Snow Day!

 

This is only a short post as I try to get my blog up-to-date and get back into the habit of writing things regularly.

We have had several very cold days with snow here and although we Bears have been hoping to go out to play in it, it's really been too nasty for us or our human guardians.  

At last, we had some sunshine today and, as our humans needed to go out to buy some things for the house, Hanley Bear and I jumped into our bag and went with them.  They walked down to the big shopping mall near our house, which is all along streets and places where Small Bears can't really get out and play, but came back through the allotments.

  

Because we had been good Small Bears during the shopping trip, and hadn't pestered for sweets or cake, when we got to our plot Polar asked if we would like a few minutes out of our bag to play in the snow.

"Yes please!" we chorused.

It was great fun having fresh snow to run about in, although it was a lot deeper than we expected it to be.

     

"Let's play snowballs!" cried Hanley, quickly rolling up a little ball of snow.  I did the same, then we counted to ten and threw them at each other!

I had made a fairly big snowball, but it was quite losely packed and, when it hit Hanley Bear, it just disintegrated into lots of little powdery flakes.  But Hanley had packed his smaller snowball quite tightly, and it knocked me off of my feet!

We carried on throwing snowballs at each other until Grizzly decided we were probably getting too wet and cold, and picked us both up.

"Boooo!" said Hanley.  "I was enjoying that!"

But Grizzly was right - it was starting to get very chilly and our feet fur was particularly damp and cold.  

Polar put us back in our bag and carried us home, where we have been sitting on the radiator getting warm and dry again.  We won't burn our fur, because Polar and Grizzly's radiators never get too hot, but they are a nice temperature for warming up Small Bears!

A New Year Walk at Trentham

 After lots of dull weather, we finally had a bright, sunny day today and so, although it was very cold outdoors, Polar and Grizzly decided they would go out for a walk.  Polar wanted to take her big camera so said only two Small Bears could go with her and picked Huddlesford and me.

Some of the Christmas decorations were still in place around the formal gardens, but there were teams of people and big "cherry picker" machines starting to take them down.  Polar took our picture with the big Christmas tree near the cafe before we started a long walk around the lake.

We usually take the path beside the lake but this time went up towards the fields where the sheep live and into the woodland path that leads to the Witch-Hazel grove.  On the way there, we saw several of the pretty fairy sculptures, including one of fairy cubs playing on a dandelion clock.

We were sad to see some big oak trees had fallen over during the recent storms but happy to see how much the small magnolia trees had grown, as hopefully there will be lots of lovely flowers to see later in the spring.

The Witch-Hazel was already in flower and it looked lovely, with hundreds of spidery yellow blooms.  It also has a pleasant and gentle smell, and the little bushes were easy to climb, if you are a Small Bear - they are too small for grown-up humans or human cubs to climb.

  

There were more opportunities for climbing as we came back to the path around the lake, including a big tree stump with bracket fungi growing on it, and a very mossy log, although some logs and branches were still covered in frost, so we didn't try to climb those.

After our walk, Polar and Grizzly decided to get a hot lunch, and went to the "Pie Minister" pie shop in the shopping village.  We were hungry too, so were pleased to be allowed to share!

But it was starting to feel very cold on the way back to the car, so we are glad to be back indoors in the warm tonight.

And Polar says we can help her and Grizzly finish the last of the Christmas pudding for tea!