Another visit to Trentham

I have lots more to tell you about our journeys to the Peak District last week but first, I am going to share some pictures Polar took of us yesterday, having fun at Trentham Gardens.  It is one of our favourite places to play, as there are so many pretty flowers with nice smells, as well as interesting places to explore.

It was a very warm spring day yesterday, so Polar and Grizzly decided we would go round the lake first.  They carried us most of the way in the bear bag, as there were geese and swans on the path.  Because the birds are making nests, they were being fierce and hissy, which would have been frightening for us small bears if we had been on our own.

Polar let us out of our bag to see two of the famous fairies and to play on a hollow tree, while she took pictures of a new sculpture.  The tree was big enough inside to make a small bear cave, so we crawled inside and pretended to be wild bears, smelling spring in the air and coming out of our hibernation den.

'If we were wild bears, the geese and swans definitely wouldn't hiss at us,' said Hanley Bear, practicing a menacing growl, but he didn't look at all scary, especially wearing a jumper with a steam train on it!

After a cup of tea at the café by the lake, Polar and Grizzly carried us into the woods where drifts of lovely flowers have been planted.  Polar put us down just off the path in a quiet place near a little stream.

'As long as you don't get under other humans' feet, you can have a good run and play around here,' she said.  'We are going to take some photographs of the grebes, so we won't be far away.'

We found a bank of celandines in the sunshine where we could sit to plan our adventure, then scurried off to find some big bug sculptures we had wanted to climb for ages. 

'There are no human cubs on them today,' I said.  'Let's climb!'

We scrambled up onto the giant beetles and pretended we were riding them through the forest, then we jumped off into the soft bark chippings around them, and did some rolling.

'Where are Grizzly and Polar?' asked Endon, who was worried we had lost them.

'We're here,' said Polar, lifting him up and picking little bark chips out of his fur.  'Look at all this dirt!  You bears are going to need a bath soon.'

'Nooo!' cried Endon and Hanley Bear.  'It's too cold!'  Which is true, because it's still very cold at night.

'We can make ourselves smell nice by running through these daffodils,' I said, and I dashed away up another path through lots of lovely white flowers.  I ran and ran until I was so tired I had to sit down on a tree stump.  I thought I was lost, but Grizzly spotted me and passed me to Polar.

'You've got muddy back paws now,' she said.  'But you do smell of narcissus rather than grubby bear.  Maybe we won't bath you just yet.'

We were all allowed to have another run and found some rocks by a stream to climb on. 

'Maybe I could wash my back paws in the stream?' I said, but Hanley said it smelt cold and that as we didn't have a towel with us, that wasn't a good idea at all.

'Tea and cake would be a much better idea,' he said.  'Let's race across the grass to the other café!'

'We'll have tea and cake when we get home, bears,' said Polar, picking him up and snuggling him into the bear bag before he could run off.  'It's time to go now, as we have to do some shopping, but we'll come again very soon.'

I'm sure we will and, when we do, I will tell you all about it.

Lending a Helping Paw

We have many wonderful adventures with our human guardians, Polar and Grizzly, so we try to be good and helpful bears when we are at home. 

One of the ways we can help is by gardening.  We love to explore and to play in the garden, climbing the shrubs, smelling the flowers and looking for interesting things in the pond, so it seems only fair to help to look after it.  Last weekend, Hanley Bear found frogspawn in the pond.

We know that there is serious work to be done when Polar gets her big boots out.  These are so big that a small bear could make a den inside one!  This time, Polar had some early potatoes to plant in one of the vegetable beds. 

'Let us help!' cried Endon, who loves to eat potatoes, especially scrummy little new ones. 

'Okay, bears,' said Polar.  'It'll be quite hard work, as we need ten deep holes to put them in and you only have little tools to dig with.'

'I have an idea!' I said.  I asked Polar to fetch the bulb planter from the greenhouse and pushed it into the ground where we wanted the first potato planted. 



It was very hard work for a small bear and it was even harder pulling it back out of the ground.  Hanley and Endon came to help and, after much huffing, puffing and pulling, we had our first potato planted.

Then we had to squeeze the bulb planter to get the soil plug to drop out of it, which took all three of us using all our might again.

'Poor little bears!' said Polar, seeing how out of breath we were.  'That's very heavy work for you.  Why don't I make the holes, then you can roll the potatoes in and use your little fork and spade to cover them over?'

This sounded like a much better idea.  Soon, we had all the potatoes planted and could have fun exploring again.

Polar put some netted frames that Grizzly had made over the potato patch, to stop naughty cats digging in it.  One of these made a very good small bear trampoline!  We did lots of bouncing and kept jumping until we were too tired to jump any more.

We went to check on Polar's nursery of spare plants.  'Some of these might be for the Secret Garden at work,' I told the other bears.  We hope to see it one day soon

When we went into the greenhouse, we found lots of pots to sort out and to clean.  We know this is a boring job Polar hates and were going to make a start on sorting them for her, when Grizzly came to fetch us.

'We're going to the allotment now,' he said.  'There are more potatoes to plant down there, and some onions.  Would you like to come along?'

'Yay!' we cheered, and we jumped into the big trug.  When we arrived, the small bears ran up the path to check on the garlic we had planted.

'It's taller than us!' Hanley Bear announced.  'And it's still very smelly!'

The onions were rather smelly too but, as they didn't have to be planted too deeply, I said I would take care of that while the smaller bears helped plant potatoes again.  I made some neat rows across a bed which Polar had raked ready, then started spacing out the onions in them.

There were a lot more in the bag than I had expected.  Even after I had planted a whole bed of them, I had enough left for four more rows.

'I'll plant those, Sonning,' said Polar.  'You've been such a good bear but you've done enough for one day.  Come and sit down by the shed and have a nice, cool drink of water.'

Hanley and Endon had been busy too, helping Polar and Grizzly plant potatoes.  There was only one job left to do, which was to put rotted horse manure on the beds.  We left that to Polar and Grizzly, as we can't push the big wheelbarrow and we knew we would need baths if we got the horse poo on us!

When we got home we had scones and rice pudding for tea, then settled down for a well-earned sleep, as we were due to go on another adventure the very next day.

A Visit to Dove Dale

Although my favourite adventures happen by boat, Grizzly and Polar also take us bears to interesting places in their little red car. 

Polar has a week off work this week, so we are having even more small bear adventures than usual.

Last Friday, we bears went to the Peak District for the first time.  Most people think the Peak District is all in Derbyshire but my friend Hanley Bear was very proud to tell me that some of it is in Staffordshire.

'The best bits are all in Staffordshire!' he insisted. 

Polar and Grizzly took us to a village called Ilam, where there is an old country house, now used as a youth hostel, and a path that goes to a place called Dove Dale. 

'It's quite a long walk, bears,' said Polar.  'You had better stay in your bag for most of it, so you don't tire your back paws and we can keep you safely away from the rivers.'

There are two very lovely rivers here.  One is called the Manifold, and it runs through the grounds of Ilam House.  The other is the Dove, which is the boundary between Staffordshire and Derbyshire. 

Polar was right that we had a long walk to Dove Dale, at least if you are a small bear.  Humans who like hiking would think it was a short and easy walk.  One path winds around the sides of stony fields full of sheep and little skippy lambs. 

The fields were divided by walls made from loose rocks.  These are called dry-stone walls, because they are not held together with mortar or cement, they are just put together very cleverly so the all pieces fit neatly and snugly, like a jigsaw.

Polar followed a little path the sheep had made across the moors to take a better photo of the view.  If you look closely and the picture on the right, you can just see Grizzly walking along near the wall.  He looks no bigger than a small bear!

Dove Dale is very narrow, with the sparkling river running very swiftly through a steep, limestone gorge.  Because it had been rainy a few days earlier, the river had flowed over its banks in places.  Polar didn't mind, as she had her big walking boots on, but we were very glad to be in our bear bag. 

You can see that, when we got to the stepping stones across to Derbyshire, there was water to wade through just to reach them.  We wondered what to do next.  We knew Polar could carry us across in our bag, but we didn't want her or Grizzly to slip on the rocks.

'We've got quite a long walk back,' Grizzly said.  'Let's stop here for a quick drink of water, then go back to Ilam House for a nice cup of tea.'

'And some cake!'  I said.

'Or scones!' said Endon.

'Or oatcakes!' cheered Hanley.

Polar put the bear bag down for us to sit on, as the grass was damp.  We watched lots of people going back and forth across the stepping stones.  I would have liked to see what was around the corner, further along the valley.  Grizzly and Polar promised we would come back soon, when the bluebells are in flower, while Hanley said we had already seen the best part as that had to be the Staffordshire side of the river!

'You might change your mind when we take you into Derbyshire next week,' said Polar, but Hanley stamped his back paws and gave a little growl.

'Staffordshire is best!' he said.

When we got back to Ilam House, we had coffee and walnut cake in the tearooms.  We had enjoyed our day so much that I asked Polar to help me write a review on the visitor feedback form, then posted it into the little box.

Polar let us play in the gardens before we went home and we found they had little deckchair which are just the right size for small bears to nap in, although the smaller bears were too excitable and wriggly for me to sleep during the afternoon, so we played hide-and-seek around the flower beds until it was time to go home.