The drive home from West Virginia was just as pretty as the drive in – prettier in fact because it wasn’t rainy and more relaxing because I had done it before. I noticed an interesting restaurant that I hadn’t seen on the way in just east of Sugar Grove called “Fat Boy’s Pork Palace.” Wow, huh? Maybe next time we’ll plan a meal there. Too bad we passed it in the morning and it wasn’t open. You don’t get a chance like that every day.

I intentionally took a route through Harrisonburg because I had noticed a store on the way in where I wanted to stop. It was called “Harper’s Lawn Ornaments.” It was a significant sized lot jam packed with any kind of lawn ornament you could imagine. I’m not a very good gardener, so I felt the need of a garden gnome to add some color to my unimpressive flower bed. This looked like just the place to find one.

Harper’s crowded property presented a taxonomy of concrete and glass yard baubles. You could announce your religious convictions for you neighbors by decorating with statues of saints or Jesus or Mary. They had the Ten Commandments to soothe all those people who get outraged to have them removed from public property. They had several variations of Buddha which would have looked nice with their Japanese pagoda collection. There was a whole series of Amish farmers and children. If sorcery is your thing, a wide variety of wizards, nymphs, and dragons were available.

If you want to keep your religious affiliation to yourself, a plethora of other decorations were available for reasonable prices. Animals from all continents were represented. There was a colorful display of those reflective garden balls, all kinds of birdbaths and stepping stones and benches. There were pet tombstones and wisecracks for solicitors.

We settled on a medium sized painted gnome. We named him Keebler. He’s grinning out by the stonecrop in my flower bed.

Do you have any lawn ornaments? Do they have any good stories? What could we learn about you form your lawn décor?