Putting up the Christmas Tree

 Because it has been such a strange, sad and gloomy year, we bears decided to try to cheer it up by encouraging our human guardians to put their Christmas decorations up early.

Polar and Grizzly have a thirty year-old artificial tree which they bought when they lived in their first house, long before they had bears to look after.  It lives in the loft between Christmases.  Hanley, who lives anything technical, enjoys helping to put it together.

There are three separate sections which Polar has to fit together, as they are far too big for small bears to lift.  Our job is to straighten out all the branches, as it gets crunched up when it is in its bags in the loft.

'I think they need more straightening than usual,' I told Hanley.

'They probably do, duck,' he answered.  'Don't forget, they used a different one last year, so it's had two years in the loft!'

Little Waverley joined Hanley on top of the middle section to make sure the top section was properly fitted, then Endon helped him to climb right to the top of the tree with the sparkly snowflakes we put at the top.

'Don't put any more decorations on yet!' ordered Hanley.  'We need to check the lights and put them on next.'

This was another Hanley Bear job, of course!  Polar bought some new ones in the sales last January and Hanley had been itching to try them out, because they can be set to flash or twinkle, as well as to just shine, but we found the flickery options soon made our eyes feel funny!  Hanley switched the lights off so we could all recover.

When he was feeling better, Hanley slung the coil of lights over his arm and scrambled up the tree with them, spacing them out as best he could to cover the whole tree.  Then he switched them on again, and we all cheered.

Now it was time to add the rest of the decorations.  We let Waverley take the small baubles for the top of the tree.  He's a very good climber and, like wild cubs, quite fearless when he's high up.

Polar bags the baubles up in sets of different colours, so she can do a different colour-scheme each year, but we decided we wanted to put a mixture of all different colours on the tree and picked out the most sparkly ones.

Endon took the green ones, Hanley went for red (of course) and gold, and I put the silver ones on.  Then we found some strings of shiny beads and the tinsel, and added some of those.

When we had finished, we called Polar and Grizzly back in from the kitchen.

'Oh bears, that's lovely!' said Grizzly.  'It's just what we needed to cheer up a gloomy winter's afternoon!'  And Polar gave us all hugs.

There were still lots of baubles, tinsel and another artificial Christmas tree left over.  'Are those going back in the loft?' I asked.

'Not yet, little bears,' said Polar.  'I have something planned for these.'

But you will have to wait and see what that is!

Winter Walks - Along the Salt Line

Before little Waverley joined our hug, Hanley, Endon and I went for another new walk with Polar and Grizzly.  This one was along another disused railway line known as the Salt Line, which ran from Sandbach in Cheshire through to Kidsgrove.

We joined the path in Alsager, near the Wilbraham Arms pub, which is quite close to where we live but in Cheshire rather than Staffordshire.  On the way to the path from the pub car park, we passed this smiling tree, which made us laugh.

Like our other railway walks, this one is also a cycle track and has a good tarmac surface, making it good for walking even after wet weather.  Almost all the leaves are off the trees now so it isn't as colourful as it would have been a few weeks ago.  However, this does mean there are good views from the path further along.

Several footpaths lead off from the Salt Line, including one which goes around this lake.  Perhaps we will explore it one day - although we can't for the moment, because Cheshire and Staffordshire were put in different 'tiers' the day after our walk, and our humans aren't allowed to leave their area now.

We saw some super trees and lots of lichen and fungus, which gardening bear Endon finds especially interesting.  We were allowed to do some climbing too, firstly in some of the trees and then on these big logs, which have been left by the path to encourage the fungus to grow on them.

After our humans had been walking for a least a mile, they saw one of the old railway sleepers had been preserved as a little memorial and information board.  

Naturally, Hanley Bear had to investigate.  'Look!' he said.  'The trains used to go to Trentham Gardens!'

 

Mostly, the line was used for industrial freight, like coal and salt.  It was fun to imagine steam trains chugging backwards and forwards along the line.  

 

'We'll  have to ask Grizzly to make up a Salt Line train on his model railway!' Hanley said.

The end of the walk is not far from the canal, a little further along from where the trail runs underneath the M6 motorway.  Nearby, there is a house that used to be where the keeper of the level crossing over the lane to Hassall Green lived. 

That was where we stopped to turn around and make our way back.  After we had walked quite a long way, Polar noticed a post with a yellow dot and the word 'Saturn' on it, but didn't know what it was for and didn't show us bears.

Quite a long way further on, she saw another one with a smaller dot and 'Uranus'.

 

'It's a Solar System Walk!' cried Hanley Bear, scrambling up the post to sit at the top.  'I bet all the planets are along here somewhere - but we've passed most of them without noticing.  Let's go back and find them!'

 

'Sorry Hanley, there isn't time today,' Polar said.  'We'll have to see if we can find them all the next time we come here.  You might still find Neptune, if you look out carefully from the Bear Bag.'

 

And he did!

It was cold and starting to get dark by the time we finished our walk. Grizzly was sad that we couldn't go to the pub for a late lunch and a pint and Hanley was still sad about not finding the other planets, but they both cheered up when we got home and found there had been a delivery while we were out.

'Yay!' he cheered.  'Proper Stoke beer!'  

 

He opened the box at once and started sorting through it, choosing which beer he wanted. 

 

'This special Plum Porter is in a little bear-sized bottle!' he said.  'It must be for us!'

Polar says we bears are only allowed little sips of the frothy bubbles and that the beers are for Grizzly and the porters and stouts are for her.  Hanley gave her a hard stare, but she made him put the bottle back and shut the box away in the larder.

 

'If you're a good bear we'll let you try a little sip of the beers,' she said, but every now and then Hanley creeps out into the kitchen and tries to open the larder door - but it is too heavy for him!

 

Welcoming Waverley

I was going to be blogging about our first lovely winter walk, along the Salt Line near Alsager in Cheshire, but I have something much more exciting to share with you all.  

 A couple of days ago, we heard the post arrive, and scuttled out into the hall to see if there were any Christmas cards for us.  Endon saw there was a packet addressed to Polar, which had been posted in Glasgow.

'I wonder if it's my mountaineering certificate from Munro?' he said.  Endon recently completed a very exciting course with the Bear Lodge mountaineers.

'I bet it is,' Hanley replied.  'You should open it!  If it's something for Polar, we can always seal it up again.'

Endon wasn't sure that this would be right.  'It is addressed to Polar,' he said.  'It might be seeds, or a present from one of her friends.' 

While he was hesitating, trying to decide what to do, we noticed the package was moving, and there were little noises coming from inside

'We had better open it at once, in case a small creature has got trapped inside,' I said.  

Imagine our surprise when a tiny bear cub crawled out!  There was also a little piece of paper to say he had been sent by Polar and Grizzly's friend, Mr Derek.

 

He was very cold after travelling so far in his envelope, so we all gave him hugs, then I carried him into the living room and we lifted him up onto the settee.  Endon climbed up and fetched a little piece of red jersey fabric from Polar's sewing box and we wrapped our new friend in it to keep him warm.

He told us his bear name and that humans called him Waverley.  'I used to live on a steamboat,' he told us.  'I love boats, but I get very, very seasick, so Mr Derek suggested to the paddle steamer people that I might be happier on the canals and rivers with your hug.'

'You're very welcome,' I said.  'We'll look after you.  You can sleep in the bear basket with us, share our porridge and we'll take you boating as soon as we're allowed to.'

'Yay!' cheered the tiny bear.

'You can help us decorate the Christmas tree tomorrow!' said Endon.  'Do you like climbing?'

Little Waverley nodded.

'And you can come to football with us on Saturday!' said Hanley.  'We all listen to the match in Grizzly's workshop - but you have to cheer for Stoke City!'

'Do they play in green stripes or in blue?' asked Waverley.  

'Neither!' cried Hanley.  'They play in red and white stripes, like all the best teams.  You'll need a lucky bear stripy scarf...'

'He'll need some other clothes too, if he's going to play outdoors or go on Uppie,' I said.  We'll have to introduce you to Polar and Grizzly, our human guardians, then we'll ask Polar to make you some clothes.  We'll have to nibble some holes in another pair of her socks, so you can have a nice warm jumper for the winter.'  

The following evening, after we had decorated the tree (I will do a separate post about that), Polar made Waverley a little onesie out of the red fabric we had found.  His special paddle-steamer sash went into our hamper.

'And I've made you a football scarf!' Hanley bear said proudly.
 

Waverley was delighted.  'I feel like a proper member of your hug now!' he said.

We are looking forward to having lots of adventures with our new little friend.  He is so tiny, he tucks into the bear basket and the bear bag without taking up very much room at all, although this does mean we will have to be extra careful he doesn't get lost when we go out.

Welcome little Waverley!