Jean & Steve’s Wizard of Oz ‘Scarecrow Research’ (From Marrakesh!)

One of the loveliest things about Ford Park is the people behind the scenes.  The volunteers who give their time, day on day out, year after year and help make the park what it is.

Jean and Steve are two of those people. They’re long-serving Ford Park volunteers, always ready to muck in, and always up for a chat when they’re in the park.

So, when we mentioned that this year’s Scarecrow Festival theme is Wizard of Oz, Jean made a confession that really made us smile as she’s never watched the film or read the book.

Fast forward to last week, and we received the most brilliant email from their travels:

“Greetings from Marrakesh, where we went to a big dusty dirty secondhand market hoping to find some English to read. There were thousands of grimy books in Arabic, a few hundred in French and about 20 in English. To my great delight one was The Wizard of Oz. It cost 80p and after a quick wipe down it’s clean enough to read.

I hope you are impressed with the lengths I go to in order to do research for Ford Park Scarecrows.

Our holiday is going well. The sun is out, the food is good and the locals are lovely.”

Now that is dedication. Researching the Scarecrow Festival on your holidays!!

Jean and Steve, thank you for making us all laugh. We hope you have the most wonderful rest of your holiday, and we cant wait to see what you create for the Scarecrow Festival when youre home.

If youre visiting the Walled Garden this spring, keep your eyes peeled there are some brilliant scarecrows on the way, and if you’d like to join in the fun, why not make a scarecrow to show in the orchard?

Click the link to register your scarecrow.