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This morning we set off on the Bisterne Scarecrow Festival Trail. At each end of the road through the village and its environs a town crier announced the event.
Various outlets sold leaflets listing the entries with a map showing their locations. The price was £1 in aid of the Village Hall. Most scarecrows sported a receptacle for donations to the same cause. We bought ours from Tyrell’s Ford Country Inn. As this was the last stop on the route, we carried on our search in reverse order, although my photographs are here presented starting at number 1.
This was The Scarecrow with no Name!! outside Old School House. It didn’t look much like Clint Eastwood.
24, Dragon Cottages was responsible for both no. 2, We’re all going on a Summer Holiday;
and no. 3, We have gone to Pot.
Gangsta Grannie resided at 23, Dragon Cottages. It was a neat touch to provide her with a walking frame.
A punster was responsible for Country Life is in the Jean’s (sic).
Charlie the Train was a recycling of Thomas the Tank Engine featured four years ago. An engineer stands in the cab;
the prospective passenger behind him can be seen through a window;
and a signalman waits outside. This exhibit was produced by the residents of 71, Lower Kingston.
A subtle wit was employed for I’m just Cheese (Cheese straws – Get it?), at Clover Cottage, 16 Lower Kingston.
It was particularly breezy at White House, Kingston, where Crow Farm was situated. The farmer had lost his hat and his wife swizzled on her stick.
I picked up and replaced the hat (seen beside the wall in the first picture) and the wind righted the good lady. They seemed rather pleased.
There was a Hive of Activity outside Iona, 18 Christchurch Road. Witticisms were written on tags attached to some of the bees,
and other clever details, such a bridal couple.
A leggy spider is Surfing the Web outside 221, Christchurch Road,
while on the green across the road cheeky Peekaboo Pikachus enlivens the shrubbery.
Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson peers from the garden of 6 New Road.
By the cattlegrid in the forest on Charles Lane we have Not Forest Rangers it’s the Power Rangers.
3 Little Pigs inhabit the brick sitting room outside Rose Cottage, 51 Bagnum. Mum’s photograph stands on the mantelpiece, and a notice asks visitors if they can find
the Big Bad Wolf.
At 37, Sandford, Country Fun portrays the television programme Country File. Each of the figures,
for example John Craven, carries a photographic image of a presenter.
On the big oak trees in Dragon Lane hang an explanatory notice about Whispering Wood
and half a dozen pairs of eyes fashioned from car parts.
A Tin Can Alley had been set up outside 39, Sandford, in Roll Up Roll Up.
Another work that invites us to a further search is Noah’s Ark in the grounds of St Paul’s Church.
We failed this one, because we only found five of the six pairs of animals.
The Blue Planet appears somewhat out of its element outside the driveway to the Stable Family Trust.
Wonder Woman had lost one of her amulets in the grass of Garden Cottage,
while another unlikely American symbol, Humpty Trumpty, sat on a wall
in the grounds of Tyrell’s Ford, above a snoozing Mexican.
A fifteenth wedding anniversary was being celebrated outside Lower Bisterne Farm.
Having completed our tour we just had time for lunch in The Three Tuns at Bransgore.
Jackie enjoyed a burger, chips, and salad; while I chose superb Mudeford haddock and sea bass in an excellent sauce served with a crisp range of vegetables. My lady drank Peroni while I drank Ringwood’s best bitter. As usual, this rendered an evening meal unnecessary.
