E is for...

Elephant

cake the cpaag nellyphant

(publicity shot)

I promised a post about Cake the Travelling Nellyphant many moons ago, but promptly forgot. Possibly in a fit of oo-shiny. Extremely possibly, in fact.  But today I am pleased to announce that Cake's Time Has Come. [insert suitably trumpety-trump-type fanfare here] 

Well, I suspect that a little background information may be called for...  Or possibly a lot.  How does one begin to tell the epic tale of Cake's travels around the globe?  Why, at the beginning, of course.  (Ugh - sorry about that!!)

Cake came into being at the hands of a lovely person named KnittyBe, a member of the Completely Pointless and Arbitrary Group on Ravelry.  She called her creation 'Cake' (after the patron-saint-like icon of the CPaAG) and saw that he was good. And cute. And small enough to fit in an envelope. And thus Cake the Travelling Nellyphant was born and was thrust out into the world of men and chocolate.

He left the US last July and arrived chez moi in August for the second leg of his Epic Journey Around The World. (The first leg being a wee jaunt down to Namibia and South Africa!)

cake in and on tour(s)

Yes indeed, Cake made himself at home very quickly and was a perfect house guest.  We spent our time together pretending to be tourists in Tours, playing 'Where's Wally Cake' in the flower market, introducing him to the joys of Nutella, exploring the wine cellars and château in Amboise, and, em... 'sampling' some local liquid produce...

hotel de ville

the american monument
yes, cake was there!

whodathunkit - multicoloured, psychedelic camouflage

hiding in a tree outside the basilica st martin

(he's sitting just above the lowest blossoms...)

come on in - the nutella's lovely

(for scale, cake is roughly 2 1/2 inches tall)

playing at door knockers on the saint hubert chapel door in amboise

examining all stages of the wine-making process

Since France, Cake has visited Denmark, Italy, India, Uruguay, the USA and Canada and there are still many more countries to go. This little guy has probably seen more of the world than most of the folks following his journey!  He was a pleasure to have around!  Even if he did finish off the Vouvray...

This post was brought to you by the letter 'E' for, erm... Nellyphant, and by the number 2 - the number of squares of chocolate I have left after typing this out!