36° 22′ 50″ N 75° 55′ 10″ W
If you live on the East Coast of the US then you are abundantly aware of just how much rain we’ve had recently. Along with the abundance of rain has come an abundance of mosquitoes, humidity and very grey, dreary days. The other afternoon I’d had it with being trapped indoors and ventured out to run a few errands. The rain turned to a drizzle just long enough for me to capture a few shots of what looked to be little gnome-style villages — so weirdly beautiful, the different sizes, shapes and details of these toadstools. It reminds me of a story from a few years back…
When I lived in the city, my weekend escape was to my home up in the country in the western Catskills. The previous owners were landscape architects who had created an amazing garden on the property. It was a challenge for me to maintain but I loved it! I grew many epicurean delights. My friends and I enjoyed them at their peak of ripeness and again months later as preserves — dill pickles, sweet pickles, pickled hot peppers, tomato sauce, brussels sprouts, strawberries, grape jam, hot pepper jelly.
Not far down a nearby country road was a little store that sold oil paintings, jewelry, crystals and arrowheads. The owners were an older couple originally from Spain. The gentleman, who was (very, very) small with white hair, had a sweet, friendly personality. He told me stories about growing up in Spain and hunting for wild mushrooms in the foothills of the forest. He also told me about the gnomes that he’d caught glimpses of sometimes while he was scouring the landscape in the quiet, early hours of dawn. He had a true love and connection with the land. He missed Spain but said the surrounding area reminded him a lot of “home” and that’s why they’d settled down there. When he felt up to it, he still went out into the forest to see whom he could see… Naturally, he sold ceramic garden gnomes as well in his shoppe (ironically the owner looked a lot like a gnome himself) and the day he told me this story I bought one as a memento. I believe my Gnoman’s watchful, welcoming presence had significance in the deliciousness that sprang from my garden there after his arrival.
….
When I returned home from my excursion the other day, I went out back to check on what’s left of my struggling, late-summer, mini garden of 3 tomato plants and 1 green pepper plant that had been all but destroyed by Hurricane Irene. And to my surprise I found a troop of mushrooms growing all around my plants that were, almost magically, again starting to blossom.
My special thanks to the gnomes.
