Gnome is where the heart is

December descends into Kansas City, and since I suppose I tend to be a bit contrary sometimes, the desire to garden also has increased in me in the last two weeks. I've been counting on getting serious about the land starting in the springtime, but it feels quite far off (as springtime will do at the first serious onset of winter). It seems that the best thing I can do to that end is to read up and get my head around the process before March. I'd rather have my hands in some dirt and my toes in the mud, though, that's for sure.

Also, I spent some time this evening with lots of really amazing people, including a couple around my parents' age named Dave and Peg. They're from Wisconsin and are just as wholesome and warm as you could hope anyone to be. And, from what I understand, they both have a tendency to be adorably hilarious, but Peg in particular (I discovered) delivers unbelievable little one-liners that make you (by you, I mean me) want to just eat her up or something.

These two trains of thought, along with a Google search for the infinitely delightful picture of a gnome (at left. Isn't he just peaceful and happy?) I have used as my computer wallpaper for the last two years (lost in my hard drive crash this week)... Well, I have found myself thinking about garden gnomes. Seriously. And, not seriously.

You are probably already aware of the fact that I have a mild and pleasant fixation on these creatures. Get me talking about them and my mood is likely to take a jolly turn. In fact, if you're lucky or I've had caffeine, I might do a little jig of delight! That's where Dave and Peg came in; at one moment this evening, I had a moment when I realized that Peg would be a perfect gnome! And then I did indeed do a little dance.

Funny, isn't it, how certain such things captivate our minds and imaginations? The fact that I would become dreamy and excited while I look for pictures of gnomes on the Internet is absurd, and yet it's God's honest truth that if gnomes were real I would want to be one. Need convincing that this is legit? Watch a synopsis of the life of 80's-famed David the Gnome. It makes sense in a weird way, because I'm not all spirituality and seriousness. Heck no! In me is also an abnormally grand sense of wonder at the ridiculously magical place we get to live in called the earth--and therefore a desire to live close to it and care for it. There's also a somewhat strange and slightly crazy need in me to have animals around and to somehow commune with them. Plus a dash of real belief in the magical. Lastly, let's be honest: it's also a cultural phenomenon. I, like many of my 20-something peers across the nation, have a tendency to fall for kitschy crap like garden gnomes.

Ah well, it doesn't matter so much, amusing as it is to ask oneself these questions. It's more amusing, though, to just enjoy the little stinkers. I recommend an episode of David the Gnome, available on YouTube, or a simple Google Images search. They will brighten your cloudiest day. If you're me, anyway.