A Visit to Grandad Polar

Last month, we bears went on a little holiday to the south of England with Polar and Grizzly, staying at Grandad Polar's house for a few days, then at the little shepherd's hut so we could see Grizzly's grandcubs and their family.

Grandad Polar is over 92 years old, which is a great age for a human or a small bear.  He used to be a steam engine driver, and Grizzly got him a replica of his favourite locomotive's name-plate for his birthday one year, which you can just see in this photo Polar took of him in his workshop.

He still enjoys pottering in his workshop and growing plants for his garden, and he still cooks his own dinners, but he cannot walk very far these days.  He is always kind to us bears when we visit and, this time, he let Hanley and Huddlesford explore the workshop, which is full of what he calls "handy stuff", as he knows they like engineering. 

While they were exploring, they found a plug and a switch.  Hanley wondered what it did, so he flicked the switch to find out.  It made the lion fountain in the little pond work, so we all went to have a look at it.

We were thrilled when we found there were newts in the pond, even though it is only small, and also dragonfly larvae.  We called Polar so she could take a picture of one of the newts.  We get frogs in our ponds, but have never seen newts in them.

Grandad Polar's garden has several fruit trees, which Polar helps to prune when she comes to visit.  They are a good height for small bears to climb, so we did, and the cubs found a hanging basket they could use as a swing!

Endon Bear found some runner bean plants in one of the greenhouses.  Grandad Polar said it was probably time to plant them out, so Endon helped Polar to plant them for him, in a sunny bed beside the patio.

"We have to start our beans much later," Polar explained to Endon.  "Grandad Polar lives on the south coast and almost at sea level, while we are two-hundred miles further north and up on a hill, so we tend to get later frosts."

Here they are, all planted out.  Grandad Polar says they have already climbed all the way to the top of the canes!

We all enjoyed playing in Grandad Polar's garden that afternoon, climbing trees, running about on the lawn and playing hode-and-seek among the flowers, but we were very careful not to break anything.

Another day, when it was warmer, Polar took us to see the beach.  It isn't sandy, but among the stones and gravel there are lots of shells.  We decided to collect some to decorate our garden.  

Polar says she thinks there are more shells than there used to be when she was a child, which she hopes is a sign that the water is cleaner.

Polar checked the tide times before taking us along the section by this sandy cliff, as she says the water comes right up to it at high tide.  Southampton Water is unusual in having four high tides a day, because of the way the tides flow around the Isle of Wight.

Hanley Bear found a huge lump of what looked like iron on the beach, which he decided was either part of a ship-wreck or was a meteorite!

Huddlesford thought he had found a bear cave in a gap in some metal piling but, if it was, the bear who lived there wasn't a very friendly one!

Later in the afternoon, we came back to the beach to watch two big liners setting off on cruises.  The first one, which had two funnels, was called the Britannia.

We watched it all the way from when it left the docks until it was passing the Isle of Wight to go out to sea, including making a zig-zag around some sandbanks called The Brambles.  

Grizzly told us that when they lived in Southampton, one of their neighbours was a maritime pilot and used to guide big ships in and out of the port.  One day, he ley Grizzly go with him, and they had to climb up the side of a huge container ship on a rope ladder!

Then another big ship left the port.  This was the Queen Elizabeth.  We didn't watch this one all the way to the Isle of Wight as it was almost teatime, and Grandad Polar was making a cream tea for us when we got back.

We even got to see Doctor Rachael one day, when she was still Nearly-doctor Rachael, when she and her mummy and daddy came to visit, although we were a little bit sad that Horsey didn't come too.

Aren't we lucky bears!