Garden Gnomes....

In the 1950's the A96 from Aberdeen to Inverness went through some
places that were by-passed later on. One of these was a village in Morayshire.

Every time we went through this village my Father used to slow the car
when we were going past a very tidy looking bungalow and say: "That's
the house where the woman killed her husband in the garden with an axe."

In the garden of this bungalow were two garden gnomes. Garden gnomes
were not common then and these were the only garden gnomes I knew, so
I grew up associating them with murder and horror.

I've never known if my father's story was true. And although I had never
told my wife this story, in 1986 (or 1991. I don't know which is the right
date. I think she divorced me twice just to make sure. This probably makes
her a criminal like a bigamist, only the opposite) just after we were divorced,
she bought this garden gnome.

A couple of months ago she gave it to me for cleaning and restoration.

I've not got around to it yet.