Saturday 30 March 2013

If you go down in the woods today....

This is just a short post to wish everyone a Happy Easter - the snow is rapidly disappearing here in the Czech Republic and the Easter Bunny should be able to hide his eggs safely tomorrow without borrowing Santa's sleigh.

Last week there was a Farmers' Market here in Bavorov and since the window of Small Worlds is directly opposite the rear door of the castle hall in which it is held we prepared our first window display - a woodland scene - in time for it.

The task was not too difficult - some of my friends will recognise the characters involved.  Especially Lynda who, indefatigable in helping to pack up our house in England, was the one who removed them from their previous display on the landing and packed them carefully for their journey to the Czech Republic.

We did a test run in the room, before setting up in the window.  In the end quite a number of things were rejected, amongst them the Wombles seen at the front.   They definitely belong to Wimbledon Common rather than a Czech wood. And all fungi were reserved for an autumn display.

Sadly we forgot to take photos of the window before the Easter Bunny came along and transformed it today ready for the Easter Holiday.   Velikonoce, as it is known here (the name comes from Veliké noci - the Great Nights) is a very popular festival and as you walk through the village many people have put decorations in their windows.   There are some strange customs as well..... 

Photographing the window from the outside has also not been very successful - much reflection in the glass, either of me or the house opposite.   Butterfly, who has a couple of Easter offerings of her own,  then contorted herself from inside the room and tried to take photos at an angle......

I hope nevertheless you can get an idea of the woodland scene.  
There has been a pleasing amount of interest from passers-by, with parents holding up their little ones to see more closely.   At one end of the window we have details of the coming opening hours and the delightfully expressed information about the collection that Abbeybufo of Stitchwords produced whilst peeling potatoes one day.

I leave you with a series of close-ups and my very best wishes for a Happy Easter - oh and the title of this blog makes my last offering inevitable.   It comes direct from my very own childhood - as Abbeybufo has it in her introduction to Small Worlds: 
"Do you remember when you were little? I mean really little, when everything in the grown-up world was too big for you, and it seemed there was always someone bigger telling you where to go, what to do …"

I'm happy to say I remember it well and I hope that following my dolls house journey brings back happy memories for all of you too.

















Veselé velikonoce 

to one and all








PS After the somewhat ribald comments flying around about the young lady squirrel's loose morals I feel I owe it to her to post a further picture in her defence... 

23 comments:

  1. What fun! Love the frogs - but then, as Latinists among you may know, the 'bufo' part of my on-line name shows my amphibian heritage! Bufo Bufo is the common toad ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Splendido! Lovely scenes. I am troubled by one of the squirrels in the final shot. What is he wearing? And why? Is he about to be propelled into space? (One is reminded irresistibly of Torcheeeeeeeeee!)
    Happy Easter all xx
    (Abbeybufo I am pathetically preening myself for knowing bufo...)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gosh! Torchy - who lived on a star! That takes me back - and only to my brother's era children's TV - he's 8 years younger than I am...
      (Glad someone can tell their ranae from their bufones!)

      Delete
    2. Who but you could have made such a weithergezogene connection between a squirrel standing innocently in a wood and that spooky individual Torchy?

      (I'd never noticed the squirrel's headgear actually)

      Nor had I noticed what Jana Hedgehog just pointed out which is that Kopat tady prosim, which I had thought meant "Please swim here" actually means "Please dig here". The sign dates back to my leaving cake from the CAB and the translation was done by Fred.....

      Delete
    3. It's not headgear, it's the yellow thing that's exercising me...
      Perhaps the frogs are generously-minded oil tycoons?

      Delete
    4. Also, he's not standing innocently, he's poised on a seesaw. And the Torchy link is obvious.

      Delete
    5. Well I can see that the green-coated one has a Torchy cap on but the other is, I am forced to tell you, a lady squirrel with her skirt flying up in the air...

      Make what you will of that!

      Delete
    6. I am even more exercised now, and have been driven to taking a restorative glass of fizz. I am sorry (not) to pursue this increasingly unsavoury matter, but if the lady squirrel's idea of a skirt is one that covers the front only, then I must question the use of the term "lady".
      The Torchy reference relates to the fact that the toys were sent into space, thus needing rescue, rather than a visual similarity. Help me, Abbeybufo!
      xx

      Delete
    7. Oh come come, did you never as a little girl sit on a see-saw and experience your skirt going beyond your control?

      Delete
    8. And if you continue to impugn my squirrel's virtue I just might be driven to mentioning a certain pair of boxer shorts...

      Delete
    9. I'd have to refer you to my brother for actual plots/events in Torchy, I'm afraid, Andrea ... I can *just* remember the title sequence, but that's about it !

      Delete
    10. PS just found this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torchy_the_Battery_Boy which may [or may not!] help ...

      Delete
    11. a) I have never lost control of my skirt, whether on a seesaw or not
      b) a skirt attaches to the waist
      c) I am prepared to concede that the angle of the photo may be inopportune, and that the waist of a squirrel may be hard to place, but she appears to be wearing her skirt round her neck
      d) the aforesaid boxer shorts are the stuff of your nightmares, not mine
      harrumph and good night
      And thank you Abbeybufo!
      A x

      Delete
    12. c) It's windy.....
      d) What makes you think it's a nightmare for me?

      Delete
  3. Oh Cestina the display window is wonderful the kids must have loved it, I have to say my fav is the hedge hog ( which I'm crazy about, we don't have them in Canada)she is so cute with her accordion on the swing, I see now in the above post its a squirrel, to me she's a hedge hog:):) hope you and Butterfly are having a fabulous Easter weekend..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, no Dianne you are right - she is a hedgehog. The squirrel is on the see-saw :-)

      I was thinking just now, as I looked at the photo, that the hedgehog looks a bit the worse for drink......

      Glad you like the window.

      Delete
    2. The hedgehog with the accordion definitely looks very 'merry' shall we say ... too much slivovic, I fear [sorry I can't do the necessary diacritics!]

      Delete
    3. Having been up to a friend's for Easter Monday lunch and caught by the tradition of gently tapping the female rear-end with a hazel switch, followed by copious slugs of slivovice, I looked much like the hedgehog (she may be a Steiff mini-Mecki but sadly lacks the necessary Knopf im Ohr) a few hours ago.....

      Delete
  4. Oh your display is fabulous, what fun it must have been arranging it all. Happy Easter to you and Butterfly and your family from all the bears who are loving your miniature adventure.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ah! The extra picture is most helpful, thank you. Being of a literal turn of mind, I thought you meant skirt when you said "skirt", whereas now I see you mean the skirt of her dress. From the front she is decorum personified. Perhaps her dressmaker had been inspired by hospital gowns?

    ReplyDelete