Shillington Scarecrow Festival 2015

It’s an unwritten rule in our family that unless something comes up then Bank Holidays are family time. This caused a bit of a debate in our house this weekend along with a ten day grounding period. (Which was looking like it might be reduced until last night…)

We did sit down and have a proper discussion and discuss why it’s like that and things. We also discussed about chores around the house and how getting them done first time means that we don’t end up having debates about who should have done theirs and hasn’t. 

On Monday, Chris did have to go to an extra slot at In2Beats but following that we were having a family day. 

Jaxon, Our Sidekick and I got in the car and headed to the station via one of the corner shops to grab drinks for us. 

We then went and parked behind the radio station to wait for Chris. Jaxon and I had been listening to his program since we had woken up, which for me is a bit of a sacrifice as generally I’m not a fan of the music being played. Thankfully the breakfast show tends to be more mainstream and so the Presenters can get away with a bit more chart stuff. 

Following collecting Chris I drove us to Shillington for the Scarecrow Festival. The plan had been for us to walk it but it was really wet and at the speed we’d all left the house we hadn’t picked up our jackets. 

By fluke I managed to switch the radio over just before Popmadrer which was good fun for me, I got 12 on the first round and nothing on the second round as we were too busy talking Scarecrows for me to play along. 

We collected a program from the Village Hall after we’d pooled our change. We managed to make enough for the programme but couldn’t get the second quiz sheet.  Chris was excited about it so he pottered off to the shop while I planned a route on the programme. It took him a little while but he managed to make the minimum charge in the shop to be able to get cash back or something like that. (If it had been Saturday he could have withdrawn at the Post Office counter but we hadn’t thought of it! Such townies!). It meant he did appear with a jar of coffee, a roll of cling film, a bag of doritos and a bag of chocolate buttons for Jaxon.    

   
Chris played navigator and I drove. It tended to be a challenge to spot the scarecrows find somewhere to park within sight line of them and not annoy other motorists. We seems to get there in the end. Chris and I enjoyed it (although I got the answer to the quiz with 3 out of 6 letters. Certain scarecrows had letter attached to them. It meant that once we had those three letters I managed to get rest).

One of the houses had a scarecrow outside but they had also opened their back garden where there was a model railway and refreshments. Unfortunately because of the weather we didn’t spend long looking at the trains. Chris, Jaxon and I went inside where they’d moved the refreshments. Chris had a tea but I wasn’t thirsty. Jaxon was very well behaved and sat on knee and just looked around the kitchen rather than running wild lol. 

   
    
 Once we had visited all the different scarecrows we headed back to the Village Hall to hand in our voting sheets and quiz sheets. We grabbed a refreshment and a snack there. Our Sidekick had a sausage roll and Chris had a cake. I decided a ham sandwich was probably the lower syn option! 
   
    
    
   

After our pit stop at the Village Hall, we got in the car and Chris suggested that we headed to The Mall at Luton for a potter round the shops. It was actually quite handy as it meant that we could get some basic bits for Our Sidekick’s first day at College. He hasn’t been issued with a kit list yet so we don’t really know what he needs to take with him on the first day. We got a sketchbook and notepad as well as some black gel pens and pencils so he has those basics to get through the first day even if he texts me with a panicked list at lunchtime and I have to shopping while he’s at college. 

After shopping we headed home and chilled out for the rest of the day. I got a bit of journaling done although I did feel a bit like I should have been doing other stuff at that point. 

It was a lovely trip out even if Our Sidekick protested for a bunch of it. 

What did you get up to on your Bank Holiday Monday?

2 comments

  1. rickiej says:

    Scarecrows look great – I came across one of these in the Borders – had never heard of them before then! Like you, I have BH rituals – mine are spent away from home, hopefully wrapped with an extra day or two. Previously, they have been to work on my book but now that’s nearly done, it’s just time out – wit maybe a little bit of work. Even though I work for myself, BHs are so precious as that’s when the rest of the world tends to be on holiday, so I get less emails/client communication. This BH, Tim’s band were playing at a festival on Sunday – couldn’t be worse timing and it’s happened before! So we went away Monday to Thursday, West Scotland with a day in Belfast! New areas to explore for the both of us – a delight!

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