Bleats & Blossom Competition Winners: Mercy & Mara!
We are delighted to announce that Mercy and her daughter Mara are the winners of our selfie competition. We hope you will agree that their delightful picture completely met our brief of taking a joyful selfie with Bleats & Blossom.
They are both thrilled to have won a gift voucher for the National Trust, and as they are already members, they are looking forward to a spending spree over their next few visits. Mercy and Mara are also excited to see some real cherry blossom at Sheffield Park Gardens next spring as this was the inspiration for the design of Bleats & Blossom by local artist Claire Havell of @BattyBlossoms
We caught up with Mercy to find out more about their experience with Shaun by the Sea
When did you hear about the Shaun by the Sea art trail and how many of the sheep did you visit?
Mara & I really enjoyed the Snail Trail in 2018, and we were so excited for the new trail, as it had been a long wait, especially for the little one! She absolutely loves Shaun the Sheep, so this was very special for her.
We visited most of them, making special trail trips to see them. Even venturing to Peacehaven to see her school one she helped design. But we have to admit, when we ran out of time, we did cheat a bit to get all the codes, by zooming in on the selfie gallery for particular sheep!
I think I will have the Shaun the Sheep theme tune in my head forever now!
Did you join in with any of the other activities organised by Martlets (Shaun model making etc)?
Yes, we went to the Farewell weekend, as part of Mara's birthday celebrations, which was so lovely, if a little sad to say goodbye. She took part in the model making, and the result is sitting proudly on our mantelpiece. Such a clever design!
What did you enjoy most about the experience?
Mara really enjoyed sitting on 'Gratitude', and I felt the whole experience, brought our community together, as we started up random conversations with other visitors at each Sheep sculpture.
When we got to Bleats & Blossom, we loved the colours, and cherry blossom. We thought it was beautiful, and we were so surprised that we won the competition. I love the photo too, as it shows us looking so happy, and that represents how much we enjoyed the trail.
Did you know about the Martlets before the trail?
Yes, and I am very humbled and supportive of the work they do. We had some Sheep in the Library I work at, and I spent a lot of time encouraging customers to seek them out (and hopefully donate!)
What are your favourite National Trust locations locally?
Nymans is our favourite, and we also love Sheffield Park Gardens. There is so much space to explore and have fun!
Have you thought about how you might use your voucher?
Yes! As we already have membership, we will be able to purchase food at the cafe (saving me making a packed lunch!), and Mara can hear me say "yes!" when she asks me for a toy in the shop. This will be a fantastic treat for those cold months after the Christmas excitement, so thank you so much for making our day!
Thank You to everyone who took part in our selfie competition, the pics were all lovely but of course there could only be one winner.