Pattingham Scarecrow Festival

Yesterday morning, after listening to the Omnibus edition of the Archers Darrell and I felt that we ought to fill our lungs with clean, fresh air …… and how fortuitous and exciting it was that there was a Scarecrow Festival going Pattingham, a “posh” village just down the road from us …..

…… well,  it would have been rude not to go along and have a mooch, wouldn’t it?

Oh Mon Dieu,  it was so robustly fabulous, and soooooooo not Last Vegas, we felt very typically Englishified  and knew that we were well and truly back at home!

…… we paid £2 each to follow the red trail round to see over a hundred scarecrows in peoples gardens, shop windows …….

….. in the pub and also scattered around the village on benches, in the park and sitting walls.

We wore our festival badges with pride and tried to do the quiz …..

…… but in the end the excitement of what was around the next corner just became too much of a distraction!

Our favourite part was in the church ….. because we didn’t expect it to be filled with scarecrows ……..

….. and where both inevitably and naturally,


…… Nigel was hypnotically drawn to the bell ringing …..

….. and perhaps it’s best to leave it just there …… with no mention of Nigel hanging somewhat precariously,  without a safety net up in the belfry and the fire brigade being called out ……..!!!! Only kidding, he just had a little tug and left with a huge smile on his face ….. another tick on his bucket list and now, he said,  he could call himself an campanologist …. if only he could pronounce it! It was hard to drag the little fella away …… now saying that he wanted to live in Pattingham so that we could make a scarecrow of our own …..

He even found, he said,  a suitable house for us to move into as it was  for sale ….. however I said that a move was a little bit drastic if he just wanted to make a scarecrow and that I was sure we could sort something out at Castle Greysquirrel to facilitate his need to make one of his own!!  Happy Days … and Home Sweet Home!!!