Martham Scarecrow Festival

There was much excitement around the home as everyone at Ealing House prepared for the Martham Scarecrow festival, which was held over the May Bank Holiday weekend.

There were paper plates which needed to be painted in various shades of pinks and browns; these were later used as scarecrow faces! We thought that to have waving scarecrows would cheer everyone up, who came along to Martham to see the festival. So we used paper hands, drawn around those of the residents.

Then we needed crows! Once again these were fun to engineer using ‘hands’ as wings!

This year there was the idea of ‘Yarn Bombing’ added to the festival. This is an American idea, and a form of street art, using knitted or crocheted wool. It goes without saying we thought we’d have a go!

So we decide to make some pom pom spiders. These needed a parent!! So an enormous spider was constructed; using a jumper, bamboo sticks, tights and wool, and a lot of imagination!!

However the finished result was rather ‘cute’, don’t you agree?!!!!!

Then of course it would not be a proper scarecrow festival without some scarecrows! This year we introduced a cyclist. He was wearing the cycling jersey which Vince wore when he did the Tour de Broads last year. The poor cyclist looked like he’d had a very long day as his bike had flat tyres and was covered in bird pooh!!!! Poor thing! Just as he thought he was going to leave, he was being stopped in his tracks by a carer.

As for the residents; there was a ‘Gardener’ scarecrow (who somewhat resembled Wally!) he was looking after his carrots. A Very Handsome man indeed.

Watching him closely from the wheelbarrow was his female friend with her handbag and knitting! It was all great fun to put together, and everyone was delighted with the finished results.

We enjoyed the hundreds of people who came to the village to see the festival, stopping to see our display and complete their quizzes. The atmosphere was wonderful, with many of our residents taking the opportunity to go outside to see what was going on, or simple enjoy themselves waving at visitors through the windows.

Christina, Jan and Alice stopped on their horses to see us as they were out having a morning ride. Thankfully the horses didn’t try to eat the carrots!

We heard on Sunday 11th May that we won the overall prize for the village. WELL DONE EVERYONE.