Apple Blossoms

On his walk today, Sandy saw a most amazing sight. A whole tree just covered in white blossoms... with flower petals scattered across the ground. So beautiful! Mama says it's an apple tree (she thinks)... With a bit of a lift, Sandy was happily tucked into the branches of the tree. The blossoms don't smell like anything, at least not to his bear nose...

And if that was exciting... well, just a few blocks away, Sandy almost fell over backwards. Another massive tree covered in blossoms... but these ones were pink!

Mama thinks they are a crab-apple... and Sandy is having trouble picturing what an crab-apple would look like... Are they crabby apples? Do they look like crabs? Do they bite like crabs? Sometimes things have the strangest names! But the pink is beautiful... and is a nice complement to Sandy's green coat. But just around the corner is... another pink tree...

These ones are a deeper pink and Sandy hopes that they will smell beautiful too... but they don't. Still... he is ecstatic to know that even here in the frozen north, flowers do come in colours other than white or yellow or palest purple! And... he has the apple harvest to look forward to! Yummy... except for the crabby apples...

Sweet Smelling Flowers

Finally! Sandy Bear has come across some flowers that smell beautiful. They don't look like much from a distance, tucked away shyly in amongst their leaves. But Sandy spotted them and went over for an investigation...

A few sniffs and Sandy was in heaven... ooohh... they smell very good! And up close, they look very pretty, little tiny white bells hanging off of a stem.

These would make a great bouquet to bring home and put in a vase. Do you have Lily of the Valley where you live?

Foraging for Fruit

Sandy loves to go exploring and bike riding down the back alleys of his neighbourhood. He never knows what is around the next corner... and today he came across a massive plant with big shoots of white flowers. The leaves were huge as well.

With a bit of help, Sandy managed to scramble up into the middle of the plant. He's heard that flowers can actually smell very beautiful and... but so far he can report that dandelions have no smell... nor do buttercups or s'skatoon berry flowers. But maybe this one will be different!

The short answer is no... these flowers don't smell like anything, at least not to his little bear nose. Although they do shed little white bits everywhere! (He's going to need to brush his fur later.) What is the point of these plants if they don't smell nice? Well... Sandy learns that this plant is called Rhubarb... and that it has many, many, many uses. Jams and jellies and pies and goodness knows what else. But one shouldn't do anything with the leaves as they can poison humans, and presumably little bears as well. it's the stalks that are useful. It's a good thing that Sandy is so small, because he can easily scoot into the middle of the rhubarb plant and harvest some of the stalks. Being little has its benefits!

Do you grow rhubarb and what do you do with it all? Because there is a LOT of rhubarb here... and no one seems to do anything with it (sort of like zucchini).

Leaf Chompers

Sandy Bear was walking along, minding his own business, when in the stillness of the early morning, he heard something (he has very good hearing). It sounded like chewing... chewing?? A bit of investigation (he is a CSI bear after all)... and he found a whole stand of aspen trees with half-eaten or whole-eaten leaves. Closer inspection revealed a whole bunch of creepy critters eating the trees alive!

Sandy wasn't going to get too close to these things. If they could eat whole trees... they might think that his beautiful green coat was a new variety of leaf... and take a few munches out of him.

There were a lot of these things crawling all over the trees and Sandy learned that they are called "cat-er-pillars"... Now he's not sure why there is yet something else named after felines... but in this instance, he's willing to let these things keep their feline-based named. He's also not sure what these things have to do with pillars... And then he hears that they are actually called "tent cat-er-pillars". What the heck? Where's the tent? Well... a few metres away (that's a few yards in other places)... Sandy saw this...

Yup, that's definitely a tent... but a very yucky one... Sandy can see all of the cat-er-pillar poop collecting in the tent strands. Is that what that weird smell is? This small tree is a Saskatoon Berry tree... and Sandy is not pleased, NOT pleased at all, that the cat-er-pillars are destroying the future berry harvest... He tries out his best bear growl... "grrr"... But the cat-er-pillars must be hard of hearing and just kept munching away.

Learning Patience

Sandy Bear has been seeing so many flowers in the last few days! Strangely enough, they all seem to be yellow - dandelions, buttercups, star asters, (and don' forget the skunk cabbage)... Sandy's beginning to wonder if Canada only has yellow flowers! Yes, there are red tulips... but tulips come from Holland... and he knows that his friend Hammie Hamster in Holland has different coloured flowers. But what about Canada? Well, today, Sandy discovered white flowers... and on a shrub, high off the ground. Now that is different!

After a bit of a scramble, Sandy got a closer look at these flowers... and they are very pretty... but why are there flowers on bushes?

Well... according to Sandy's mama... these flowers will make... berries! Berries? As in Bear-ies? Nope, not bear fans... or even little bears... these are fruit berries, and they are very, very yummy. Very yummy... They are called "Saskatoon Berries" in Canada. Elsewhere they are called serviceberries or shadberries or juneberries... The berries can be made into pies or jellies or syrups or liqueurs or... practically anything. Sandy would love to taste some... right now... but is told he'll have to wait until "Summer". Maybe his friends can tell him if berry pie is worth the wait?

Little bear wants a name!

Ok... little bear has put his little foot down. He's meeting all of these new friends, Jerry and Ben, Hammie the Hamster... and he's wondering how come he doesn't have a name, like they do! Now, little bear is not even 6 months old, and sometimes Mama's and Papa's take a while to name their little ones... but little bear has had enough... and he wants to be involved as well!

So... after much deliberation and review of "name-sites"... and after tossing out various options (Xavier, Paddington, Tom, Patrick, Sebastian, Bartholomew, Rocky, etc)... little bear has settled on a name... (thank goodness)... or rather, several names. In true adventuring bear fashion, he has decided to go with Alexander Mackenzie Bear... but he'll use Sandy for short (because his fur has a sandy colour to it)...

Little bear likes the fact that there was an adventurer named Alexander Mackenzie, who explored Canada!

Lost in the Woods

Little bear is heading back home today after another whirlwind adventure in the west. Things grow bigger out here than in flatland... the dandelions are bigger... the trees are bigger... and the horsetails are definitely bigger! Going for a walk in the winter-time was one thing... little bear could see through all of the bare shrubs and there was no undergrowth to block his view... but now... one little horsetail patch and little bear is... well... lost!

Yes... he is in there... he thought he would take a little walk through them and... well... he very quickly realized that the world is very different when everything is taller than you! Poor little bear...

But with a bit of help and by following the bright light of the setting sun, little bear managed to get his directional bearings back...

Holy mackerel! Whew... he made it out in one piece... but he's learned a thing or two... stay on the trail! Unless of course you have a compass... Mind you, this is also who adventures are created... For a moment in there, little bear could almost imagine he was in a Jurassic forest (horsetails have been around for 100,000,000 years -that's a looonnnggg time)... but then he thought of dinosaurs and pterodactyls and... well... he stopped imagining a Jursassic forest! But he did learn that horsetails are a good herbal remedy... and he thinks they would look good in his garden as well.