I live in a rural village, south of Cambridge and it has its share of traditions, features, quirks and almost no public transport. In the year 2000 a new scarecrow festival was instigated to celebrate the millenium and that festival now happens every two years. This year the date was set to coincide with the Queen’s official birthday celebrations. The suggested theme was royalty/the Queen of course. Hence for the last couple of days I have been busy stitching, painting, stapling and glueing things together.
Today I have taken the dog for a walk along the ‘Route of the Scarecrow’ and I have been amazed once again at the ingenuity and creativity that the residents have shown with their offerings. I met a lot of people along the way. The whole village is in transit it seems, perambulating around the alleys and lanes, admiring the scarecrows and chatting. Even the passing traffic is slowing down to look at the art works. There is little speeding today!
So I thought that I would share some of my photos of the scarecrows and I hope that you enjoy them too. (Mine is in there somewhere!)
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Fabulous. What fun, they are all marvellous though I am trying to guess which is yours ….😊
Probably not fair to say now, but I did hand stitch a lot of christmas wrapping ribbon together! They are great though aren’t they? I’ve not even been down any of the side roads to look for them yet, these are all from the main road.
What a wonderful tradition! Pretty impressive array of ideas. My favorites are the Queen in her ‘carriage,’ the straw corgi, Henry and his wives and the passed out HRM! The spray painted faces are a bit Andy Warhol. Great post, Allison.
These are already my top picks, but my favourite is probably the sleeping pink Queen. The artisits have labelled it “One is sleeping it orf”
🙂
How unique! I love Henry VIII and his wives! Even if Anne of Cleves wasn’t in her chronological position I would still recognize her by the headdress. 🙂 So creative!
Oh well done for knowing that! My son suggested that there should be heads on the ground to make things extra clear.
Those are all so great! You live amongst remarkably creative folk. I’m not sure, as an American, if I’m allowed a favorite, but I’m fond of the pink, snoozing queen. Everyone needs a nap.
Of course you are and I have to admit that it is probably my favourite too. The guy who made it always creates witty vignettes.
I had to laugh at the champers queen….& straw corgi…!
Apparently there is another scarecrow, in one of the side roads, with more straw corgis scampering away with tiara. I’ll go looking for it today.
My goodness, I am impressed. What talent. Oh dear, I didn’ t know that our dear Queen had taken to the bottle.
Apparently, and she seems to have taken to high wedges too!
Love the scarecrows, what an amazing job! In Durrow, Ireland, there is an annual Scarecrow Festival I wrote about a couple of years ago. You can look up in my tags, there is the President and his Lady too 🙂
Fantastic. I love the three monkeys. My Gran had a wooden carving of them on her piano. Great use of stitched tights too!
Yes, the stitched tights were my favorites 🙂 What a cool idea!
What a marvelous tradition. I love the creativity and humor. Is it deliberate that the Queen in her pink dress and hat seems to be taking a nap?
Oh yes. On the other side the board says ‘One is sleeping it orf’. The resident at that house is always making humorous entries.
These are amazing! I never would have thought of them as scarecrows! Our’s usually have pumpkin heads. Even the simple ‘coach’ is wonderfully creative 😊
I know, some of the ideas are wonderful! Initially, the scarecrows were made of straw, with hessian sack heads, but perhaps the creations have become more elaborate as the festival has expanded. This year, with the festival moved to June, it was easier to make papier-mache balloon heads than find pumpkins/straw.