A Visit to the South Coast

 One of our recent adventures was a journey down to Hampshire with our human guardians, who used to live there before they came to Staffordshire, and still have some friends and family living on the south coast.

On the way down, we stopped near Newbury for the weekend with our friends the Berkshire Bears (who aren't all bears, by the way).  

Endon Bear helped them to take some cuttings from a big geranium plant that had got rather "leggy".  Mrs Mo Mouse promised to look after them and give them a gentle misting with water while they were making roots.

Then Endon and I went to the garden centre with Little Brown Bear (LBB) and Mrs Mo Mouse and our great friend Gecko bought huge cheese scones for us and our human guardians.

It was the last day of Premiership football and our pal Charlie from the London Canal Museum, who joined our Hug on our way home from the Lee Navigation, was hoping that his team (Arsenal) might win the title.

They didn't, but LBB had the bubbles from a consolatory beer to share with poor little Charlie (Grizzly got the actual beer).

After our lovely visit to Gecko's house, it was time to continue down to Hampshire.  Polar had booked us into a small hotel in the New Forest, which is a place none of us Bears had visited before.

We had a nice room with a settee for Small Bears, and just across the road was some typical New Forest scenery, with woods and also some open heathland - and ponies!  While Grizzly and most of the Bears had a nap, Polar and I went out to explore and we saw some lovely ponies.  

Polar said it was important not to get too close to the horses, as they are not tame, and that we should give plenty of space to the little foal as the mother would get very cross if we got too close.

Polar and Grizzly decided to go to Lymington for their evening meal, and took Hanley and Huddlesford with them.  After a drive down through the New Forest, and spotting some deer in the woods, they arrived at the pretty little harbour town.

They enjoyed looking at the boats in the harbour, and enjoyed the bubbles on Grizzly's New Forest beer!  They also saw where the trains go out to meet the Isle of Wight ferries that come and go from Lymington and agreed that it would be great to visit "The Island" one day.

They travelled back to Lyndhurst along the road towards Beaulieu and saw more deer, ponies and lots of donkeys.  Grizzly drove very, very carefully as it was getting dark and it wasn't always easy to see the animals if they crossed the road.  

Polar and Grizzly were meeting some of their friends the following day, and started with another trip to Lymington.  This time, Endon and Charlie went with them.  While the humans enjoyed their morning coffees, Endon and Charlie watched the Isle of Wight ferries going to and fro.

   

Then it was time to set off on another adventure, to Calshot Spit.  There is a castle here, and a lifeboat station, and it was also where lots of fampous seaplanes used to be built.  

 

Mr R J Mitchell, who was from Stoke-on-Trent and designed the Spitfire, designed some of the best ones and there are murals on the old hangers showing some of the planes.  There is also a special Transport Trust plaque, like the ones Hanley Bear likes to spot along the canals at special places.  Hanley had sad ears that he missed it.

Endon and Charlie thought that it would be fun to spend some time in one of the little beach huts along the shore, watching the big boats and ferries coming in and out of Southampton, until Grizzly's friend Mr Chris told them about the flooding there was during the spring at high tide.  He was very worried, as he says it is getting worse every year.

Everyone went on to Mr Chris and Mrs Maureen's house for a nice lunch, and a look around their garden.  Endon Bear loved the garden, particularly a beautiful Tulip Tree that was just coming into flower.  And the Bears were also pleased to meet a little man who they thought must be one of the crew from the Calshot lifeboat station, who brought them some cookies to eat.

 

It was my turn to have an adventure on our next day in Hampshire, as Polar took me with her to visit a friend of hers who lives in Portsmouth.  We went by train from Ashurst station, while Grizzly went by car to visit a friend that he used to work with.

 

 Polar's friend met us at the station and drove us to a smart little town called Emsworth, where we had a walk along the shore and around the old mill pond, before having a nice lunch in one of the cafes.  After that, we went to Southsea, and saw where the old railway station used to be, so we had something interesting to tell Grizzly about.

 

Then it was time for more tea and some cake, so we went to a cafe on the seafront.  Here, I met another Small Bear who had just been adopted by a human cub and his dad.  They had decided to call the Bear Strawberry.  I told him about my blog and I hope that, if he is reading this, he is setting in very well with his new adoptive family.

It was very rainy outside, so I couldn't enjoy the view across to the Isle of Wight and the forts out in the sea, but I did enjoy the cake.  I wonder if my friend Henry Bear knows where this is, as I know he goes to see the hovercrafts sometimes so I think he might not live very far away.

Luckily, the rain stopped and we had time for a visit to the Old Town at Portsmouth, where there are fortifications and a big ferry port, and also the historic dockyard where famous ships like the Victory and Mary Rose are looked after.  And there is the Spinnaker Tower.  I don't know if I would be brave enough to go right up to the top - Polar says there is a glass floor you can stand on (but I don't know if she did, as she doesn't like heights very much).

Hanley and Huddlesford saw boats going to the Isle of Wight from Lymington, Endon and Charlie saw Isle of Wight ferries from Southampton to Cowes, and I got to see some Isle of Wight boats too!  Polar says she thinks they go to Ryde from Portsmouth.  I don't know which way we will go when we go there, but I am sure we will visit one day.

 

On our last day in Hampshire, we made our way to Dr Rachael's mum and dad's house, as they had invited us to stay overnight so Polar could collect an old friend of ours. Dr Rachael has been giving Horsey too many big hugs, and the seams in his neck and shoulders are split and he has lost some stuffing!  

 

Dr Rachael's mum helped Polar put him in a big bag, to catch any loose stuffing that came out, and we Bears looked after him on the way home.  Huddlesford hadn't met him before and, after being told to keep away from the New Forest ponies, was surprised to find one right beside him in the car!

 

We will all do whatever we can to help Polar make Horsey better and we look forward to returning to the south coast with him - perhaps on our way to the Isle of Wight!
 

A Big Boating Adventure - Part Five

 In my last post about last year's boat journey, I wrote about the marvellous time we Bears had at the Cavalcade Festival at Little Venice, which was over a year ago!  Now I am going to tell you about the adventure we had after the festival, when Polar and Grizzly took our boat, Uplander II, or "Uppie", along the Regents Canal through London and out to the Lee Navigation.  

None of us had been that way before.  We went through a short tunnel at Maida Vale and passed some very fancy houses and through the middle of London Zoo before coming to three big locks at Camden.  There was an awkward breeze across these and Polar found it very difficult to get the bottom gates closed ready to fill the lock for our boat, so she drafted in passers-by to help!

 

We carried on through to St Pancras, where there was another tricky lock, but that was all we had to do that day, as Polar had booked us a mooring at the London Canal Museum that night.  We Bears wanted to go in to explore, especially as we could see some small bears inside, but we were too late as it was closed for the day.

 

In the morning we set off again, heading east into the Islington Tunnel, which is not quite wide enough for two boats to pass, so you have to make sure there is no other boat coming your way when you go in!  As we came out, another boat pulled away a little in front of us, which had been moored on the eco-moorings, where there are planters full of wildflowers and small trees. 

The only crew member was a young woman and she, Grizzly and Polar worked through the next lock together.  She was very nimble and would probably have managed the locks more quickly on her own than with our "help", but she did not mind us joining her.  Her name was Milly and she gave Polar some helpful tips about boating on the Lee, including that the locks were bigger than on the canals and often rather hard work, plus some hints about where we might manage to moor.  She was heading the same way, so we worked the three locks on the Hertford Union Canal together as well.

 

The last lock let us out onto the wide and busy Lee Navigation, which leads down to the Thames at Limehouse, passing the site of the 2012 Olympic Games.  But we turned upstream, towards Tottenham.  All was going well until we reached the first lock and found that someone had moored a big widebeam boat on the lock moorings, but luckily there was a man on a fuel boat approaching as well, who was less nervous than Polar about jumping off the roof of his boat to get ashore, and helped us through with him.  We Bears decided that we liked London boating people, as they were kind and co-operative!

After another big lock we moored where Milly had suggested, at Tottenham Marshes, and our humans had a very good night's sleep after such a busy day.  Carrying on up the Navigation, we passed through more locks, including one at Enfield.  They were all different - some were fully manual, some had electrically operated gates and some had a mixture of the two! 

The land around us was quite open and flat at first, with lots of electricity pylons, but gradually became more like proper countryside.  After working through another lock, we reached the junction with the River Stort and found a place to stop for the night, near a boat whose owner was growing pretty tulips on the roof to sell in local markets.

 

Polar and Grizzly made us a big bowl of porridge before we set off the next morning.  Our journey up the Stort was a proper river cruise, winding through the pretty countryside towards Royston and on to Sawbridgeworth.  

It looked like there were super moorings here, in front of some new flats, as there were neat mooring bollards all along the riverside.  But there were also big signs that said "No Mooring"!  How very annoying!  Instead of using the nice bollards, our poor humans had to make the best job they could mooring against a grassy bank on the other side, so we could go ashore for dinner and some beer

We found there were some overgrown moorings a little further up the river in the morning, but they wouldn't have been much better than where we stopped.

We completed our journey along the Stort on the same day that King Charles was being crowned so, while other people were having street parties and watching the TV, we were right out in the country cruising along a beautiful, tranquil river.  We wondered if the King wished he was having a nice, quiet day like us.

We were pleased to find some good moorings at Bishops Stortford with space for Uppie, so Polar and Grizzly took us exploring. We liked the park and the mound where the castle used to be, but our favourite place was a big shop called "Cooper's of Stortford" which sold just about everything - except the one thing we were looking for, which was some new braces for Grizzly's trousers.  And we met a friend of Polar's for lunch the following day, which rounded off a very nice time there.

 

And we even found some braces for Grizzly in a charity shop!

I will tell you about some of the adventures we had coming home another day.

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A Busy Weekend in Endon Village

I have been neglecting my blog, as I have been a very busy small bear recently, having all sorts of adventures with my fellow bears and human guardians.  Once again, I'm going to write about our most recent adventure before I try to catch up with some of the others.

We have been helping our human guardians with their craft stall at the Endon Well Dressing this weekend, where Polar sells some of the things she paints Roses and Castles style.  Well Dressing is a Peak District tradition, which involves decorating village wells and springs with fabulous pictures made from flower petals pressed onto slabs of damp clay.  Endon, a village between Stoke-on-Trent and Leek, celebrates their Well Dressing with a three day fair and festival.

Today was also Endon Bear's sixth "birthday" - or rather, the anniversary of Hanley Bear and I helping Polar to win him from the spin-the-wheel game at the fair here six years ago. 

Endon and I came over on Saturday to help with the stall, and helped Polar and Grizzly to sell lots of pretty things, including all of our teapots.  Polar painted them more than 20 years ago, but stored them up in the loft and forgot about them!  

 

We also saw the fabulous Well Dressing itself. 

  "It's got the RNLI's 200th Anniversary on it," said Endon.  "We'll have to bring Finley Bear from Minehead to see it!" 

I thought that was an excellent idea, and was sure Polar wouldn't mind bringing an extra bear or two when we came again on Monday.

There was no craft tent on Sunday, so we helped our humans in our garden instead, in between heavy showers.  The festival field at Endon had been very soft, so Polar was worried that all the rain would make it too soggy to hold the craft fair on Monday.  But the organisers made sure there was lots of straw on the ground inside and outside the tent and helped us to bring our bags of painted ware onto the site, and Polar put her wellies on.

 

Polar and Grizzly set their stall up again, with Polar doing some painting at the table alongside the one with the things for sale on, which we helped Grizzly to look after again.  We even looked after the stall on our own while Grizzly went to buy oatcakes for us all.  

 

Then Polar had a break from painting and carried us down to the Well Dressing in our Bear Bag.  Finlay Bear was thrilled to see the RNLI decorations and said how clever it was to make all this from flower petals.

"We are miles from the sea here," said Hanley Bear, after explaining to Finlay that Staffordshire Well Dressings were the best in the whole world, even though Derbyshire is better-known for them.  "I wonder why they made a picture about the lifeboats?"

"Don't forget that lots of the people we rescue are from inland, not from seaside towns," Finlay reminded him.  "Seaside folk grow up learning to respect the sea and take care around it, even on sunny days, but people who come to the beach on holiday don't understand rip-tides and off-shore winds, and that's how they get into trouble.  Maybe we rescued someone from this village?"

 

We didn't know if that had happened or not, but what Finlay says about the people who are rescued is quite true - lots of them do come from inland towns and counties.  Polar took our picture sitting in front of the Well Dressing, then she helped us back into our bag and carried us up the muddy hill and back towards the craft tent.

Just outside, Hanley Bear spotted something curious - it looked like a picture frame full of bees!  He went over for a closer look and a member of the local beekeepers' group explained it was a display hive, so he could show people how bees make their honeycomb.  Even better, they had a stall selling fresh local honey inside.  Because we had all been good bears, Grizzly bought us a pot!

We carried on helping on the stall and by the end of the afternoon, had sold lots more of Polar's painted things and the stall was looking a little bit bare, even though she was painting new things to fill in the gaps.  The weather stayed dry, except for one shower when Grizzly nipped out to get a surprise for us.

There was a big shower just before we got home, but it was followed by a marvellous rainbow.  Then Grizzly showed us our surprise - some cakes from the Endon Scouts' cake stall, specially for Endon Bear's birthday!

   

Aren't we lucky Bears!