Autumn Walks - Knypersley Reservoir

 One sunny day last week, Polar and Grizzly drove a little way from home to take us for a walk.  We had tried some of the local footpaths but they were very, very muddy.

We were visiting Knypersley Reservoir, which feeds water into the Caldon Canal.  I remember coming here with Hanley Bear soon after arriving in North Staffordshire and we have been several times since, because it is one of Polar and Grizzly's favourite places to go walking.

The autumn leaves were gloriously colourful and sparkled in the sunshine, especially those on the beautiful big beech trees.

At the base of one of them we found a super little bear cave where we could make a den.  'If we were wild bears, we could hibernate for the winter in here,' Endon said.

We decided not to hibernate but to do some more exploring.  We left the main path - which was not safe for small bears on their own, because people were walking their dogs along it - and found a little track which led to a big felled tree, which was excellent for climbing and gave us a lovely view of the lower reservoir.

It was much too far for us to walk all the way round the reservoir and back to the car, so we had to look out for our human guardians. Fortunately, as we had climbed quite high, Polar could see us from the main path.

Polar carried us across the dam that separates the main reservoir from the 'Serpentine' upper pool.  She and Grizzly hadn't been enjoying their walk, despite the pretty leaves, as some of the other people walking round the reservoir were being careless about something humans have to do called 'social distancing'.

Although Polar and Grizzly wanted to get home quickly after that, they knew how much we like climbing on the old pipework and valves from the reservoir, so let us out of our bag again so we could enjoy another little climb.

We scrambled about on the gears and wheels, exploring the pipes and pretending that we were letting water out of the reservoir to fill up the canal, further down the valley.

Hanley Bear was very excited when he saw that the machinery had actually been made in Stoke-on-Trent; at Milton, on the Caldon Canal.  When we got home, he looked at an old map Polar and Grizzly found from 1916, which shows the ironworks at Milton and the wharf on the canal where the coal from the big Chatterley Whitfield Colliery used to go.

Even if we get more sunny days, I don't think Polar and Grizzly will be bringing us back here while the nasty virus is still about, so we took our last look across the reservoir for a while, before jumping back into our Bear Bag, ready to go home for our lunch.

'Don't be too sad, little bears,' said Polar.  'We'll come back one day.  I'm sure we can find some other walks near our house, where it's safer for Grizzly, and you can play in the garden on dry days too.'

We all agreed that the most important thing for now is to keep our human guardians safe, even if it means fewer adventures for us - and we're sure all our small bear friends will agree.

Garden Bears' World - Harvest and Halloween

 

Hello everybody!  It's Endon Bear here, with another little episode of Garden Bears' World for you.  Mr Monty might have finished his programmes for the winter, but we bears are going to be busy right up to Christmas and into the New Year, helping our humans with garden chores.

There are things to harvest all year, thanks to careful planning by Polar, who was particularly proud of these lovely cauliflowers.  She has never grown them before on our allotment as they didn't do very well when she tried in back in Southampton but, this year, they have been a great success.

There were two ready to cut when we went to the allotment at the end of October, so we brought both of them home and stored them in one of the boxes in our out-house.  Polar cooked one of them almost straight away and we had half with Sunday lunch and the other half in cauliflower cheese the next day, but we are still eating the other one.

Grizzly and Polar brought home two nice cabbages as well.  They also store quite well in the cool storeroom.  They are white ones that can be cooked or used for coleslaw. 

Polar collected some seed garlic bulbs during the week, which her boss orders from the Isle of Wight.  There are three different varieties for us to try.  We will plant them quite soon, by splitting them onto separate cloves and putting them into the ground about 15cm apart, although Polar is also going to start some in modules to put in raised beds at her friends' house where she sometimes does gardening.

Of course it was Halloween recently too.  We are starting to eat up the squashes we helped to grow - Polar made a nice risotto from this one.  Polar scooped out the seeds and flesh very carefully, so that Hanley Bear could have a go at carving it into a jack-o-lantern.

He had to be very careful with the knife, which is very sharp, but Polar helped him and soon he had cut out a good scary face.

Sonning and I carved a little squash each, then we sat them in a pot next to the front door.  There were no human cubs doing 'trick or treat' this year, because of the nasty virus, so we left the pumpkin men out this week too, so the cubs could see them on their way to school.

They have started to get squishy now, so we will be composting them soon, but we have more tasty squashes to roast and cook for soups, casseroles, curries, tagines and risotto during the autumn and winter. 

I'll let Hanley Bear tell you how we compost our vegetable peelings and food scraps now in another GBW blog post, as he likes to be Science Bear and it is very scientific, so look out for that after Sonning's next post.

Bye, bye until then!

Autumn Walks - the Chatterley Whitfield Heritage Country Park.

 

We bears have been enjoying some walks with our human guardians to new places recently.  One of the most unusual is the Chatterley Whitfield Heritage Country Park.  It's just north of the Whitfield Valley Nature Reserve, which we went to see the week before.

Because North Staffordshire used to be busy with mining and heavy industry, there are plenty of open spaces in this area reclaimed from colliery workings and spoil heaps.  What sets the Chatterley Whitfield Park apart is that many of the mine buildings are still standing.

When we saw these steps, we thought they must have led to the door of a building that had been demolished, but Polar explained they were for something else entirely.

'It's a mounting block, for getting onto a horse,' she explained.  'It's right next to the bridle path and there are others near all the points where the bridleway runs through the park.  It's not always easy to get onto a horse from the ground.  Look - there are some horses coming down the hill now.'

Polar was right.  The horses on the hill came down to the track and, when they could see it was clear, cantered away up the valley.  

We saw people riding horses all over the park and there were a row of horseboxes parked along the road closest to the bridleway, so it's obviously a popular spot with riders.

Grizzly showed us the building that used to be the colliery offices, which is sometimes open as a visitor centre (although Polar and Grizzly have never been in there).  Back in the late 1970s, the mine was opened as a museum and it was possible to go down in the lift to see where the coal was dug out, but it closed in 1993 because it was very expensive to keep safe, especially after other nearby pits closed and the coal seams (which linked together underground) began to flood.

You can read more about it and see some amazing underground pictures on a site here 

Polar lifted us out of the Bear Bag so we could do some climbing on the railway trucks, which was lots of fun.  The railway which used to run down the valley, all the way to an arm from the Caldon Canal near Milton, was taken up many years ago and that is now the route of the main cycle path and bridleway.  

The canal arm seems to have disappeared too, but we will see if we can spot where it went next time we are along that section.

We jumped back into our bag after that, as Grizzly and Polar were going to climb right up to the top of the highest hill on the site for a better view of the colliery, and Polar said there were too many steps for small bears.

She was right!  There were hundreds of steps to climb to get to the top but Polar and Grizzly both agreed that it was well worth the effort.  As well as seeing the whole of the colliery site, they had a really good view of Mow Cop to the north.

As they were coming down the other side of the hill, we asked to come out of our bag for another run on the springy turf.  It was bright but very breezy, but sometimes it's nice to have your fur ruffled by the wind and the sunshine was warm when we found a sheltered spot.

We loved seeing the colours of the autumn leaves too, especially this little red shrub.  Polar hasn't worked out what it is yet, but there were several of them growing on the hills.

'Stoke-on-Trent is a very green city, isn't it?' I said to Hanley, and he smiled with pride.

'It's the best city in the whole world!' he replied.

Endon found some little asters flowering in a patch of open ground, which made him very happy, as it meant there was nectar for the bees.

'Can we get some for the garden?' he asked Polar, and she agreed we could look for some to buy, next year.

After we had all enjoyed exploring the hillside, Polar called us back to get in our bag, because the sky was looking stormy and it was time to go home for our dinner.

'I hope we can come here again, and see more of the mine,' said Hanley.  'It looks brilliant!'

'Well, we might be able to one day,' Grizzly replied.  'They've had some Lottery money to help preserve some of the buildings and, while I don't think we'll ever be able to go deep underground, hopefully we will be able to have a proper look around on the surface one day.'

Hanley Bear cheered.  'There are so many exciting things to see and do in Stoke,' he said.  'I'm glad I'm from here!'

'And we're all glad we live here.' said Polar.  'I wonder where we will go next?'

Even if we're not going very far because of the new lockdown, I'm sure we'll have some more #SmallBearAdventures very soon and I shall blog about them when we do.