Fun in the sun

By -
I had the pleasure of Number One Son's company for our village fun day weekend. He has come back from university and sprouted a beard. My first reaction was that Shaggy from Scooby Doo had just walked through the door. But Mr Loggins reckoned he looked more like Jude Law.

The scarecrow competition was a huge success and judged so graciously by CBeebies star Cerrie Burnell, who was simply lovely. The children adored her and the dads seemed pretty smitten too.

Here she is with the winner of the contest, the BFG:

A selection of scarecrow photos for you:














So fun day has been and gone for another year. Hundreds of people, glorious weather, a score and ten scarecrows, a bagpiper leading the village parade, loads of stalls and sideshows, a bouncy castle and tea ladies in dalmatian gear for the theme of children's fictional characters.

There were very few glitches on an almost perfect day. The new sound system made me sound like Norman Collier and the new dishwasher filled up the hall kitchen with water as Mr Grigg did his best Gordon Ramsey impersonation for the big village breakfast.

Today, my feet are tired and bruised after dancing the night away to Tuppence's band and Mr Grigg has a hangover.

But just don't mention the dishwasher. I mentioned it once but I think I got away with it.

My favourite scarecrow was this one - Harry Potter wearing his invisibility cloak. Genius.

And mine? A cardboard cut-out better known as Flat Stanley. Rubbish but easy and effective.

That's about it
Love Maddie x

Comments

  1. Gail Is This Mutton?14 June 2009 at 15:24

    Great scarecrows.I like the Biggles one with its own aircraft. They've come on a bit since Worzel Gummidge.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jude14 June 2009 at 16:00

    What an array of fantastic scarecrows!
    If I'd lived in a village like yours with so much fun and friendlyness,I wouldn't have sailed away!!
    So glad everything turned out so well
    x
    ps. did you notice you get a mention on my last post? How long now?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Calico Kate14 June 2009 at 18:03

    I think Flat Stanley is inspired not rubbish at all.
    Brilliant pics. & I am all for beards!
    CKx

    ReplyDelete
  4. maddie14 June 2009 at 20:22

    Gail - Biggles was one of two Biggles entries. The picture I posted was the one done by the vicar's husband.
    Jude - great, aren't they? Lovely village. But Ithaca beckons. Just five more sleeps! Going to have a look at your post now.
    Thanks CK. But up against the others, he was a bit, well, flat. One for the beards then...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous14 June 2009 at 20:30

    There are some ingenius scarecrows there - and these are great pictures too.
    Have you ever thought of publishing a book of photos that depict village life? You could call it The World Through My Lens. I guarantee it would sell wel on my side of the pond.

    ReplyDelete
  6. maddie15 June 2009 at 14:29

    Dave - you are very kind. Glad you liked the pics.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Pondside15 June 2009 at 15:46

    That looks like a lot of fun - nothing at all like that over here. There seem to be lots more community activities than we have - more spirit perhaps?
    OK - are you off somewhere exciting? If so, lucky you....of course, lucky us too as I'm sure you'll have your camera with you.
    What's the story with Flat Stanley? I tried to read the card with the photos below him, but couldn't make the print big enough.

    ReplyDelete
  8. maddie15 June 2009 at 16:34

    Pondside - if you click on the Flat Stanley link, you get the whole story. He was crushed by a pin board when he was in bed and, as a result, became flat and could be posted under doors and went to California in an envelope to save his family air fares. There is now a fascinating Flat Stanley project that children all over the world are involved in.
    Off to the Ionian sailing on Friday. I hope to switch over to The World from my Porthole blog, which is, as yet, virgin territory!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Reasons15 June 2009 at 18:17

    Flat Stanley - brilliant! Thanks for posting all those wonderful pics, I really enjoyed them.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Milla17 June 2009 at 13:03

    what a fab collection, loved them all! really good fun. Your village sounds great.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

And it's goodnight from me - I'm closing The World From My Window for the last time

By -
Image
A Happy New Year to you all! Here's hoping that 2020 is peaceful, healthy, everything you hope for and full of blue sky bunting. After twelve happy years, I've decided to give up this blog. I wanted to say a big thanks for all your support. The World from my Window has opened many doors (and indeed windows) for me during that time, including an appearance on Channel 5's  The Gadget Show , and a weekly writing slot on the world's oldest weekly magazine for women, The People's Friend . I love sharing my stories with readers of my Maddie's World column and the People's Friend team are a joy to work with. Long may that continue! Through this blog, I've had a loyal host of followers from all over the globe, including particular champions in those dozen years. It's a huge boost and very humbling. Thank you. Since I was a young child, writing has been my thing. I started this blog during a creative writing course with The Open University in 2...
Read more

Just like the Durrells, we moved from Dorset to Corfu, but eight decades later

By -
Image
So, what do you think of it so far? The Durrells , I mean. If you live in the UK, Sunday evenings on the telly have just got a whole lot gentler. The always-watchable Keeley Hawes heads the cast in a series based on Gerald Durrell's Corfu Trilogy. And it's pretty sublime. The warmth and light of Corfu shines through in this very enjoyable series. It's a bit like The Darling Buds of May  only set in Greece. Just the thing for a Sunday evening. It's got me hankering after Corfu, where I lived for a year in 2012-2013. I do pop back there from time to time and I know how lucky I am to have a foot in beautiful West Dorset and another in the jewel of the Ionian (although I have to be careful not to do the splits). Corfu Dorset Just like the Durrells, we left rainy Dorset, pretty much on a whim, for life on a Greek island. Who wouldn't want to up sticks and escape the drudgery of the day job? Especially to Greece. Dorset Corfu But my grown-up g...
Read more

Batten down those hatches, it's recycling day

By -
Image
It's blowing a hooley out there.  The wind is lashing against the windows and the dogs are play fighting in front of the Aga before one of them goes too far and I have to break up the party. It's recycling day today and the wind knows it, whipping up through the street into the square and down the alleyway from the church to present the village with a soggy mess of paper, cereal packets and plastic all along the side of the road, a twice-monthly confetti for the marriage of consumerism and environmental guilt. You can tell a lot about people from what's in their rubbish. Forget about stealing ID, I'm talking about their character - where they shop, the type of people they are. A small, white bottle with a label denoting that it's  kefir,  a fermented milk drink good for the gut, rolls around my doorstep. It's not mine.  I pick it up to dispose of it and can feel there is still some miracle juice inside. It was clearly not to the user's l...
Read more