Grand Adventure - Day 5

Hullo again! Sandy Bear here... with my good pals, Jerry and Ben. We are back in Vancouver and no longer on strike... As you can see... Jerry is beary happy to be sitting around a campfire (propane in this case) and roasting a marshmallow! Perhaps s'mores are in his near future??

More photos to come... and the results of our Winnipeg trip (beary frowny and unhappy bears).

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Yay!!! We are back in Vancouver and wanted to give you a tour of Auntie's garden...

First up... their brand new greenhouse!!

Oooohhh... ahhhh... just waiting for some plants. "Me thinks they should plant herbs," mused Ben, "because those are great for cooking." "And, of course some flowers," Jerry interjected, "to attract bees!" I, of course, thought vegetables would be good!

They have a few plants here... tomatoes and peppers and cucumbers (good).

Their flower garden is quite well-established. "Bear good," said Jerry, "Those alium are great bee attractors!"

There's also an outside bed... which is covered with mesh to keep out the "vermin". (Did you know Vancouver has an urban population of raccoons, skunks and coyotes?)

"Hmmm..." said Jerry, "I don't see much in here, yet... just some broccoli plants."

"There's a marigold over here," was Ben's comment.

I didn't see much either except...

I think I see a seedling coming up! Or a weed... Apparently they have planted kale, lettuce and carrots. Mama told Auntie the kale and broccoli might need to get transplanted as they get pretty big!

Finally... "here's some oregano" exulted Ben!! They also have lemon grass, parsley, chives, sage and some thyme... "That's a beary good herb starter garden" said Ben with approval.

There are also some lavender plants... which aren't really used in cooking (are they?) but do smell nice... "Yes," said Ben, "they make your clothes smell nice and fresh if you put a lavender sachet in your dresser drawer."

Jerry discovered a rose bush with beary pretty flowers and even a few bees!

But then... it was time to hit the hammock!!

Ooofff... this is hard for little bears...

Jerry did a somersault into the hammock and... eventually...

We all fit! "Waiter, I'll have a tall iced honey mead, please."

It didn't take much to coax us out of the hammock with the promise of smores though!

Jerry got First Stick... apparently there were limited sticks available and we had to share with the humans (can you imagine?).

Not too close... not too far away...

 We had fun roasting the marshmallows but... can you believe... there were NO graham crackers in the house... or any chocolate! So no s'mores for us... sigh... There was some muttered discussion about going on strike but Mama caught our eye and said it wouldn't be polite... Fine... but s'mores better be in our future soon! "Yeah," said Jerry "beary soon..."

Grand Adventure - Day 4

Due to Bears on Strike, photos are in short supply... more details to follow!

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It all started off so well. We left sunny, warm Vancouver on a WestJet flight, bound for Winnipeg.

We had to share a seat... but that wasn't too bad. And... actually... after our marathon garden adventures the day before, we pretty much slept the whole flight. That's when things went off the rails...

We arrived in Winnipeg in the evening and had high hopes for the next few days. After all, it had been 29C in Winnipeg on the day we arrived!! But... when we woke up, it was only 10C and raining... It's really hard to say who started it... me, Jerry or Ben... but... we voted to Strike!!! No photos. No interviews. Nothing. We hid under the covers and refused to come out until it warmed up.

It didn't warm up. By the time we left, it was -2C!! And flurries were threatening Winnipeg. You know how those celebrities avoid the paparazzi? That was us... No photos!

Mama had high hopes that we could be enticed out by a visit to her bee-keeper friend but it turned out that his hives had had a beary bad winter and were pretty much wiped out. Jerry dug deeper under the covers. Ben turned his back on the world. I peeked out to talk to Mama and said "NO! We are not coming out. Winnipeg... Schmegipeg...!! We want to go back to Vancouver." Yup... it was pretty bad...

Grand Adventure - Day 3

Good morning! We are happy report that our Vancouver visit is off to a fine start... A relaxing start to the day on the hammock. "Waiter... I'll have some tea with honey... no... wait... just make that honey straight up!"

We went to some botanical gardens... cause Jerry loves flowers!

And visited the airport to pick up a special guest...

Rounding off the day with a visit to the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden... they have bonsai trees that are perfect for little bears!

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Hullo! We had a great day in Vancouver on Day 3 of our Grand Adventure. Jerry and Ben were beary entranced with the rhododendron blossoms.

"They are soooo bee-utiful!" said Jerry, "the bees must love them!"

They are pretty, aren't they but...

We have places to go and things to see! Come on Rose!

 We have been promised some gardens today (for our honoured guests)... so let's get going.

First we had to go for a car ride...

Ben checked the right side of the car...

while Jerry and I checked the left hand side. We didn't see any Starbucks! Hmmm... this is not a beary good car ride so far!

But finally... we arrived! We wanted a photo of the three of us but... Auntie photo-bombed our shot!

We visited Queen Elizabeth Park - it is beary beautiful with lots of flowers...

But the highlight was the Conservatory...

 It has all sorts of tropical things. It's like a big greenhouse!

There were parrots...

And orchids...

And a mouse! Must be a relative of Beanie Mouse.

We were entranced with this little bird. It kind of looks like Picasso had a go at painting him. Beary cute!

After the Conservatory, we wanted to see the shallow fountain pond and play in the water but... apparently they have a rule that little bears cannot play in the water. "Mrrrph..!!" said Jerry, "Let me go!!!" "I'm getting squished," squealed Sandy. "Can't breathe!" panted Ben. Nothing worked though... Rose was not letting us go!

 Then... we went to the VanDusen Botanical Gardens. A beary large garden (beary large). We couldn't see everything, so Rose led the way to her favourite spot.

Along the way we passed the "Laburnum Walk". Those trees are super gorgeous.

Oooohhhh! A Maze!!! Let's go!

It's a cedar maze... and... well...

It beary quickly became clear that little bears are not the best navigators. We followed Ben and ended up in a dead-end.

We followed Jerry and got nowhere...

"I don't know how to get out of here," wailed Jerry! "We're all going to die!!"

Rose!!! We need help!

Luckily, Rose knows the maze like the back of her paw... er... hand. And we made it out.

 As a reward... we got to go and see the bee hives! There was a fence there, and Mama made sure we stayed on the one side of it...

Wait a minute... where's Jerry???

Uh-oh... Jerry is going to make a bee-line for the bees!

Luckily (or unfortunately, if you're Jerry), she nabbed him in the nick of time.

All three of us had to be content with watching the bees from a distance. Sigh.

Can you see the bee? Yeah... we barely could either. Deep, tremulous, little bear sighs.

We did learn that bees are non-aggressive and only sting in self defense (unlike wasps).

After VanDusen, we zipped to the airport and...

Picked up Gramma! Gramma has a long history of teddy-bears and knows enough not to squish us!

After we got Gramma's luggage home, we went out for ANOTHER adventure (holy moly). This time we went to the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. There were cute little-bear sized bonsai trees there. Although... we didn't actually get to climb any of them.

Neat rocks in weird shapes made perfect resting spots for pooped little bears. Three botanical gardens in 1 day?

In fact, a couple of us almost feel asleep on the warm rock in the warm sun.... (Probably due to honey deprivation).

It is a beautiful garden, an oasis of serenity in busy Vancouver.

That's it for now! Stay-tuned for our Day 4 adventure to... Winnipeg! ("Grumble" said Ben "Winterpeg is more like it!")