Love

I love gnomes! My parents were given a hollow clay gnome when they got married - it sat outside getting ever more weathered by the elements. As a child I would save a little bit of everything from my dinner and place it infront of him. He never ate the potato — who knew gnomes dislike potato eh?! I don't think my mum was ever that attached to it and when I bought my house and had my own bit of garden it came to live with me! Since then my gnome collection has grown. Not the mass-produced garish, Disney type, but the old style gnomes made of cement and heavy! This is one of them looking very happy with his catch! It has a few traces of it's painted former glory, but I like it's weathered appearance. My backyard is a home to old gnomes as can be seen here! There is another one on the bench by my front door pushing a wheelbarrow - I intended to take it to the allotment but I rather like it where it is! 
Gnomes may date from the Roman times when "small stone statues depicting the Greco-Roman fertility god Priapus, also the protector of floors, were frequently placed in Roman gardens." First mentioned in the 16th Century by Paracelsus, a Swiss astrologer, physician and astrologer, who rather wonderfully was born in the village of Egg! He describes them as "two spans high, very reluctant to interact with humans, and able to move through solid earth as easily as humans move through air." They apparently guard mines and underground treasures - so I'm not sure why they are often depicted as fishing - maybe it's their off-duty hobby?! Interestingly I  do own two who seem to be carrying crates of coal. I'm not sure what the accordion and sheep holding ones are up to - I guess like humans they have different interests! The garden gnome was first made in Germany in the 19th century and was popular in England and France. Looking at a photo of one it is the same as my parent's wedding gift!  They had a popularity surge after Disney's Snow White and then again in the 1970's. I loved the film Amelie with it's traveling gnome and the storyline in Coronation Street where Derek's gnome was stolen and went traveling!I do move mine around the garden, so hopefully, they will never take it into their minds to go any further!