A Little Holiday

We were back at the little huts in Hampshire so Polar could visit her Dad, who will be ninety-two this year, and Grizzly could see his grandcubs, who will be nine and six.

Before they set of for Grandad Polar's house, Polar took her camera for an early morning walk around the fishing lakes to see if she could get some nice landscape and wildlife photos.  It was quite a misty morning and damp, so we were happy to stay in with Grizzly and eat toast and marmalade.

Grandad Polar lives near Southampton.  When we arrived at his house, he told us that the local paper said a big liner was due to sail, so we all went down to the beach to see it go out, but it didn't seem to be going anywhere, so we went home for lunch instead and heard it leaving hours later.

Here are Polar, Grizzly and Grandad Polar in his garden.  Polar had to set the timer on her camera and then runrunrun to get in the photo.  She had three goes before she got a shot with everyone in - except us bears, because we were having naps under the apple tree.

Polar and Grizzly had a really interesting day with Grandad Polar, as he had been tidying his house and had found lots of old photographs, including some of Polar's mum and dad getting married and of Polar as a cub!

There were also some railway overalls and jackets from when he was a train driver, which he gave to Grizzly, to take to the nice people at the Churnet Valley Railway, although Polar kept a railway boiler suit for gardening in!

Then Polar went into the loft to collect some of her best old toys, including her Lego, to take to Grizzly's  grandcubs.  She said she had found a surprise for us too, but didn't say what it was.

The following morning, we drove into West Sussex to meet the cubs at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust's nature reserve at Arundel.  It's a super site on the tidal estuary of the River Arun, where there are marshes,meadows and reed beds for wild birds and enclosures for endangered and rescue birds.

Soon after we arrived, the boys did some pond dipping, supervised by one of the reserve's staff, who helped them identify dozens of different pond-dwelling insects and creatures.

"I wonder if we've got any of those creatures in our pond?" said Waverley.  We bears thought it would be fun to get proper pond-dipping nets and trays so we could do an experiment when we got home, so we are looking out for something suitable.

Grizzly's grandcubs had a lovely day at the nature reserve.  They fed the geese and ducks, watched wild birds from hides and saw sand martins from a special hide that had been built with little tunnels for them to nest in.

There was even a glass-fronted pool where we could see ducks swimming under water!

From the reserve, we could see Arundel Castle.  Polar promised Waverley that we would take him to see the gardens there one day, as they are supposed to be very pretty.  Hanley said he hoped there would be fighting with swords and jousting.

 

Polar took lots of photos but was quite pleased with one of a lapwing.  She told us that when she was a cub, there used to be huge flocks on an airfield near her school and they were so common she thought they were 'boring', but suddenly they became much rarer.  Thanks to good conservation work, they are recovering, but Polar says she will never call them boring again!

Grizzly's grandcubs adopted two kingfishers at the WWT reserve, who they named Kyle and Bob.  While Grizzly had a nap, we went for a walk with Polar, the cubs and their mummy and daddy.

We bears had worried that the cubs might have reached the age where they felt too grown up to play with us, but not at all.  They remembered lots of things about Hanley, Endon and me, and were delighted to meet little Waverley.

Kyle and Bob made a nest and the boys fetched some flowers for us.  Hanley Bear said he liked red and white, so they found some reddish leaves from a copper beech tree and some rose petals for him.

The elder of the cubs told us that we small bears were like little gods because we were immortal, and must have been rewarded for doing something heroic.  I cannot think of anything heroic we have done, however, and we certainly don't have any special powers!

Waverley got to fly back to the cars on Bob the kingfisher, which he said was a little bit like being a superhero, then we all went out for a nice dinner in a pub garden.  Because being immortal is thirsty work, Hanley persuaded Grizzly to let him drink some beer.

The following morning, it was time to come home.  Polar and Grizzly drove us back to our house, then Polar showed us what she had found in Grandad Polar's loft for us.

"There's a bear-sized tea set," she said.  "And the Ladybird books I had when I was a cub."

"How exciting!"  I gasped.  "We love Ladybird Books!"

 

Hanley Bear started reading the one about space, which had been one of Polar's favourites.  Because it is an old book, some of the science in it is out-of-date, but there are some wonderful illustrations.

Endon picked out the one about wild flowers, while I found there was a picture of a canal in "What to look for in Summer".

 

There was also "What to look for in Winter", a book about kings and queens of England and some fairy tales.  One of them scared us, because a kindly bear who made friends with two little girls turned into a human prince, but Polar reassured us that we wouldn't magically turn into humans.

We can't wait to add our new books to our Libeary on Uppie and we'll have lots to read about if we have wet weather on our next journey!