Sonning Bear

Hanley Bear says it's always cloudy here when we get alerts!

You can hire boats on the waterways that aren't linked, so maybe we will do that one day - Polar would like to.

It is still cloudy here.

Human guardian Polar has stayed up late as was hoping to get some photos with her big camera, but I don't think she will be lucky.

The canals in Scotland don't connect to the ones in England and Wales (which don't all connect to each other) but we would love to visit the Falkirk Wheel.

Polar and Grizzly saw it soon after it opened but have never seen the Kelpies statues.

"Order! Order!" - A Small Bear Goes to Parliament A child-friendly blog about a small bear who lives on a narrowboat.

I have been a very, very buy Small Bear today, and written another post for my blog.

This one also stars Hanley Bear, going to Parliament to seek #VotesForSmallBears.

bearonaboat.blogspot.com/2025/10/orde...

Hanley Bear's Centenary Adventures - Part 1: A View to a Kiln A child-friendly blog about a small bear who lives on a narrowboat.

I have managed to get to Polar's laptop and do a little blog post about Hanley Bear's Stoke-on-Trent Centenary mission - to find all the Bottle Kilns in The Potteries and get a photograph of himself with them.

This is the first part of the mission...
bearonaboat.blogspot.com/2025/10/hanl...

We love Frog and Toad, Mrs Sue!

They are such lovely little creatures and have a very civilised lifestyle.

*wavy paws* Theobald!

Good morning Henry! *Hugs* and happy Saturday!

We are at Aunty Hazel's house in Cornwall today - it's sunny but very windy, so I think we will probably all stay indoors today.

We enjoyed some lovely cake - Huddlesford had Edwardian tea bread - and human guardian Polar bought some little pieces of fabric, so maybe we will get new clothes for Christmas this year 🐻🐻🐻🐻

This is a "spinning mule".

Originally, human cubs used to be employed to run underneath it to pick up dust and fluff. It was very hard and dangerous work for the poor little souls 😢

This is one of the looms at work.

The workers wear ear defenders these days, but in the old days they didn't.

We had a lovely day at @nationaltrust.org.uk Quarry Bank Mill near Wilmslow yesterday.

We explored the grounds, visited one of the workers' cottages and saw the machines that made the cloth for my best boating shirt (and Endon's) which we were wearing.

They were. Some of them sowed the seeds very carefully - others needed a lot of supervision not to just waste them!

And he loved his visit to Canada x

I am so glad you enjoyed it! *hugs*

Hanley Bear helped Human Guardian Polar show human cubs how to make mini allotments for salad leaves in "Me Park" today, with the Friends of Hanley Park.

But it started to rain so hard that everyone had to pack up after about 90 minutes.

Hanley had a great birthday and good Heritage Day yesterday, but today has been less good, as he and Polar got very wet doing an event in "Me Park" which had to finish early. And then Stoke City lost away at QPR.

I do hope you enjoy it.

Thank you for looking after Tunstall and Amy for so long. We are glad they were good Bears and didn't do silly or dangerous things when they were in the mountains.

They say it helps them to have Small Bears, as we encourage them to go out and explore.

Will do, Gromit!

He's ging out with Polar soon to explore some Bottle Kilns that are open for Heritage Open Day. He's almost had his picture taken with all of the ones in Stoke-on-Trent now, so I will let him do a guest blog post about them soon.

Tunstall's Travels A child-friendly blog about a small bear who lives on a narrowboat.

I have (at last) written a blog post about our friend Tunstall and his journey around the world with little pal Amy.

*Biggest hugs* to @hattieotter.bsky.social @oliverbear.bsky.social @millymammoth.bsky.social and @bearspipe.bsky.social.

bearonaboat.blogspot.com/2025/09/tuns...

Hanley sends *hugs* Oliver.

I have just finished a little blog post about Tunstall's Travels, as he is home in the UK again now (although he's off on a cruise with TGT very soon!

Noooooo!!!

Thank you for sharing!

And Huddlesford Bear sends hugs!

Staffordshire oatcakes are quite different - they are more like oaty pancakes or crepes.

Here's Hanley Bear with a couple of portions - these contain just cheese and tomato, but people often have them with bacon or sausage.

I think Hanley Bear will love that song, although the picture of the river Trent must be from a long way downsteam as it's much smaller than that here.

He will be glad they mentioned Mr Mitchell and Mr Wedgwood.

It's nice here too. We are going to have a train journey to get there, which will be fun.

Have a super visit to the park, Henry, and a lovely day.

*hugs*

Hanley says it's good to sit with the same group of fans who are like friends. Some of them pat his head for luck - this season, it might even be working!

Good morning Henry! *hugs* and Happy Sunday from all of us.

We are going to a party today and are looking in our clothes basket for outfits that make us look like pirate bears. We hope you are going to have a nice day too.