Tumshee Tam from West Lothian chats to Grapevine's Sacrecrows
Mr and Mrs Scarecrow are familiar figures in Grapevine as they gaze out across the sunny fields of cotton, cantaloupe and okra on Nash Farm; the historic farmstead preserved by the Grapevine Heritage Foundation.
On the other side of the Atlantic, poor old Tumshee Tam manages a smile as he braves all weathers on Livingston Mill Farm, part of the museum run by the Almond Valley Heritage Trust. Click on the images for a larger version which will open in a new window.
Despite their distance and climatic differences, the scarecrows have found that they have much in common, and have exchanged many useful hints on how to frighten persistent crows, how to control rodents in your underwear, and how to make children smile.
To provide Mr and Mrs Scarecrow with a better picture of what his farm looks like, Tumshee Tam has been asking the children who visit Almond Valley to make a drawing of their favourite bits of Mill Farm. Over a hundred colourful sketches were taken back to Texas in the luggage of the Grapevine delegation who visited in April and were rushed immediately to Mr and Mrs Scarecrow. The children’s drawings arrived just in time to be displayed at the “Spring into Nash Farm” special event in Grapevine, and were proudly pegged up on a clothes line behind the old farm house.
The hot news at that special weekend was the arrival of a new baby scarecrow at Nash Farm, and a prize competition to find a name for him. By completing a special colouring sheet, children at Mill Farm were able to take part in this great competition during the course of the weekend and several dozen suggestions were e-mailed to Grapevine first thing Monday morning. Scottish suggestions included Worzel, Strawman, Jack Nash, Gurner, Bogle, Ben, Timothy, Cornelius, Shuggy, and Strawy McGraw. It remains to be seen whether any of these names find favour.