Do you like cloud gazing?? I do!! I often go for a little hop, skip and jump out from the Kiosk, thorough the door and flop down onto the ground outside the Kiosk and land on my teddy back. Then I look up at the big, wide, blue skies that are full of all shapes and sizes of lovely fluffy white clouds. Then, I start to look at what shapes they are and do you know what? I will tell you what! All the time the clouds look just like animals or people or objects or countries or… a million and one other types of things!! My teddy bear imagination really runs wild!! I can see all sorts of items when I look at these clouds!! But … I do have to warn you about something. Yes, please put on your "serious mood" thinking whilst you read these next words. It is very important you know! Nice Eliza the Eye Problem teddy would want me to tell you of her quite sad experience, just a  little warning. Eliza is a great teddy friend to have, very caring and would want me to share her experience with you. Right, now I will relate what happened! It was a nice sunny day, where the sun was shining brightly with great strength, (If it is sunny the sun is usually shining isn't it! But this day had extra sunny strength in the shining of the sun!!) Eliza decided to do some cloud gazing that day. She went to a local park where teddies often gather to play on the swings or slides or just rest on a seat bench in front of a trickling waterfall, taking time out from the stresses of teddy life. (Hmmm… teddies don't really experience life's stresses!! But… if they did, the seat bench and the waterfall sight would be very restful and calming! On the other hand, teddies do experience stress, particularly if they are hugged a lot  or thrown about or when they empathise with the cares/concerns/pains of the human family that they live with. And they have a HUGE responsibility to protect, watch over with their eyes  and encourage their human friends if they are on their own with them. Yes, it is a stressful but very rewarding life a teddy lives! A companion, a smile-giver with the looks in their eyes and the smiles on their faces, a hugger, a soft, friendly friend to sit with… yes they do need a rest sometimes!!  And a great place to do that is on a seat bench in front of a waterfall breathing into their teddy lungs the fresh air and getting lots of vitamin d from the sunshine! )

Anyway, back to Eliza! She was in the park, and decided to lay down on the grass. It had just been freshly mown… which perhaps wasn't such a great idea because little Eliza suffers muchly with hay fever!! She started to sneeze and sneeze … and kept sneezing repeatedly for a dozen and one minutes!! She thought that her teddy nose button was going to fall off!! Eventually her sneezing attack stopped, her nose stopped twitching, and she could put away her pretty floral hankie that she had taken out of her pocket. Be aware, that you must always, ever and ever, continually carry a pretty floral hankie in your pocket or in your handbag! It is an unwritten teddy law you know!! Hankies are very handy for all sorts of uses you know!! They are needed if you need to rub your nose, or if you cut your hand and blood comes out (not so helpful for teddies because we don't have blood, we have stuffing instead! But you know what I mean! And of course it is very helpful for humans who accidentally cut themselves!! But… if you are on warfarin blood-thinning  medicine,  it is another unwritten teddy bear law that you must carry THREE pretty floral hankies, because the blood flow from a cut finger could be bigger than normal because of the medicine!!) , and for mopping up spilt milk or tea/coffee, or cleaning away crumbs you have dropped. A hankie can also be placed over a water puddle so as you don't get your feet wet.  It can also be used to wipe your eyes if you are sad and tears come to your eyes ( I feel sooo sad when I think about that. Sending special thoughts to anyone who feels a little bit sad or down today. I care!!!), or if you are soooo sooo sooo very happy that tears are exploding from the eyes of your face because you are laughing so much and you really do need to wipe them away!! Hankies are also useful if you have to have eyedrops put into your eyes, and they happen to trickle down your face instead because the person who is putting it in to the eyes is not such a good eye dropper innerer!! A hankie has so many good uses!! Oh, I am a little bit silly aren't I?!! The main use of a hankie… is if you are sneezing, to prevent germs being spread!! Teddies are very hygienic bears you know, and we would not at all even the teeniest bit want to spread any "sneeze germs" with anyone else!!! Oh, but there is an exception to the "pretty floral hankie carrying" rule.  You can carry a bright red or a bright blue hankie in your pocket if the floral pattern makes you get hayfever by just looking at it!!

But this hankie-talking conversation was not really what I was going to tell you about Eliza's experience!! Her sneezing episode was only a side issue to what happened that day!! After her sneezing attack was over, Eliza started looking up at the clouds. She was having such fun looking at the shapes of the clouds, and day dreaming at the same time. (Day dreaming in so much better than nightmares you know! Night dreaming is great, day dreaming is fun, and night mares make you feel not so very nice when you wake up! But in another way, you do feel better when you wake up because you are so very relieved and happy that it was just only a dream!) Eliza start looking at the sun too, and she had forgotten to put her teddy sunglasses on that day when she left home to come to the park. It is just that the weather forecaster on the news the previous night had said that it was going to be a rainy day with grey skies, and Eliza always believes that what the forecaster says is going to happen, will occur. So…. she didn't think she would need her sunglasses. Eliza was pleasantly and happily pleased when the skies were not full of rain and greyness! Anyway, she was laying there, looking at the clouds and the sun…and her eyes got frizzled from looking at the sun too much! She could only see blackness and spots! This worried her quite a lot! She yelled out for help with a panicky voice to Harry the helpful teddy friend who was nearby, and he rushed her off to see Oswald the optometrist bear. It was quite a good thing that Oswald just happened to be at the park too that day, with his teddy family. Would you like to know their names? Yes? Well, there is Oswald of course. There is his wife, Olivia. His daughter Olga and his son Oscar. And of course, I must not leave out their little puppy whose name is Ollie. They were just about to have their picnic lunch of cheese and tomato sandwiches! Oswald had just taken a mouth bite of his sandwich… when a frantic Harry and Eliza suddenly appeared, looking very agitated! Oswald jumped up onto his feet from where he had been sitting on the nice red checked tartan picnic blanket, and immediately asked what the problem was. After Eliza explained what had happened, Oswald got out his special eye equipment tools that he always keeps in his back pocket so that they are in a handy place in case he needs them in a hurry… for occasions just like this! He examined her eyes, and very reassuredly calmed Eliza by telling her that no serious damage had been done. It would be just a temporary blackness and spots for a few hours, because her looking at the sun had not been for too long. BUT… he did warn her that the damage really could have been a lot worse. Looking at the sun is NOT a wise decision to do that!! And… teddies and humans must wear sunglasses to protect their eyes on sunny days. Never look directly at the sun was the first rule he was taught at teddy eye doctor school!!

Gradually Eliza's sight returned. And she was so very, very happy. She told all her teddy friends about her eye and sun experience to helpfully warn them too. And so now I have passed on her message to you!

I do like cloud gazing, and am extra careful not to  look directly at the sun!! In fact, I can see some clouds outside right now that look quite interesting… I think I might just go and do a bit of cloud watching now…

Until next time,

           Don't forget to carry a pretty floral hankie in your pocket or handbag!!

            Your friend, Mr. Kiosk-Ted Strath

                Also simply known as "Ted"!!