Scarecrow Gnomes in the Gainesville Garden

Here's "Woodland Gnome and Friends," Mom's creation that we submitted to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens in Gainesville this year.  

She did a fantastic job!  As mentioned earlier, there were other plans for a scarecrow, and other ideas.  But a month or two ago, the "gnome" theme sort of threw us for a loop.  Still, Mom did well with a few ideas, getting a tomato cage and then going from there with some woodland friends from a craft store, some moss and leaves for a beard.  And of course the nose.

It's a somewhat therapeutic thing for Mom, given the family dynamic and all.  She spent some time setting that up and being creative.  She's already working on the Christmas tree ornaments for the gardens when we go in December.  

And look where they put our gnome scarecrow:  right at the front entrance there.  Literally the first thing there on the left as you enter the gardens.  

Of course while there this afternoon we walked around the rest of the gardens, admiring the landscaping and of course checking out all the other scarecrows.

This one was called "Gnome N Vader,"  It was funny looking at a lot of the scarecrows, because you can telll they were like us making their own plans and then suddenly had to deal with a gnome theme.  We just abandoned our one idea and you can see how Mom embraced the gnome theme pretty well.  Many others just went ahead with their current idea and slapped the word "gnome" somewhere on the title card or added a gnome had for good measure.  Where a gnome had couldn't be made, some just did what you see above:  add a witch's hat, because it's pointy, right?  They all look great, of course.  And there were some other really great gnome scarecrows in the collection along the path too.

Here's one from the city of Gainesville, a gnome that cleverly uses a mop for a beard.

They have a beehive here, and this squirrel is maybe checking it out.  I wouldn't get that close to it, little guy.  We got some local honey before we left, honey made by these bees.  They sell that at the front entrance there.

I'm a fungi once you get to Gnomie!  Great wordplay and a great gnome with some little mushrooms too!

A few random sculptures along the way too, some recently donated to the gardens.  This is a praying mantis, but there was a dragonfly elsewhere, and some cattails too.

The bees were out in full force, all over a lot of the blooms along the trail.  Also present were many, many juro spiders high up overhead or just out of reach in the woods.  There were ginormous webs stretching out overhead like netting to catch a trapeze act above us.  The spiders are quite invasive.  I've done a lot of work with the salt gun at home, getting rid of them where I can.

Aw, it's Cousin It!  He's not a gnome, or at least I don't think he's a gnome.  He has entirely too much hair to determine one way or another.  Regardless, he looks fantastic there, visiting the gardens for a nice leisurely stroll.  

Ah, now there's some gnomes!  We walked along the trail this afternoon and the weather was absolutely gorgeous.  It was a perfect fall day!

We spotted this fishing gnome by the river, seated on a hay bale with his pole, ready to enjoy the afternoon.

And this guy... I don't know what to make of this guy... imagine running into this randomly in the woods.  

We caught this pumpkin gnome enjoying a nice Sunday afternoon nap.

Gainesville Water Works put some buckets together for a pretty large and interesting gnome.

There were still plenty of things in bloom, but the weather is turning cool at night, and you can see that fall is definitely here.

Having just come from Tennessee, we appreciated this moonshining gnome.  He was not giving out any free samples, and looked ready to get away quickly.

Interesting lighting on these red leaves caught my eye.  

This gnome looks like he could be an assistant to the Swedish Chef!

This gnome looks like she lost her head.  Or at least is about to.  Many of us were using pre-fabricated heads last year to assist with the creation of our scarecrows, and there were a few of those this year.  Just slap a gnome hat on, and you're all set!

Pretty blooms along the path.

Mom stops to enjoy the scenery and get a small rest.  

I just like this scarecrow.  Nothing at all to do with gnomes, or at least I don't think so.  It probably has the word "gnome" in the title somewhere.  No matter - it looked nice where it was.

Ah, here's our title card!  They should let us keep these when they're done...

One last look at the Woodland Gnome's friends here, as we stop at the entrance for our honey and make our way home.  It was actually a very pleasant trip to the gardens.  We're members there, so we got these little pins today, and we had an enjoyable little stroll.

Of course, today was Sunday and this is not how it all started.  It started this morning at KidPak, with "The Quest!"  And I was happy with the end result of the morning, because we started an entirely new skit series, one where our famous archeologist explorer finds himself over in China (because that's where the set still is), and he's been asked by the dean of Marshall College to help with a class of students there and just take a little time off from all the adventure.  Of course, that changed immediately with the arrival of a mysterious visitor and an artifact that will serve as our MacGuffin.  

It was a great morning.  Maddie had the funniest line - at least to me.  Actually, you could hear several adults cracking up when she said it, as it was a reference to the "Indiana Jones" movies.

DAVID:  “Students!  (gesturing to a flustered DANIEL) He chose to come here for a quiet getaway.”

 

MADDIE:  “He chose… poorly.”

We had the boulder dash race, some great adventurous videos, and an awesome message about the power of a name.  It was all a really great morning.  Mom did a fantastic job with the costumes, and just like that, we're in an October series that should be loads of fun.

Tonight Maddie was doing a good bit of work for school, which starts back up again tomorrow.  But afterwards, we had a few movies we plugged in, including "Hocus Pocus 2," which was okay, and then we went to "Book of Life," which is one of Mom and Maddie's favorites.  I like it too, but these two love it a lot.  It's a super creative and fun movie, and one of those that you have to watch each October.  We're in the thick of the October movies now though, aren't we?

Anyway, we tried to get to bed earlier tonight.  We read another chapter about Nicolas Benedict, and then after that we said our prayers... although it was too hard to resist listening in to tonight's Braves game.  Wow, what a series - in order to win the National League East, the Braves had to sweep the New York Mets this weekend, winning all three games.  They won the first two, and then there was tonight, and yes, they did it!  All they have to do is win one of their next three games with the Marlins - or see the Mets lose one of their games with the Nationals.  It seems likely the Braves will win the National League East this week, after being behind for something like 175 games.  What a chase.  Go Braves!