky bears to live so close to such a lovely site.

I wonder if we will have a walk up to the monument one day?