Update on Dame Edna.

Anyone who may be reading these blogs will remember that I wrote one about making a scarecrow for a Scarecrow Festival to be held over the the August bank holiday weekend. For some bizarre reason I decided to do a 'Dame Edna Everidge Scarecrow! Dame Edna then featured in 2 adverts on Witneytv to publicise the festival. The second ad was hilarious! Cogges had decided to run a competition for people to email pictures of their scarecrow. To advertise this Laura, the Operations Manager at Cogges and Barry from Witneytv were filmed with Dame Edna in the background. Unfortunately in the move from the barn, where she had been created, to the doorway of the stable where the filming took place, her tiara had gone wonky as had her specs. She looked as if she had been out on the tiles the night before. Never the less, she did her best to be dignified as Laura and Barry gave the details of the competition.

If only she'd left it at that! As the credits rolled the camera was directed at the door to the stable which was now empty, although Laura could be seen in the background looking over her script to see how much of it she had forgotten. The credits were coming to an end and I thought that despite her slightly dishevelled state she had carried it of quite well. But then from the left hand side of the doorway Dame Edna was observed slowly leaning to the right until you could see as far as her waist. Then as if that wasn't bad enough she decided to shake her body a little bit before slowly retreating back out of sight. I wasn't there at the time or I could have tried to preserve her dignity. But I must admit it was very funny. That woman is a comic genius!

You might by now be thinking that this woman is absolutely barking mad! Me that is not Edna. You may well be right, but I was not the only one to end up falling under her spell and almost believing her to be real.

Laura decided that Dame Edna should be placed outside the reception area to greet all the visitors and advertise that the festival was taking place. The weather forecast for the Saturday wasn't very good. I awoke early that morning and lay in bed worrying about Edna being out in the wind and rain as she was very fragile. Then I had a eureka moment. If I took the parasol and base from our patio table it would both provide a secure structure to help her stay upright while at the same time sheltering her from the rain. My long suffering hubby was dispatched to Cogges with these items and strict instructions on making sure that Edna's tiara and specs were in their proper place. I wasn't going along until lunchtime so couldn't do it myself.

When I arrived Laura called me into the office and gave me a bunch of Gladioli that one of the volunteers had bought for Dame Edna. Apparently it would not have been right for her to be seen in public without a Gladioli! See what I mean about me not being the only one to come to think of her as real! My first task then was to find a means of attaching a Gladioli to her hands, which were actually only just a pair of rubber gloves, the rest of the flowers I put in a jug that was placed on the ground beside Dame Edna. As her social secretary I penned a thank you note to the very kind, considerate, if slightly mad like me, volunteer.

Well Dame Edna went down a storm. I think she has been photographed almost as much as the real Dame. Everyone who visited the farm that weekend had their picture taken with her, adults as well as children. Even today almost 2 weeks after the festival Dame Edna is still greeting visitors to Cogges although she is now safe and warm inside the reception area. I was supposed to bring her home at the the end of the festival but Laura asked me if she could stay a bit longer. Everyone, well at least a significant number of people, love her.

Goodness knows how long she'll stay at Cogges. but I haven't the heart to take her away from her adoring public. If anyone reading this wants to see Edna in action, google Witneytv and search the archives for either Cogges Scarecrow Festival or Cogges Scarecrow Competition.

Flashmob Granny!