Well, it's not often that I do any on-the-spot reportage in this quiet little gardening blog, but today's posting comes to you from the Blue Mountains just west of Sydney, where medium-sized crowds gathered to attend the umpteenth annual Australia Day Garden Gnome Convention held every year at pretty little Glenbrook.
The constant light drizzle didn't deter all the dads, mums, prams, free-range children on the hoof, grannies, grandpas and assorted uncles and aunties, including Pammy and me.
Anyway, enough reportage, you get the picture... and besides, you're here to see the gnomes. Here we go, starting off with some of our favourites from the show.
How could I have missed this guy? But I did,
walked straight past this handsome cricketer
gnome, but good old Eagle Eyes Pammy
didn't miss him, nestled in amongst a batch
of non-sporting gnomes.
Wow, what a nice, patient paint job on these harlequins!
Looking like a mirror ball, Disco Gnome
would have looked even better on a sunny day.
Nothing like a good 'prop" to enhance a gnome. We saw some
gnomes with the usual lawnmowers, guitars and rakes, but
it's hard to beat a speedboat.
These two had their own working railway, but quite frankly
that is a bit over the top. Speedboat wins!
Believe it or not, there is such a thing as
good and bad taste when it comes to garden
gnomes. This Dame Edna gnome is right on
the dividing line between the two. However ...
... these disgraceful strumpet gnomes are on the other side
of that dividing line between good and bad taste. Gnomes
are a male-dominated profession as it is, and introducing
female gnomes only if they take their clothes off
says a lot about the state of sexism in Gnomeland.
However, these minor lapses into bad taste hardly stood out from the crowds of countless little men in their red hats, with cherubic smiles on their faces.
Its been several years since our last visit to the Gnome convention, and we'll probably go back up there again a few more years from now. Shame about the drizzly weather, but it didn't deter the crowds all that much, and it certainly didn't bother the gnomes one bit!