Early Snow

I have been a bad bear when it comes to keeping up with my blog this year and have got a long way behind with things to tell you about and pictures to share.  We have had some great adventures but sad things have happened to, and I have been at a loss with where to start writing again.  

This has been making me worried and anxious about everything I have to do, so human guardian Polar gave me a big hug and said, "Start writing your blog again with something short and simple that has happened recently, and you'll find you get back into the writing routine."  This is good advice from Polar, though she is no good at following it herself and hasn't done any creative writing for ages!

Anyway, we had a surprising amount of snow last night and this has given me something short and fun to write about, as my friends Hanley and Charlie were determined to enjoy the snow.  Our friend Digby sent us an Elf Sledge last winter and Hanley pestered Polar to fetch it from the greenhouse for him.

Polar carried Hanley Bear and Charlie, who hadn't seen snow before and wanted to go outside too, out to the front garden in our Bear Bag.  Hanley jumped straight out and started marching up the driveway, towing his sledge, but Charlie wasn't sure he liked this strange, cold, white powder on the ground.

Hanley was about half way up to the gate when he fancied the sledge had got heavier.  At first, he assumed some snow was sticking to it, and kept pulling, but when he turned around he saw Charlie had jumped aboard.

"This snow stuff is making my back paws chilly!" Charlie explained, "So I thought I'd cadge a lift!"

      

Hanley Bear was tempted to give him a hard stare but instead, he decided to be kind to his friend.  "I'll let you have the first run down the slope back to the house," he said.  "Jump aboard, duck!"

Once Charlie was on board, Hanley gave the sledge a good push.  It slid about a metre down the drive but getting slower and slower, then came to a stop.  The snow was so light and powdery that the sledge had sunk into it.

    

"Boooo!" said Hanley, who likes tabogganing really fast right down the drive.  "This snow is rubbish for sledging!  I wonder what it's like for playing snowballs?"

"What's 'snowballs'?" asked Charlie.

Hanley was very keen to show him, and soon the small bears were throwing paws-full of snow at each other.  Hanley was annoyed to find that Charlie had a good aim!

When Polar saw what they were doing, she picked them both up and shook all the snow off them.  "You little scamps!" she said.  "While you've been battling, I've cleared the snow off the drive so it's safe for the postie and the milkman tomorrow morning - but I've made a big heap of the snow on the lawn for you to play in."

"Yay!" cheered Hanley.  "We can build an Armoured Bear!"

Hanley's hero is Iorek Byrnison from Northern Lights and he always hopes we will get enough snow that we can build a big snow bear and Hanley can make armour for him from tinfoil plates and dishes. 

Because Polar had already piled the snow into a big heap and shaped it a bit, including balancing a head on it, the two small bears soon made it properly bear-shaped.  Charlie was sent to find some chunks of wood to make eyes and Hanley asked Polar for some tinfoil.

"I don't think it's worth using tinfoil to make armour for this bear, Hanley," she said.  "There's quite a thaw happening now." 

Hanley Bear gave a little growl, until Polar took him into the back garden and pointed up at the roof.  "You ought to be pleased about that - the snow has covered our solar panels  and we're not generating any of our own power today."

Before she took the bears in to warm up, Polar carried them down to the far end of the garden to see some tracks.  She saw a fox in the garden yesterday morning, and it looked as if he or she had been back during the night.

Hanley and Charlie had enjoyed their morning playing out in the snow, but they were both pleased to come indoors and warm up by the Christmas tree, especially when Polar gave them little mugs of hot chocolate when she made some for herself and Grizzly.  

We are all hoping for more little winter adventures and I will do my best to tell you all about them.