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Garden Gnomes

The dark side of the gnome:

Thousand garden gnomes giving Heil Hitler salute invade German town
Over 1,000 black garden gnomes with their right arms raised in a Heil Hitler salute have invaded a German town - all in the name of art.
By Allan Hall in Berlin
Published: 10:41PM BST 14 Oct 2009
[video FFS!]

The sculptures, displayed in a military formation in the centre of Straubing, in Lower Bavaria, are designed, according to the artist Ottmar Hoerl, "to get people to think, to react".

Nazi salutes and symbols relating to the Third Reich have been illegal in Germany since the end of the Second World War, but Mr Hoerl argued successfully in court that his 15-inch gnomes were ridiculing the Nazis, not promoting their ideology.

The artist says that his work "Dance With the Devil", represents "symptoms of a political disease," and is designed to draw attention to the rise of the far-Right in Europe.

In all 1,250 gnomes will be on display in the centre of Straubing - a town which, during the 12 years of the Third Reich, enthusiastically supported Hitler.

Earlier this year Mr Hoerl, 59, attracted attention by exhibiting a golden gnome making the Hitler salute in an art gallery in Nuremberg.

Garden gnomes are popular in Germany, home to an estimated 25 million of the sculptures, which adorn gardens and balconies across the country.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... -town.html

I wonder how many will be stolen... :twisted:
 
Couple who had gnome stolen get replacement and apology 13 years later
A mystery thief who stole a treasured gnome from a garden 13 years ago has finally apologised and provided a replacement.
Published: 2:49PM GMT 09 Feb 2010

The gnome was taken from Denis and Doris Heard's garden in Leeds in 1996 and they were later teased when they received a postcard from him, while he was apparently in Devon.

Now, after more than a decade, the gnome-napper has given in to his conscience and left a letter of apology along with a replacement.

The anonymous thief said he and a friend took the memento as a Mischief Night prank.

He said in the note: ''Since growing up and having a garden of my own that I cherish and care for, I feel really bad about taking something from you and your garden. I hope you will accept my apologies and a replacement gnome! Kind wishes.''

Keen gardener Mr Heard, 78, said he and his wife had given up hope of ever hearing about their gnome again.

He said: ''There was a parcel on the doorstep. We opened it and it was a gnome with a rake - very like the one that went missing. We'd just like to say 'thank you' to whoever it was for returning the gnome.''

Mr and Mrs Heard's gnome went missing during a nationwide spate of gnome mysteries in the mid 1990s when a series of them disappeared only to later bombard their owners with messages from around the world.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... later.html
 
The shark with the lifevest is cool. So is the Bigfoot (they call it a yeti, but the posture is classic Patterson). But what's with all the dinosaurs? I want mammalian megafauna! I don't have room in my yard for a mammoth or giant ground sloth, but I could probably squeeze in an aurochs, bison antiquus, or giant beaver.
 
rynner2 said:
Looking for something to brighten up your garden, but bored with garden gnomes? Then how about a 22ft Tyrannosaurus Rex?
Click to expand...

If they do an animatronic one, I'm sold...
 
rynner2 said:
In pictures: unusual garden ornaments by Design Toscano

Looking for something to brighten up your garden, but bored with garden gnomes? Then how about a 22ft Tyrannosaurus Rex?
Click to expand...

Brontosaurus for me, please!
 
I read the post about the cut price Polish gnomes and it reminded me of a journey back from Prague in 1994, we were heading through the mountains north of pilsen and just before the German frontier there were thousands of garden gnomes lining a forested hill side. These were also cut price gnomes and a truly surreal sight.
Anyone remember the story in FT some years back of the Dutch government minister who admitted to communing with 'real' gnomes in his garden?
 
My cousin who lives in Bunbury Western Australia took us to see what he called The Valley of the Gnomes. It was somewhere between Bunbury and Margaret River. There were thousands of gnomes, family groups, flying, boating etc, all left by different people and many with notes from all over the world.
 
Then there is the gnome who made a weighty contribution to gravity research.

The gnomes of Zurich will welcome him to CERN. Or the snailette will anyway I htrust.

Science raises weighty question with travelling gnome
http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-03-wei ... -kern.html
March 20th, 2012 in Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Enlarge

A collection of gnomes in Sydney, Australia. Physicists looking at anomalies in Earth's gravity have turned to a garden gnome named Kern, which has been shipped around the globe to have himself weighed at locations ranging from Lima, Mumbai and Mexico to Sydney, New Caledonia and the South Pole.

Physicists looking at anomalies in Earth's gravity have turned to a garden gnome named Kern, which has been shipped around the globe to have himself weighed at locations ranging from Lima, Mumbai and Mexico to Sydney, New Caledonia and the South Pole.

The experiment is a twist on the "travelling gnome" prank, in which a garden ornament is mysteriously stolen, photographed at various locations -- with the pictures posted on the Internet -- and then returned home.

The project promotes the wares of a German maker of hi-tech scales, but also has a serious application, by measuring differences in Earth's gravity that also affect weight.

"Most people don't realise Earth's gravity actually varies slightly," experiment coordinator Tommy Fimpel said in a press release.

"One of the main causes is variations in the shape of the planet. Believe it or not, the Earth is actually potato-shaped, so you'll weigh up to 0.5 percent more or less, depending on where you go. We thought our Gnome Experiment would be a fun way to measure the phenomenon."

Scientists who take part in the project receive a flight case that comprises Kern, of which only one has been made, plus a set of precision scales.
So far he has weighed most -- 309.82 grammes (10.9285 ounces) -- at the Amundsen-Scott Research Station in Antarctica, where the inertial pull produced by Earth's rotation is strong.

His next stops are Snolab, a Canadian particle physics facility two kilometres (1.2 miles) below the surface of the Earth that is the deepest laboratory in the Earth, and the underground Large Hadron Collider, the famous particle smasher at CERN in Switzerland.
Click to expand...
 
So far he has weighed most -- 309.82 grammes (10.9285 ounces) -- at the Amundsen-Scott Research Station in Antarctica, where the inertial pull produced by Earth's rotation is strong.
Click to expand...
I echo one of the comments:
'What the hell is "inertial pull"?' :shock:

The Earth's rotation does affect gravity, and largely controls the planet's shape as a flattened spheroid. (This is not 'New' Science - Isaac Newton worked it out centuries ago.)

But the garbled language of the Physorg.com article makes no sense as it stands. :evil:
 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-20066683 ---more & pics on the link

Under the depths of Wastwater in Cumbria's Lake District, far removed from any neat lawn, there are garden gnomes.

In the past police divers removed them, fearful they were luring inexperienced divers to their deaths, but they were soon replaced.
They are still there and, divers say, under other lakes in the region - but are they harmless fun or a hazard?
Wastwater is England's deepest lake at nearly 80m (260ft) and popular with divers.

It has been a watery home for gnomes for years and is not alone.
 
cherrybomb said:
In the past police divers removed them, fearful they were luring inexperienced divers to their deaths, but they were soon replaced.
Click to expand...

Not a Scuba diver, but I think 60ish metres is the depth limit for standard Oxygen before you have to go to a Helium/Oxygen/Nitrogen mixture, so an inexperienced diver may well be in serious danger if they attempt to dive to 80m.
 
I recall reading a story (possibly in the pages of Fortean Times itself) of a small stretch of the London Underground tunnels where staff had placed some garden gnomes. I suppose the effect upon the eagle-eyed commuter upon seeing some small, red-hatted 'creatures' lurking in the dark was to leave them unsettled to say the least!

Can anyone verify this story?
 
I recall reading a story (possibly in the pages of Fortean Times itself) of a small stretch of the London Underground tunnels where staff had placed some garden gnomes. I suppose the effect upon the eagle-eyed commuter upon seeing some small, red-hatted 'creatures' lurking in the dark was to leave them unsettled to say the least!

Can anyone verify this story?
Click to expand...
It's funny you mention that, because years ago I thought it would be a neat idea to get a local artist to build some gargoyles, which could then be placed at various locales in the train tunnels here. The city could even hold a contest, where people would be eligible to win a prize if they were able to spot all of the gargoyles from the speeding train windows - they'd have to submit an entry form listing the locations, or something. Someone pointed out to me, however, that people might be tempted to wander into the tunnels to look for the gargoyles. Good point.
 
I was just looking at an OS map of Devon (in connection with a news story about a wind turbine collapse) when I noticed, NE of Bradworthy, a Gnome Reserve marked! :shock:

I turned to Wiki for more info, but there was nothing! However, Google found this website:
The Gnome Reserve & Wild Flower Garden

...

Set amid truly rural countryside between Bideford and Bude just 7 miles from the Devon Cornwall border. the 4 acre Reserve comprises woodland, stream, 30 yard pond, meadow and garden - home to 1000+ gnomes and pixies, and about 250 labelled species of wild flowers, herbs, grasses and ferns.

Gnome hats are loaned free of charge together with fishing rods, so you don't embarrass the gnomes! Take your cameras and embarrass the family with some truly memorable photos for the family album! 8)

etc...

http://www.gnomereserve.co.uk/
Click to expand...
I've not heard of this place before, and I used to live in North Devon. Still, that was over 30 years ago!
 
The Gnome sanctuary is only about a kilometre away from the collapsed turbine:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy ... -wind.html
I wonder if the gnomes were involved! They could have snuck out at night and loosened the fixing bolts! ;)

I had a couple of bottles of Hobgoblin last night, which seems rather weird now...
 
Chelsea Flower Show: Our love-hate relationship with garden gnomes

The Royal Horticultural Society has temporarily lifted a ban on garden gnomes - normally deemed too "tacky" - at the Chelsea Flower Show. Garden historian Twigs Way charts the public's long love-hate relationship with these figurines.

History is full of curious tales - and none more so than the simple garden gnome.
Alternately loved and loathed, the gnome epitomises the social divisiveness of garden design. Snobbery may dictate a gnome free home, but for some a pond will never be complete without a cheery chap in a pointed red hat and a fishing rod.

The idea of including small stone figures in the garden is an ancient one.
Priapus, the ancient phallic god of fertility inhabited many a Roman garden, resembling the naughtier gnomes of the modern day, while during the Renaissance period, gardens of wealthy villas sported groups of stone "grotesques" including Punch-style figures typically a metre tall and garishly painted.

In Germany the history of these garden figures has become inextricably confused with the tradition of "little folk" or dwarves who were believed to help in the mines and around the farm. The belief took hold that a stone or even wooden image of a dwarf might be placed in a house or garden to bring luck.

As the first proud Germanic dwarves arrived in England they were promptly re-named as the more humble "gnome".

The manufacturing heartland of the early gnome or dwarf centred on the town of Graefenroda in Germany. Here clustered the famous companies of, Heissner, Griebel and Romeiss with the equally famous Maresch factories based near Dresden.

Skilled workers in these "Gartenzwergmanufacturs" (zwerg being the German for "dwarf") moulded 3ft (1m) tall figures in terracotta and ceramic mixes, with carefully detailed and hand-painted features. A subsidiary trade grew up in smaller porcelain models mainly suited for indoor use.

Who brought the first gnome to England will probably never be proven, but the first to record using the figures in his garden was Charles Isham at Lamport Hall in Northamptonshire who by the 1870s had a series of gnome tableaux in among his giant rock garden.

"Lampy", the sole survivor of the once numerous Lamport gnomes, now lays claim to being the oldest garden gnome in England and regularly attends gnome conferences around the world, with a suitably high holiday insurance of £1m.

Sir Frank Crisp at Friar Park in Oxfordshire was another early adopter, with his grand country house garden housing several of the 1m-tall gnomes by the late 1890s.
It was Sir Frank's gnomes that featured so prominently on the cover of the George Harrison album All Things Must Pass.

In the first decade of the 20th Century gnomes became popular and high status features of country house gardens and venerable vicarages, and even appeared on stands at the 1912 International Horticultural Exhibition - precursor to modern day Chelsea show.

Sir Frank was himself awarded the Victoria Medal of the Royal Horticultural Society in 1919, although the RHS was notably quiet on the subject of his gnomes.

With the outbreak of World War I the reputation of the Germanic gnome plummeted. It was left to Disney to revive the fashion with their hit animation film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. So came the heyday of the traditional concrete garden gnome.

British companies, such as the one owned by the father of the future Prime Minister John Major, built their success on the gnome trade. Soon even the humblest suburban garden boasted a full set of Sleepy, Snoozy and Droopy, et al.

In the 1970s a whole new gardening generation rushed to buy multi-coloured plastic gnomes dressed in football strips, beachwear and even disguised as Smurfs. Solar driven gnomes whistled and farted, and "naughty gnomes" boasted areas of the gnomish anatomy that Priapus would have been proud of. 8)

Perhaps not unconnected with the spread of gnomish undress, the late 20th Century also saw the much awaited arrival of the female gnome.

Fashion is a fickle mistress and a hundred years after they were last seen at the "Chelsea" of the day, gnomes from round the country are yet again heading back to the sacred showground of all things horticultural, fishing rods, toadstools and of course, gardening spades, packed and at the ready!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22594835
 
Gnomes leave woodland reserve for a spruce-up
Saturday, September 14, 2013 Western Morning News

Britain's biggest gnome collector has begun the painstaking task of repainting each and every one of her cheerful little figures – all 2,042 of them.

Fanatical Ann Atkin, 76, holds the Guinness World Record for owning the most gnomes and pixies. She puts them all on show to the public at a special "gnome reserve" in her four-acre garden in West Putford, Devon.

Ann began collecting gnomes after one appeared to her in a dream in 1978. She founded her reserve a year later, welcoming the public but urging each visitor to wear a hat so her gnomes felt at ease.
She been open for business for seven months a year ever since, with help from husband Ron, 75, and son Richard, 50 – who makes each gnome by hand.

Diligent Ann says she's relishing the task ahead as she loves to spruce up her little friends.
She said: "It normally takes a good few weeks. They can get quite grubby through the summer so normally they're in need of a little work. We also provide them with new clothes if they are in need of some, so the whole thing can take a very long time. It's quite a big task, but we all enjoy it."

Read more:
http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/Gnomes- ... z2er7LFCfd
 
ISLAND GNOME

This rather sad little character has appeared on a traffic island near Falmouth Rugby Club. Not for him the gaudy clothes and cheery smile of others of his tribe.





Perhaps he's been banished there for some reason..?
 
Appears to be picking his nose. Maybe that's why?
 
JamesWhitehead said:
"When I get you, I am going to eat you!"

Just a thought. :?
Click to expand...
You're going outside my cultural parameters there...

(I don't get out much anymore...)
 
An outcast Weeping Angel? Has anyone tried standing in front of it and blinking to see if it changes position? :D
 
gellatly68 said:
An outcast Weeping Angel?
Click to expand...
Yes, there is something of that about it.

Here's another Gnome story:

Deathbed confession solves mystery of phantom gnomes
For years, villagers hunted in vain for joker who placed gnomes in their gardens. Now the mastermind behind the prank has been revealed following deathbed confession
9:34PM BST 24 Oct 2013

FOR years residents in a picturesque village had hunted in vain for the joker who had been sneaking around late at night and placing gnomes in their gardens.
Over the past decade the ornaments have also appeared at the bus stop, by the duck pond and on the village green in Brattleby, Lincs and all attempts to unmask the culprit failed.

Now the mastermind behind the prank has been revealed following his deathbed confession.
The mystery was finally solved when mourners attended the funeral of Peter Leighton, 61, who died from prostate cancer earlier this month.
Mr Leighton’s son and co-conspirator, David, 32, made the admission as he read out his father’s eulogy on Monday.

Mr Leighton, who works for a pharmaceutical firm in Australia, said: “My cousin came round one day after his first ever visit to a pound shop in Lincoln and one of the items he bought was a gnome. Dad said it would be funny to scatter gnomes around the village. Me and my friend Ben had a map of the village and worked out a route of who had security lights and who didn’t.
“We carried two big rucksacks full of gnomes and had to contend with barking dogs and gravel. It was so much fun dad decided we should do it again.”

He added that his father once told him that reporters and film crews had descended on the village in an attempt to uncover the truth. “He was really laughing. He couldn’t believe it.” 8)

The retired civil servant, who also leaves two daughters, Jenny, 33, and Deanna, 28, decided to come clean when he discovered earlier this year his cancer had spread and he had months left to live.
Father and son had agreed that the “truth behind the gnome mystery” had to figure in the eulogy.

Peter Leighton’s wife of 34 years Erica, a retired midwife, said: “I didn’t want him to do it at first because I thought it was a daft idea. He loved to make people laugh and thought the idea that people would draw their curtains and see a load of gnomes outside might raise a smile – he was right, it did. When David read out the eulogy confessing, all the people in church started to laugh. It is exactly how Peter would have wanted it.” :D

David added: “The funny thing is mum thinks gnomes are pretty tacky.
“Apparently they lower the value of your house by £500.”

The first group of gnomes arrived in June 2003 before dozens more appeared the following summer. In June 2005, the colourful garden miniatures cropped up beside the village road sign.
They were followed by 20 gnomes at a bus shelter in December 2005 with a letter asking people to give them good homes. It read: “We are the Gnome family: we are currently gnomeless.”

From 2006 onwards, gnomes popped up in random gardens and garages and some were adopted by local people.
In tribute to Mr Leighton, the day after his funeral, a gnome was placed outside his front door in the village.

Mike Spencer, the chairman of Brattleby parish council, said villagers had identified the wrong culprit.
“The guy we had down as the gnome’s culprit was a bit of a joker called Howard and he worked for someone that actually supplied gnomes to pound shops.
“He denied it with a sort of smile on his face. We now know we were very wide of the mark,” he added.

“Peter was always a bit of card and loved a joke but even though I lived next door to him I never suspected it was him.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/10 ... nomes.html

There's just one earlier post about the Brattleby gnomes on this thread:
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewt ... 464#553464
 
But gnomes are not just garden ornaments - they play a vital part in scientific research:
watch this, from 18m 40s in:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03hhqw8/Richard_Hammond_Builds_a_Planet_Richard_Hammond_Builds_a_Planet/
 
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