We're On The Trail

This should have been posted a couple of weeks ago! During half term we went over to Rockland St Mary, a little village South East of Norwich, to see their Scarecrow Trail. This was definitely a ***** experience. It's an annual event arranged by friends of the village school. This year they wanted to raise money to rejuvenate the school library. Maps were £2 from the village shop, and the Community Café was open, offering drinks, cakes and light snacks. We arrived early and had a great time wandering round. The theme was Children's Storybook Characters, and it was so lovely to hear Rosie and other children calling out when they'd identified a scarecrow, and talking about World Book Day, and generally enthusing about favourite stories. RSM has an unusual two-sided sign, reflecting the agricultural history and its proximity to the Broads. The BFG was far and away the tallest model
Here are some of my pictures - sadly they did not all come out!

I liked "Greta Thunberg - Little People, Big Dreams" [In fact Rosie actuallysaid 'this will be your favourite, Grandma"] but she loved Shaun the Sheep. There were a number of Meg&Mog and Room on The Broom Witches [it was the week before Halloween] and seven Hungry Caterpillars. Mary Poppins had a very realistic face, and the Tiger Who Came To Tea was beautifully made. 

Hairy Maclary was very convincing. Where's Wally? outside the village shop, obviously. Alice was disappearing rapidly down her rabbit hole [so no need to create hands of face - very clever!] Quite a few Stick Men marched through gardens, and all sorts of Mr Men.

Liz and I were both very impressed- it was a free event, lots to see, well organised - and clearly aimed at Primary School children who could engage with the scarecrows. Rosie did not recognise Worzel Gummidge [this is just an ordinary scarecrow, Grandma, she told me - not a book person!] but she knew all the others.

The café staff were friendly, and had a play area set up at one end for the children. We ate our picnic lunch at the parish church.

There were over 50 gardens with a display - pretty impressive in a village of just over 300 homes - that means one in six households took part [take note Swanton Morley - RSM less half the size produced 5 times as many scarecrows as our village]

There were lots of families doing the trail when we went on the Saturday Morning - and the total amount raised was juts over £2000, which should go a long way towards the library refurb. This will definitely be an event on my calendar for next Autumn Half Term!

We had a good discussion afterwards about 'if you had to make a character, who would you choose?' [Greta Thunberg's head is still in my loft, should anyone want to borrow her!]

I think Mrs Pepperpot would be fun to recreate- a smale scale woman in a large scale setting...