Sunshine

Hasn't the weather been very hot recently? Hotter than we have ever known it to be! The sun has been shining down out of a cloudless, blue sky. Have you been extra hot playing in the garden or running round the playground? Now imagine how hot that would have been if you were wearing fur coats like the teddy bears! They've been very, very, very hot!!

Although they love to be outside as much as possible, they have found themselves seeking the shadiest parts of the garden, or if they go for a walk they've been making sure that their route takes them through the woodlands where the trees keep the paths nice and shady.

They've been too tired and too hot to play games or run around too much, so they've put their rugs and blankets under the lilac tree, and they've made sure to drink lots of iced lemonade. They've also spent a fortune on ice-cream - cornets, lollies, choc bars - they've had to have lots of all of them!

It was costing so much that the bears have also tried making their own ice lollies and they are very nice too! They have ice lolly moulds which they fill with orange juice and then add in some pieces of real orange, stick in a lolly stick (luckily they have loads of these for their crafting as you will have seen from some of their previous stories), and then put the moulds in the freezer for at least 4 hours, and then take them out and eat them!!

Or they make extra and keep them in the freezer until they want them. You could try using just fruit juice, or cordial or fruit yoghurt, and if you don't have lolly moulds then try freezing them in big ice cube trays or clean yoghurt pots - just remember to add the lolly sticks!

Sometimes there's a cooling breeze but mostly it has been just hot. The flowers and the vegetables in their garden usually like lots of sunshine, but there has been so much of it, and it's been so hot, that the bears have had to fill their watering cans with water and pour it over all the vegetables to make sure they survive.

It's practically an all-day job!! But sometimes, when it gets too hot, the teddy bears accidentally water each other too! That's a good way to cool down!

The bears expect the hot weather will break sometime soon, and then they'll miss having the warm sunshine to play around in!! How contrary are they?

So, enjoy the hot weather while you can - especially the ice-cream!!! And try making your own lollies - it's great fun!