Since I’ve lived in seven states I can tell you that what’s fashionable in yard art varies between states. In the three years I’ve been back home I have yet to see a yard goose dressed up in an outfit. If you see or hear tell of one in Alabama, let me know.
When we lived in upscale Glen Ellyn, Illinois, however, there were isolated sightings. The photo here was in a front yard I passed by every day on the way to my son’s school. The owner changed the outfits to fit the season or holiday and it was fun to see what was in style. There’s quite an Internet industry providing costumes for these plastic or cement creatures.
I’m not beyond my own personal quirky yard art.
If you check the back yard at my house, you’ll find my two pink flamingos, Pinky and Wendell. Wendell is on the DL after a neighbor’s tree fell across our yard and took out his “legs.” Husband kindly tried to fix them back, and now Wendell looks okay. It’s silly I know, but silly in a fun way. I don’t spend any serious money on the flamingos, just what they cost to begin with. But I’ll admit to putting a red bow on them at Christmas time.True Southerners don’t spend a dime on yard art. They are the ones with the washing machines on the front porch or the dead pick-up under the oak tree.
8 comments:
Dear lord . . . dressed up geese. Well, I suppose that's better than flamingos. :)
Tim, Thanks for the comment. I do love my flamingos which I had to "adopt" via mail order. They are hard to come by even down here in Alabama. And like the lawn geese as they are technically called, tacky plastic pink flamingos have a following too, although my family thinks I'm crazy and doesn't appreciate Pinky and Wendell nearly as much as I do.
I only wish we had enough room in our yard - or enough yard for that matter - to have such things. We'll soon be landscaping, though, but I think the only immobile characters we'll have are little gnomes or the sort. :) And yes, I get back to TN as often as I can, but flying these days is not cheap and so darned exhausting!
When you get those gnomes in your landscape, post a picture. Maybe we could start an international yard art association. I'm a gardener of sorts and would be interested to see what kind of yards you have in Norway.
Hi Sheila
This post made me smile. We don't dress geese up like that in England! I think your blog is great and very well written. Thanks for visiting me.
NAOMI
Thanks Naomi for your kind words. We Americans have such odd taste. It's fun to note the regional differences. The only countries I've traveled to are Italy and Greece, and I don't recall seeing any yard art. Maybe it's because there are no yards like American yards. We have too much space and don't always know what to do with it.
I live in California and there is only one yard in our town that has charming yard art in the front yard. For some reason we think our front yards are just for the public and they are all very uniform and quite dull. But backyards can be just as tacky and charming and individual as we want.
Thanks Jan. I guess "charm" is in the eye of the beholder and we just err on the side of conformity although I did put Pinky and Wendell in the front at Christmas time. I didn't have a plastic Santa.
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